Swaziland’s only independent comment magazine may be on a collision course with King Mswati III after publishing details of his ‘obscene’ income.
The editor of the Nation magazine says there is a real danger the magazine could face closure for publishing the article.
The Nation published an article this month (April 2008) stating that the king is illegally getting an ‘obscene’ E220m (about 31.5 million US Dollars) this year from public funds. This is a 159 per cent increase on last year and roughly five per cent of Swaziland’s national budget. The Royal Family combined get a total of E500m.
In Swaziland about 70 percent of the population of nearly one million people live in dire poverty on an income of less than one US Dollar a day. About 600,000 people rely on international food aid to fend off starvation. (To read more details of the Nation article click here).
Writing in his own magazine, the Nation editor Bheki Makhubu says, ‘there is a real danger that we, at this magazine, could get into serious trouble with the authorities for highlighting this development’.
Makhubu is right to be worried. In March 2007 the Times of Swaziland group of newspapers was threatened with closure after it published a comment piece sourced from abroad that criticised the king. The newspaper group made an abject apology and has not criticised the king since.
Makhubu writes that it is well known in Swaziland that the media must not put the king in a ‘negative light’.
Makhubu’s fear of retribution is very real indeed, so in case trouble does start and the facts of the case get a little confused when the mud starts flying, I think it would be useful to reproduce here in some detail his reasons for publishing the article.
Makhubu wrote,
‘As editor of this magazine I decided we should go ahead and publish. There are a few reasons for this. The first is that the issues discussed in our cover story are not confidential. They are there for the public record, as published by Majozi Sithole [the Finance Minister] in the Government Estimates for this year.
‘Anyone curious only has to go to the Ministry of Finance or any other agency and get a personal copy of where the numbers are printed.
‘Therefore, we are not doing anything underhand, as we may be accused, in publishing.
‘The second reason is that this information is what the public has a right to know about. When Sithole disburses money after reading the budget, he is dealing with public funds, whose spending every Swazi of whatever persuasion should be informed of.
‘The only thing that has happened here is that parliamentarians elected by the people chose not to discuss the matter. They are fully entitled to do so and, I strongly believe, Sithole expected to field questions and address the matter for the public record.
‘The third reason is that we wanted to highlight the illegality of this whole transaction. The problem with this country is that our leaders have found it very easy to work outside the law.
‘There are laws that govern how the monarchy is given money. These laws were assented to by the king himself because, at the time one supposes, he appreciated that people cannot operate as if they live in a jungle.’
Makhubu went on, ‘The fourth and most important reason we chose to publish, is that we do not believe we are scandalizing anyone, least of all King Mswati.’
He continued, ‘Why am I making apologies for publishing a story? It is because, despite the constitution and everything else, there is a real danger that we, at this magazine, could get into serious trouble with the authorities for highlighting this development, despite that it is in the public domain.
‘That some idiot might rush to the king and twist our motive for publishing with a view to getting us closed down and out of jobs is well known to every Swazi.
‘Despite all the risk, however, we chose to publish because we believe that it is the right thing to do. It is a function of the media to act as we have. That the amount of money is downright obscene and given out illegally cannot be escaped by anyone.’
These are brave words. As I write this blog post, the magazine has only just hit the newsstands. We must now wait to see what happens next.
See also
SWAZI KING’S FUNDING ‘ILLEGAL’
CLOSURE THREAT TO 'TIMES'
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