SWAZI POVERTY: MINISTERS LIE TO UN

The Swaziland Government has doctored a report to the United Nations to make it seem that it may eradicate poverty in the kingdom by 2015.

A report it commissioned to review the progress the government was making to achieve Millennium Development Goals’ (MDGs) said clearly and with evidence that it was ‘not likely’ meet the target of ‘eradication of extreme poverty and hunger’.

When they saw the report the Swazi Cabinet decided to change the conclusion so that it read it could ‘potentially’ meet the target.

A source told the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, the Cabinet ‘edited’ the report because they felt it would portray the country negatively. The report with the Cabinet-ordered changes was sent to the UN.

But the Cabinet ministers, led by Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minster, were so inept they forgot to make the changes throughout the report so in some places it reads ‘potentially’ but elsewhere it makes it clear Swaziland is ‘not likely’ to meet the target.

A source told the Times that Cabinet ministers demanded the changes because the truth ‘made it seem as if they were not doing their jobs’ and ‘might actually lead to their dismissal’.