I am not the only one concerned about how many members of the Swazi Royal Family and the family Dlamini have been appointed to important political positions in Swaziland.
Newspaper columnist Vusi Sibisi has been writing about the ‘increasing stranglehold’ such people now have in Swaziland.
Last Wednesday (22 October 2008) I drew attention to the way that public life in Swaziland is effectively carved up by the king to ensure that everyone is singing his praises and the consequences this has on the dire state the kingdom finds itself in today.
Writing in the Times of Swaziland today (29 October 2008) Sibisi says (in his characteristic robust style), ‘While everyone, at least progressive thinking non-grovellers, non-sycophants and non-praise singers, must have still been reeling from the increasing stranglehold by members of the royal family and traditional leaders on important and key political positions of power and authority, the makeup of the new Cabinet must have come as an even bigger shock.
‘As I see it increasingly this country is resembling some of the ruling elite’s newest friends in the Middle and Far East where institutional nepotism is accepted as a way of life with the ruling families most likely to allocate all Cabinet portfolios as well as other key positions of power and authority to themselves and their loyal cronies. Like the Kingdom of Eswatini, democracy is a foreign concept in the majority of these countries most of which, like this country, are ruled by family oligarchies.’
He goes on, ‘As I see it we should no longer be surprised by political appointments for a number of reasons, the least of which is that these governing structures are self-serving since they are not responsible to the people but to the ruling class. So the capacity, not to speak of the skills of the appointed officials, is irrelevant to the ordinary folks for the simple reason that whatever they are appointed to do or not do is also not so important to the people but to the same self serving ruling class. And it is largely for this reason that it no longer matters who is appointed and who is not appointed to positions of authority because it is not us, the ordinary people, that they are all about but are all about themselves, the ruling class.’
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