There are
discontented murmurings in Swaziland about the reason why King Mswati III has
put aside 10 percent of the nation’s annual E13.1 billion budget this year on ‘defence’
spending.
The
kingdom is not at war and there are no potential enemies at the borders ready
to invade. Swaziland’s international obligations in the military arena are few,
so nobody expects Swazi troops to be deployed abroad anytime soon.
Government
ministers will not talk about the issue, citing ‘national security’ issues as
an excuse.
Despite
the reluctance of King Mswati, who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last
absolute monarch, and the government he hand-picks, to disclose its need for
such high levels of ‘defence’ spending, it is possible to piece together the
possible reasoning by looking at past events in Swaziland.
In 2011,
the Swazi Government set aside more than E1 billion for spending on the army
and police force and Finance Minister Majozi Sithole admitted that the army was
prepared for an uprising by the population in Swaziland.
This
followed a series of prodemocracy uprisings in North Africa, leading to what
became known as the ‘Arab Spring’. King Mswati was fearful something similar
could happen in his kingdom. A Facebook
group calling itself the April 12 Uprising had already called for an overthrow
of the king.
In
February 2011, Sithole told an open stakeholder dialogue on the 2011-2012 budget
and Fiscal Adjustment Roadmap, ‘Yes, we are spending a lot on the army but we
are not anticipating what is happening in North Africa to come here,’ he said.
He added, ‘However, the army is there to avoid such situations.’
Sithole
was responding to a question about why so much money was being spent on the
army and police – the total budget for Swaziland in the coming year was only
E10.7 billion. The budget for the army and police was the equivalent of about
half the national budget deficit (E2.243 billion for the 2011/12 fiscal year).
Nobody was much surprised by the high ‘defence’ spending of the
government. A clue to its thinking had been revealed by a United States
diplomatic cable that had been published by Wikileaks.
The
cable, written in 2009 by Maurice Parker, the then US Ambassador to Swaziland,
revealed that the UK Government had blocked an arms deal between a UK company Unionlet
and the Swaziland Government because it feared their ‘possible use
for internal repression’.
The Swazi
Government wanted to buy equipment worth US$60 million (E426 million).
Among
items listed for purchase were, ‘3 Bell Model UH-1H helicopters, FN Herstal 7.6251mm
Minimi light machine guns, blank and tracer ammunition, armored personnel
carriers, command and control vehicles including one fitted with a 12.7x99mm M2
Browning heavy machine gun and others fitted with the FN Herstal light machine
guns, military ambulances, armored repair and recovery vehicles, weapon sights,
military image intensifier equipment, optical target surveillance equipment,
620 Heckler & Koch G36E assault rifles, 240 Heckler & Koch G36K assault
rifles, 65 Heckler & Koch G36E rifles, 75 Heckler & Koch UMP submachine
guns 9x19mm, and 35 Heckler & Koch USP semi-automatic pistols’.
The Swaziland Government said it wanted the items to fulfil its United
Nations ‘peacekeeping’ obligations in Africa.
The UK Government did not believe it and thought either the weapons
would be used against the Swazi civilian population, or they were being bought
in order to sell on to another country, possibly Iran. The UK Government
blocked the deal.
In his diplomatic cable, Parker said, ‘The array of weapons requested
would not be needed for the first phases of peacekeeping, although it is
possible someone tried to convince the Swazi government they were required. The
GKOS [Government of the Kingdom of Swaziland] may have been attempting to build
up domestic capability to deal with unrest, or was possibly acting as an
intermediary for a third party such as Zimbabwe or a Middle Eastern country that
had cash, diamonds or goods to trade.’
The Guardian newspaper in
the United Kingdom, which first broke the story, reported at the time,
Swaziland had a poor human rights record which was criticised by the US state
department in its 2009 report (the year the deal was to have taken place).
‘Government agents continued to commit or condone serious abuses, and
the human rights situation in the country deteriorated. Human rights problems
included inability of citizens to change their government; extrajudicial
killings by security forces; mob killings; police use of torture, beatings, and
excessive force on detainees,’ the report said.
In the months before the attempted arms sale, Swaziland's government
declared the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) the main opposition
political party a terrorist organisation, and arrested its leader, Mario
Masuku.
Once the cable became public in 2011, John Kunene, Principal Secretary
in the Ministry of Defence, who signed
the original
deal in 2008, said the kingdom had never given up trying to buy the weapons.
The Swazi News, an independent newspaper in Swaziland, reported
(26 February 2011) that Kunene was still trying to broker a deal.
‘We have been in constant discussion with Unionlet in buying arms for
peacekeeping exercises in other countries, and have never abandoned the idea,’
the newspaper reported Kunene saying.
Kunene said the United Nations would reimburse the money Swaziland spent
on the weapons. He said the weapons would be kept in Swaziland.
He attacked Parker who had raised
concerns that the weapons could be used to suppress the Swazi population or be
sold on and accused him of interfering in the affairs of Swaziland.
But, In March 2011 Lutfo Dlamini, who was then Minister of Defence, denied the
Wikileaks report and, according to a report in the Times of Swaziland, told the Swazi Senate there was at no stage
where the country spoke of purchasing guns.
The Swazi
Observer reported him saying, ‘We never bought any guns anywhere and never spent
E429 million. The information leaked was misleading, it was written by someone
who had his own agendas.’
Clearly, Lutfo Dlamini was not telling the truth since Kunene had
already confirmed that he was still trying to broker the deal.
In March 2011 Kunene was sacked from his job after a disclosure that the
Umbutfu Swaziland Defence Force (the army) had run out of food to feed
its soldiers.
A month after the Wikleaks revelation about possible arms sales to the
Middle East, the AFP news agency reported Swaziland was importing two containers of firearms through a Mozambican port.
AFP quoted Mozambican state daily newspaper Noticias as its source. It reported the arms arrived in Maputo, the
Mozambican capital, on a Panamanian vessel on February 28 [2011] from an
unspecified country.
‘The containers in question at the Maputo Port were in transit to
neighbouring Swaziland, in an operation authorised by Mozambican authorities
and covered by a special agreement between the governments of Mozambique and
the kingdom of Mswati III,’ said the paper, citing an unnamed police source.
Noticias said the
arms would be transported to Swaziland under police escort.
Mozambican police at first confirmed the existence of the
shipment and later denied it.
See also
SWAZI ‘SECRET ARMS DEAL FOR IRAN’
ARMS SHIPMENT HEADS TO
SWAZILAND
POLICE CONFIRM ARMS
SHIPMENT
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