Swaziland will soon be a military state when plans to deploy troops across the kingdom by the end of the month (March 2008) go ahead.
That is the only conclusion that can be reached following a report in the Swazi News (15 March 2008) that military bases are to be set up all over Swaziland.
The Swazi News reported that the Unbutfo Swaziland Defence Force (USDF) ‘will be raiding homes, conducting searches, mounting roadblocks on almost all the roads in the country’.
The USDF says it is doing these things to round up illegal items such as ‘guns, weapons, cars smuggled goods and many other things’, according to the Swazi News.
A spokesman for USDF is quoted saying, ‘such things are putting the lives of the Swazi people at risk and if not taken care of it might result in serious problems’.
Some USDF personnel will not be wearing uniforms during these operations.
Of course, it is the job of the police force and not the USDF to ensure that criminals are captured and brought to justice. The Swazi News smelt a rat when it realised that some of the places the USDF would be operating included ‘breeding spots’ for the banned Peoples’ United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO).
As might be expected, the army spokesman denied to the Swazi News that the operations had any political motive, but he gave the game away when he said ‘at the moment’ we will not be focussing on political activities. We should all note the bit about ‘at the moment’. With national elections due in October or November this year (2008) people should rightly be suspicious of the USDF activity.
Once the Swazi News report was published all hell broke loose in the kingdom with human rights organisations lining up to condemn the plan.
The Times Sunday (16 March 2008) gave space to the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO), which the newspaper described as ‘seething with anger’. SCCCO called the USDF deployment ‘illegal’.
The Times Sunday quoted a statement from Bishop Meshack Mabuza, chair of SCCCO, who said SCCCO would consider taking legal action against the USDF and also against individual officers if the USDF went ahead with the plan.
The Bishop added, ‘It stretches credibility that it is merely coincidental that the areas to be targeted are also those where there has been fertile political activity of the sort frowned upon by those in power, namely oppositional political voices.’
The Bishop went on to say that the Swazi Constitution did not allow people to be stopped and searched unlawfully. ‘The army has not provided any evidence that there are reasonable grounds for setting this right aside.’
It can be no coincidence that recently USDF personnel received huge salary increases from a government that is largely financially bankrupt. We need to ask ourselves why it is that the ruling elite need to keep the armed forces sweet. Perhaps we will find out the answer very soon.
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