You can run but you cannot hide. There is no getting away from that fact that the international community is paying more attention to Swaziland now than it has done since the Swazi elections and the so-called 40/40 celebrations to mark the birthday of King Mswati III and the anniversary of Swaziland’s independence from Great Britain.
Not only has this past week’s Swazi Royal Family sex scandal put the spotlight on the way King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, runs his kingdom, but the continuing attack by the Swazi state on prodemocracy campaigners highlights the serious undermining of human rights in Swaziland.
The Guardian (UK) published yesterday (8 August 2010) a commentary on the situation in Swaziland written by Blessing-Miles Tendi.
Sadly, he concludes, ‘The key determinant of whether King Mswati III will adopt political reforms is the extent to which opposition and civil society are able to mobilise popular Swazi sentiment, which is largely in favour of democratic reform, to press for change. The prospects for political liberalisation in Swaziland are bleak. Swazi democracy and human rights activists face a lonely, protracted and uphill battle against an obstinate and ruthless monarch.’
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