Swazi Media Commentary: November 2011

Wednesday, 30 November 2011

OPPOSITION TO ARMY SPENDING GROWS

Swaziland spends 4.7 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on paying, equipping and barracking the 3,000 soldiers in its army, and now parliament has passed a US$8 million supplementary budget for the force, provoking a rare public reaction in questioning the role or even the need for an army in view of the deepening economic crisis, the IRIN news agency reports.

The consistently food insecure kingdom with its predominantly agrarian society, where about 70 percent of the 1.02 million population lives on $2 or less a day, allocates 4 percent of government spending to agriculture, while 17 percent is spent on the security services.

Only the budgets for general administration and education receive a larger amount of money from the donor-dependent government, while health gets a 10 percent share. Swaziland has the world's highest HIV/AIDS prevalence, with one in four people aged 15-49 infected with the disease.

2011 has seen unprecedented public protests against the rule of sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, King Mswati III, sparked by an economic crisis that has led to severe cuts in social services, such as education, pensions and support for orphans and vulnerable children.

Military spending as a ratio to GDP ranks it 18th in the world, according to the CIA World Fact Book. An estimated $40.5 million is allocated annually to the Umbutfo Swaziland Defence Force (USDF), excluding supplemental budget requests.

Parliament is forbidden to debate military budgets, and details of specific military spending are cited as a state security matter.

Vincent Dlamini, secretary general of the National Public Servants and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU), told IRIN, “The country is not at war and so there is no need to spend 4.7 percent of GDP on the army. Government is complaining about the huge wage bill but is keeping more people in the army.”

Joyce Ndwandwe, a member of the Ngwane National Liberatory Congress, Swaziland’s oldest political party, which is banned, told IRIN: “When I need a soldier for my protection, where is one? They are all at the king’s palaces - they only come out when the workers strike.”

The formation of an army coincided with the banning of political parties in 1973, after Mswati’s father, King Sobhuza, decreed the country’s independence constitution invalid and assumed all executive, legislative and judicial powers for himself and his descendants. Political opposition parties were outlawed, as were public demonstrations.

To read the full IRIN report, click here.

Tuesday, 29 November 2011

SWAZI KING’S BESTIALITY WENT WRONG

Buggering a bull can be hazardous, as King Mswati III of Swaziland found at the Incawala ceremony.

Each year at the ceremony, dubbed the national prayer by traditionalists in the kingdom, the king, doped up on muti (traditional medicine used to cast spells or curses), sodomises a bull. But to facilitate this, the bull is itself subdued.

An eyewitness to the ceremony, Sithembiso Simelane recounts that one year things didn’t go to plan.

King Mswati is aided by young Swazi men who first beat the bull with their fists and hold it down so the king can mount the beast to insert his manhood into to its rear end.

‘It got out of its coma and all hell broke loose. It pushed him to the side and he started screaming for dear life until we managed to overpower the bull and its throat was cut to ensure it was dead,’ Simelane reports.

Once the king’s sperm is collected in this ceremony, it is poured into a horn ‘so that it can be used whenever the nation has been called to Sibaya or any national event.

‘The sperm is mixed with the food that is cooked for the people on those events or ceremonies so that the people can love the king so much and be very afraid of rising against him.’

Simelane, aged 38, was born at Lwandle, near Manzini, but now lives at Nkhaba in the Hhohho region of Swaziland with his wife and two daughters. He was a member of the Inyatsi regiment for about 10 years and says he saw ‘all the evil that takes place in the royal residencies and more especially at Ludzidzini royal residence (Lobamba)’.

Simelane gives a detailed account of activities at Incwala, considered to be the most sacred of Swazi traditional ceremonies, but it is also the most secretive.

At the official Incwala ceremony the king joins in dancing.

Simelane reports, ‘After the two hours of dance, the media is then chucked out of the royal kraal as some evil activities continue. This is the time for kulahlelwa ngeluselwa. Luselwa is a fruit cut from tintsanga. It is coated with strong muti and is thrown at one of the boys by the king. The boy, after it has been thrown at him, has to run faster than the king back to Inhlambelo lest he gets insane for the rest of his life.

‘Unfortunately, most of the boys fail to run faster than the king because he throws the fruit and runs first. When the boy picks it up and tries to follow, the king is, by that time, already at the entrance and the boys lack the courage to push him aside so that they can be first to enter. At the end these boys literally go insane and are given employment in the army to cover this problem.

‘I must reveal here that these boys to whom the fruit was thrown later usually commit murder, a direct cause of being thrown at with the luselwa. They include even those from the time of the late king Sobhuza II such as […]

‘During the process of kulahlelwa ngeluselwa, these young boys are given small shields with no sticks in them (imigobo). They are always chosen from the Inyatsi regiment kraal (about 20 boys in total) and ordered to dance at the entrance to the small kraal (Inhlambelo) for this session. Senior regiments dance far at a distance, in the middle of Sibaya so they don’t see a thing. The king then comes out of Inhlambelo dressed in some funny attire made up of grass and tree branches and inyoni (head gear) on his head and painted all over his body with black lotions (muti). He dances into a song that says “uyinkhosi yamakhosi” (you are king of kings) as he moves forward into the terrified boys and back carrying the fruit.

‘On that occasion Mswati seems like a mad man and he terrifies the young boys and the Indvuna will shout “do not be afraid of your king, he can’t harm you, he loves you all.” This is known to be a way in which the king cleans himself of all the evils of Incwala with the strong muti and all negative energy which he deposits onto one of the young boys who then loses his mind.’

To read Simelane’s full account of Incwala, click here.

Monday, 28 November 2011

KING’S BESTIALITY REPORT – NEW LINK

Readers have commented that they have not been able to access the full story of King Mswati III’s bestiality antics at the Incwala ceremony that I posted this morning (28 November 2011) because it is on a Facebook site.

I have put the full report online here which is available to anyone, with or without a Facebook account.
Swaziland Incwala Ceremony Startling Account of King's Behaviour

SWAZI KING AND BESTIALITY RITUAL

King Mswati III of Swaziland is presently in seclusion taking part in the annual Incwala ceremony, described by many traditionalists as the ‘national prayer’ and considered by them to be the most sacred of Swazi ceremonies.

But what actually happens during Incwala is clouded in secrecy and many of the rituals have in the past been described by religious leaders in the kingdom as ‘unGodly’ and ‘unChristian’.

Now, an insider’s account of what King Mswati really does during Incwala has been released.

It makes startling claims about King Mswati’s activities. He is said to take ‘muti’ (narcotics), and allows himself to be licked all over his body by a snake while drugged. In one part of the sacred ceremony King Mswati has sexual intercourse with a drugged bull; in another he publicly has sex with two of his wives.

The accounts of goings-on at Incwala are given by Sithembiso Simelane who says his regiment initiation name is Sukulwenkhosi. He is 38 years old, born at Lwandle, near Manzini, and now lives at Nkhaba in the Hhohho region with his wife and two daughters.

He was a member of the Inyatsi regiment for about 10 years and says he ‘got to see all the evil that takes place in the royal residencies and more especially at Ludzidzini royal residence (Lobamba)’.

Simelane writes, ‘I’m telling you this story so as to reveal the reality that people in Swaziland do not know, and to warn Swazis against supporting this Incwala ceremony blindly. Many people have been killed in Swaziland for fear that they were witches or wizards. It is so amazing then because royalty, more especially the monarch, continues to practice witchcraft and at a very high rate.

He goes on, ‘Now that the king has gone into seclusion, he will be stationed at Mantjolo (near Mbabane) where there is a spirit snake, known as LaMlambo, belonging to the Mnisi clan. There, he will have the snake lick him all over the body for many days. As the snake licks him, the belief is that it cleans him of all the troubles he faced this year so that he emerges a new and strong person the next year.’

Simelane says, ‘Then there will be the catching and killing of the bull event. There are two sessions for this one. The first one is held at three in the afternoon a day before Incwala lenkhulu. The king expects the boys to show their strength by killing the bull with bare hands. They quickly jump onto the bull each with the hope of being the first one to grab it so that the king notices them.

‘The secret here is that these young men have the hope that if the king notices their bravery, they will get promotions in their respective jobs, especially if they are in the security forces, or if they are unemployed, they hope to get jobs in the army or the police. So they beat the bull with fists until it is so tired that it cannot do anything. Mswati believes that this action signifies that his people, as they always try by all means to rise against him, will suddenly decide to abandon that action and be confused by his muti.

‘The bull is then taken into the Inhlambelo where Mswati awaits it, naked. The young men hold down the bull tight as the king inserts his erect royal penis into the bull’s anus. He has sex with it until just before he ejaculates.’

Simelane also says that at one point King Mswati ‘moves out to Indlunkhulu where two of his wives, LaMatsebula and LaMotsa, await him naked and he has sex with both of them for a short while but then ejaculates into his horn (hence the saying uchamela enkhomeni nakumuntfu). These two wives, LaMatsebula and laMotsa, only serve this purpose at the royal family. They are known as “Tesulelamsiti’’, which basically means it is where the king cleanses himself and removing all his dirt on. On the two women is where Mswati leaves his demonic evils so that they carry it whilst he remains clean.’

Simelane gives other details of events at Incwala. To read his full account, click here. Or here

CNN REPORT ON KING’S EVICTED WIFE

News of the eviction of Inkhosikati LaDube, the 12th wife of Swaziland’s King Mswati III, from the royal palace has gone truly global.

CNN ran this report in its Morning Passport slot this week and it is now uploaded to the Internet. In this item Nadia Bilchik gives the lowdown on the eviction and the affair LaDube had last year with the then Minister of Justice Ndumiso Mamba. A lot of this will be news to the people of Swaziland because media in the kingdom have been banned from reporting about the affair.

Click here to see the CNN report.