The Swazi people went to the polls last month to select 55
members of the House of Assembly, but more than a week after the vote the
kingdom’s Elections and Boundaries Commission has failed to publish the full
results, or the final voter turnout. This has added further controversy in an
already discredited political system. A campaign to boycott the election
because political parties are banned from taking part and the parliament that
is elected has no power because King Mswati III rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s
last absolute monarch may have been successful, but we are unable to tell
because the results have been withheld.
Swazi Media Commentary reported and analysed the election
and presents a digest of the happenings in September 2013 in the latest of its
monthly compilations, Swaziland: Striving for Freedom: Vol 9 which is available
on scribd dot com. Apart from the elections, September saw the annual Global
Week of Action for Democracy in Swaziland. As usual, police and state security
forces clamped down on any public discussion of the need for democracy in the
kingdom. A panel of trade union experts, formed to discuss workers’ conditions
in Swaziland, was forced to disband after police arrested and deported many of
its participants, including the former South African cabinet minister Jay Naidoo.
While all this was happening King Mswati said he had a
vision (it is assumed from ‘God’) who told him that the system of governance in
Swaziland should henceforth be called a ‘monarchical democracy’. This caused
great excitement among the media in Swaziland, which claimed a new dawn in
democracy. It took the international news agency Reuters to get the king to
admit that his new democracy was just a different name for that which already
existed.
It was also announced that the 45-year-old king was to take
an 18-year-old beauty pageant contestant as his new bride (believed to be wife
number 14, but nobody is quite sure). International media pointed out the
teenager had a ‘past’ and had previously ‘dated’ two of the king’s sons and
dubbed her ‘naughty Sindi’. Media in Swaziland, which see the marriage as a
fairy story, ignored this inconvenience.
Swazi Media Commentary has no physical base and is
completely independent of any political faction and receives no income from any
individual or organisation. People who contribute ideas or write for it do so
as volunteers and receive no payment.
Swazi Media Commentary is published online – updated most days –
bringing information, comment and analysis in support of democracy in the
kingdom.
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