SWAZILAND KING AS ‘PEACEMAKER’

Swaziland’s King Mswati III is set to have a bigger role in trying to solve Zimbabwe’s elections crisis.

The king will continue in a ‘peacemaking role’, following on from his chairmanship of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Organ Troika Summit that met days before Robert Mugabe stole the election in Zimbabwe at the end of last month (June 2008).

The king is soon to be appointed as permanent chair of the Organ Troika, the Swazi Observer reports today (3 July 2008). It says that ‘observers view this as a strategic position for the king to continue with his peacemaking role’.

The newspaper that is known to be close to the king reports a ‘political analyst’ saying that South African president Thabo Mbeki now needed to understand the importance of working with King Mswati.

As I reported last week, King Mswati’s role in trying to ensure that there is a ‘free and fair’ election in Zimbabwe has raised some eyebrows on the international scene. Swaziland is not a democracy and its own elections are far from free.

Only yesterday I reported that the European Union (EU) had turned down an invitation to ‘observe’ Swaziland’s forthcoming national election, because the EU thinks there are ‘shortcomings’ in the kingdom’s democracy.

Today, a leading trade unionist in South Africa has criticised King Mswati for showing an ‘arrogant and extreme display of double standards’ over Zimbabwe.

Bongani Masuku, International Relations Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, has sent an ‘personal letter to the media’ in which he points out that Swaziland’s elections are a sham.

Since it is unlikely that any of the media in Swaziland are going to give space to Masuku, here is an extended extract from the letter.

The full letter was published by Africa Contact (Denmark) which is distributed throughout Southern Africa, Europe and the United States of America.

Discussing King Mswati III, Masuku says,

‘Here is a man who bans political parties and all forms of political activity from his country, he has appointed himself the goliath of Swazi political affairs and has, through brutal bully tactics, outlawed and persecuted political opposition in his country, presiding over a major political discussion to determine the plight of an election and what environment is necessary for that election to be deemed free and fair or democratic enough for the effective and full participation of the peoples of our sister country, Zimbabwe.

‘He has no shame, whatsoever, that his guilt would haunt him about the very situation in his backyard, where as he chaired the very proceedings, political parties remained banned, all forms of protest remain criminalized and decisions about the country’s future lies with him and a bunch of his rotten sycophants and cheerleaders.

‘For him, the situation of the Zimbabwean people is a distant reality that has no relevant bearing to the immediate conditions of his own home yard. It is about some people far away in space, whose fundamental concerns are not about living beings, similar to those who, for years, have been subjected to the most extreme forms of royal oppression, using state of emergency decreed in 1973 by himself.

‘In a typical Machiavellian style, Mswati is guilty of the same crimes he has, hypocritically, put on the doorstep of his colleague, Mugabe.

‘What are the conditions prevailing in Swaziland that the “benevolent” Mswati would like us to believe he does not condone or he condemns in Zimbabwe; political parties remain banned, rights to organize and speak freely are outlawed and only the royal family has a right to monopoly over public political life and all institutions that have failed the people of Zimbabwe, such as the media, judiciary and all the supposed safeguards of a democratic society, which are virtually a sham, if not a total royal mirage in Swaziland, serving to massage the fragile ego of the corrupt monarchy.

‘In a desperate attempt to bail out his discredited image, following his disgraceful elections controversy and political shambles into which he has driven the country, Mswati needed something that would divert his attention away from his mess and this scenario presented that opportunity.’

The letter goes on, ‘One wonders whether SADC will ever wake up to the reality of the need for credible, consistent and democratic leadership. George Bush certainly can’t tell any other head of state to resolve conflicts peacefully, in the same breadth and vein that Mswati can never tell any other head of state to hold democratic and free elections much against his record.

‘Swaziland is going for “royal elections” soon, however conditions for free elections are not anywhere nearer. The constitution affirms the historic ban on political parties, criminalization of free political activities, suppressing of all institutions of justice and information, and continued monopoly leverage by the royal family over public affairs. What will the newly found preacher of democracy tell the world about his own conduct and lessons from the Zimbabwean situation?’

See also
EU SNUBS SWAZILAND ELECTION
SWAZI-ZIMBABWE SUMMIT UPDATE