The following is a media statement from the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN), issued today (13 January 2011) regarding the arrest of Lutfo Dlamini, the Swazi Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation.
News emanating from the troubled little kingdom indicates that the minister of Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, Lufto Dlamini, has been arrested.
The arrest comes a few days after it was exposed that Dlamini, along with the ambassador to Kuwait, had been involved in a diplomatic and financial scandal. It is alleged that the two stole money that the Kuwait royal family had sent them to give to the Swazi government.
There are still no details as to the exact nature of the charges against him. However, the nation had been anticipating that he would be fired imminently.
Minister Lutfo is one of the longest serving cabinet ministers in Swaziland and has been associated with corruption for a better part of his tenure. Despite this, however, his secret lover the queen mother “Ntombi Ftwala” has seen to it that he is well cloaked in the infamous Royal blanket against corruption charges.
Unfortunately this blanket cannot save him from this latest scandal because it deeply embarrassed the king, who can be faulted for continuously harboring corrupt government officials.
The Kuwait royal family is also at fault for blindly trusting thugs enough to give them hard cash when they could have easily transferred the money via the Central Bank of Swaziland. The minister's arrest should be viewed as a personal act rather than a fight against corruption because the king himself is the centre of corruption in the country and witting surrounds himself with charlatans.
The minister was picked up at his parental home by a contingent of police officers who took him to the Prime Minister's office to be officially relinquished of his duties. This was done before the former ambassador and cabinet minister, Prince David, was allegedly taken to the same premises, presumably to hand over Lutfo’s post to him.
Influential insiders close to the king are deeply worried about the scandals involving the royal family, especially because the king recently suspended his private secretary and an advisor to him. These sources feel that the king is no longer in control of his mental faculties and has lately become irrational and unpredictable.
Issued by the Swaziland Solidarity Network [SSN] South Africa Chapter
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