SWAZIS MUST BE TOLD THE TRUTH

An editorial that appeared in the Swazi Observer on Wednesday (3 September 2008) cannot go unchallenged.

The newspaper’s chief editor was writing about the forces that were seeking to destroy Swaziland (he meant the protesters who this week took to the streets in thousands to demand democratic reforms).

He told readers, ‘All that we do, as the Swazi nation, must be for the advancement of our country, to protect the peace we have enjoyed over many decades and the stability that has made us standout as the oasis of hope in an otherwise troubled world.

‘We should never fall into the temptation of being tricked by cunning elements that encourage us to destroy our country with the promise of funding its reconstruction.

‘We should all remember that unlike other countries, the colonialists left us with nothing.

‘No infrastructure, no development. Nothing. We had to start from scratch as a country at independence. Everything that we have is from the toil of our forefathers and mothers, who sacrificed a lot to provide us with the infrastructure and amenities that we have.’

I know that it is the job of the Swazi Observer to support King Mswati III and by extension the status quo in Swaziland, but this editorial is even more over the top and misleading than many that appear in the newspaper.

I don’t know what he is referring to when he writes of the ‘stability that has made us standout as the oasis of hope in an otherwise troubled world’. I can’t see any country wanting to be like Swaziland with its seven out of ten people living in abject poverty earning less than one US dollar a day, six in ten needing food aid from overseas, and four in ten who are reckoned to be heading from hunger to starvation.

But it is the bit about the ‘colonialists left us with nothing’ that annoys me most.

I am not here to defend colonialism. I believe that everyone has the right to self determination which (unlike the Observer newspapers) is why I support the democracy movement in Swaziland.

What annoys me is the complete ignorance in the statement. Either the chief editor has no knowledge of Swaziland’s history or he is deliberately misleading his readers.

Go back in time to 1968 and the year Swaziland gained its independence from Great Britain. Swaziland was the last of Britain’s colonies in Africa to be granted independence.

Swaziland was universally praised. As an example, here’s how the New York Times described conditions in Swaziland.

‘In natural resources and development potential Swaziland has always been on top of the list of Britain’s three ‘sister’ territories in southern Africa, Basutoland and Bechuanaland, being the other two.’

The New York Times went on, ‘The last 10 years have brought Swaziland a multimillion dollar timber and pulp industry; a massive iron-ore mining project; a railway link out of the landlocked country to the sea; tarred roads; hydroelectric power and great strides in agriculture.

‘Swaziland has the only set of traffic lights among the three ‘sister’ territories.

‘Since 1965, Swaziland’s exports have almost tripled – from 16.8 million US dollars to more than 45 million US dollars. In the first four months of 1968, Swaziland’s exports to Britain were more than the entire budget figure for Lesotho.’

The problems that Swaziland faces today are not caused by the state the colonialists left it in. It is what has happened since 1968 that has left the kingdom in the situation it is in. The lack of democracy is at the centre of Swaziland’s ills. Nobody is allowed to express a thought that runs counter to that prevailing among the elite. People with initiative flee the kingdom because they see no hope for them at home. The country is run by the second rate. We see it all around us. The (unelected) Prime Minister Themba Dlamini’s solution to any of the problems facing Swaziland – pray.

Swaziland today faces many problems and we should face up to them. Let’s stop lying that it is all the fault of the colonialists from 40 years ago.

See also

HISTORY