SWAZI RULERS SILENT ON SERVICES

The Swazi Government has been slow to comment on news that Swaziland has scored below average for governance.

The Ibrahim Index of Governance published this week shows Swaziland scored 49.4 points out of a100 and was ranked 29th out of 53 African countries.

Within the Southern African region, Swaziland was ranked tenth. The kingdom scored below the Southern African regional average, which was 58.1 and scored just below the overall African continental average, which was 51.2.

By categories, Swaziland scored above the continental average in the categories of Safety and Rule of Law and Sustainable Economic Opportunity, but below the continental average in the categories of Participation and Human Rights and Human Development.

The Ibrahim Index is Africa’s leading assessment of governance, established to inform and empower the continent’s citizens. It measures the delivery of public goods and services to citizens by government and non-state actors across 84 indicators of governance.

In the past the publication of the Ibrahim Index has caused outrage within the Swaziland Government.

In 2007, Swaziland Government Press Secretary Percy Simelane tore into the Mo Ibrahim Foundation when it published its report showing the poor state of governance in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

Simelane said Mo Ibrahim was dishonest for publishing the report, when he said, they had never made an investigation of Swaziland. I proved at the time that Simelane was talking through his hat and that it used dozens of sources of information to reach its conclusion.

Simelane was quoted saying that the analysis was done ‘by boys’ and ‘not men of honour’. The Times of Swaziland reported him saying that the ‘so-called experts’ were ignorant of what was happening in Swaziland.

Simelane said at the time that the Swaziland Government would do its own study to prove Mo Ibrahim wrong. Of course, it was all a distraction. The study was never done (or if it was done the results must have been so damning that it was never published).

The level of governance in Swaziland is atrocious. In January 2009 a report showing Swaziland’s position on governance from the US-based Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) looked at whether nations are ‘ruling justly’, ‘investing in people’ and on ‘economic freedom.’

Here are some of the scores that Swaziland received (marks are out of 100).

Political rights (3)
Civil liberties (10)
Government effectiveness (17)
Rule of law (17)
Voice and accountability (17)

True to form, the Swaziland Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku challenged the findings of the MCC.

With the latest Mo Ibrahim report, it seems the Swazi Government has decided to keep silent.

According to the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, when called for comment the phones of government ministers were left unanswered.