LUTFO ‘TOO SICK TO WORK’

I smell a cover-up. News comes today that Lutfo Dlamini is too sick to carry on in his job in the Swaziland Government.

And his post as Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation will be taken temporarily by Clement Dlamini, the Agriculture Minister.

But reader, you and I know that Lutfo Dlamini was sacked from his cabinet post last Thursday because of his involvement with Phesheya Dlamini, Swaziland’s (now ex-) Ambassador to Kuwait, in a scandal involving stolen money that was meant to be delivered to King Mswati III from the Kuwaiti Royal Family.

The Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned and edited by King Mswati, reports today (20 January 2011) that Lutfo Dlamini is on sick leave until 31 January 2011.

With, I suspect, its tongue firmly in its cheek, the newspaper that has not yet told its readers the truth about the Lutfo scandal, suggests that his illness may be connected with a visit the police made to Lutfo last Thursday when they escorted him to a meeting with Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister.

I don’t know if the police visit brought on Lutfo’s 'illness’, but if I were a betting man I’d wager the house that Lutfo is in some distress now wondering what fate King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, has in store for him.

As for the cover-up? Let’s see if Lutfo returns to work on 31 January 2011. Or will we be told that his illness is so serious he will have to retire early? And, quietly, the scandal stays hushed up.