Barnabas Dlamini, who was never elected Prime Minister of Swaziland, nor was he elected to the House of Assembly, says he will not resign because he is ‘still’ popular among the Swazi people.
The Prime Minister also says that he shouldn’t resign because he is presiding over a kingdom with a sound economy that is on the up.
Dlamini, who is clearly suffering from self-delusion, was responding to a question at a Swaziland editors’ forum.
He told the meeting on Thursday (10 November 2011), ‘We find that we are still on course and indicators are that the economy will pick up.’
To demonstrate the falsehood of this, the following day Fikisiwe Mabila, the Swaziland Acting Accountant General, issued a memo to announce that government salaries would not be paid in November. At best they will be paid up to 15 days late. Although the memo did not state this, the reason is that the government has run out of money and has no way of getting the E350 million it needs in November to pay public service salaries.
Dlamini has been under increasing pressure in the past year from MPs who want to table a no-confidence motion in him, from the media which have been calling from his head, and from the Swazi public disgusted at the way he bought land for himself belonging to the Swazi nation at a knock down price.
That doesn’t make him very ‘popular’ in my book.
Dlamini’s ‘popularity’ has never been tested. In 2008 he was appointed Prime Minister by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, in contravention of the Swaziland Constitution.
The Constitution says the Prime Minister must be a member of the House of assembly. Dlamini hadn’t even been elected to the House. King Mswati appointed him there at the same time he made him Prime Minister.
See also
CRISIS: TIME FOR GOVERNMENT TO GO
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/11/crisis-time-for-government-to-go.html
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