The king said the present ‘Tinkhundla’ system would be
replaced by what he calls ‘Monarchical Democracy.’ He revealed this to his subjects on Saturday
(31August 2013) as he opened the 2013 International Trade Fair in Manzini.
He said he was told in a vision that he should do this.
The Times Sunday,
an independent newspaper in Swaziland, reported, ‘The king said the revelation
came to him during the time when strange weather occurred on Friday night. He
said the vision came to him when lightning struck on a winter night that
generally had neither clouds nor rain. He said the lightning occurred while he
tried to comprehend what was happening – and that was when he saw the new name
of the Swazi democracy.’
The newspaper added, ‘The king said in the vision, he was
shown a new name for the Tinkhundla system of governance. The revelation also
came with a definition of what could be described as a new form of democracy.
The king said the system should now be known as Monarchical Democracy.’
However, what the newspaper did not explain was that the
‘new’ democracy would be no different from the present version in Swaziland.
Political parties will still be banned from taking part in elections and the
king’s subjects will only be allowed to vote for a small number of individuals
to the House of Assembly, they still will not be allowed to elect any members
of the senate.
The king will continue to choose the prime minister and
the government. The parliament will still have no powers and will be
subservient to the wishes of the king.
The king has been under increasing criticism from democratic
nations to allow his subjects the opportunity to have political parties and
elect their own government.
The king said, ‘When we travel internationally, they ask
us about the Tinkhundla system of governance and we have always had difficulty
defining and explaining it.’
The Times
reported the king said, ‘According to Section 79 of the Constitution of
Swaziland, the system of government is democratic and participatory based on
Tinkhundla. The system emphasises on the devolution of state power from central
government to Tinkhundla while individual merit is a basis for election and
appointment into public office.’
The newspaper reported the king said Monarchical Democracy
was a new system which was unique to Africa and Swaziland. He described it as a
reinvention of the Tinkhundla system.
‘He said this democracy was special because it defined a
system formed by merging the will of the people with the monarch. He said in
this system, people cast votes on a ballot box to decide leaders from community
level. These leaders then work with the monarch in governing the country.
‘The king said the new system ensured that the king
worked with the people who were freely elected by the people in the leadership
of the country.
‘He said there were many ideologies of democracy in the
world but with the Monarchical Democracy, Swaziland presented to the world a
system that was home-grown and could be adopted and used by any country.’
He added, ‘[The] Monarchical democracy system was the
best in the world.’
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