It is not only Swaziland’s Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini who is in office illegally, so are his ministers.
I wrote yesterday (7 March 2009) that Dlamini was trying to convince Swazis that he and the Deputy Prime Minister were not actually ‘ministers’. The reason it is important to Dlamini for this falsehood to be believed rests on the Swazi Constitution.
Section 67 (iii) says that a half of government ministers must have been elected to parliament. If you count the Prime Minister and his deputy, the number of ministers appointed to office by King Mswati III, unelected, exceeds half.
It comes as no surprise in Swaziland’s ‘unique’ democracy that the King reckons he can put anyone he chooses in the Cabinet. But, Swaziland does now have a constitution and even King Mswati needs to abide by it.
Of course, he doesn’t care. He will continue to do what he likes. He did after all illegally appoint Barnabas Dlamini as Prime Minister last year.
So there you have it: Swaziland has an illegitimate Prime Minister and illegitimate ministers. Who now can call Swaziland a democracy?
No comments:
Post a Comment