King Mswati’s newspaper is once again misleading
people about the reasons why the undemocratic kingdom has lost preferential
trading rights with the United States.
Swaziland lost its right to export goods tariff free
to the US under the Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) on 1 January
2015. The trade privilege was withdrawn
because the kingdom, ruled by King Mswati III as an absolute monarch, has not
met five benchmarks on workers’ and political rights.
The Observer on Sunday,
a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, reported former army Brigadier
Commander and Border Restoration Committee member Fonono Dube saying ‘that in
actual fact, AGOA is not yet gone’.
The newspaper reported, ‘He has claimed that the
reason why Swaziland was being removed from AGOA was because the country was
now not following the constitution that was used when we registered to AGOA in
2005.
‘“That is the reason the US resolved to remove us
from AGOA because we are now not following the constitution of the country.
Swaziland is a Monarchy so the head of state is the king not the prime
minister,” he emphasised.
‘Were the country to correct this and re-submit our
request to the US to be re-admitted into AGOA, “we will be re-admitted into
AGOA”’.
‘However, the former army commander believes that
our loss of AGOA has nothing to do with the five benchmarks.’
The newspaper which is part of the Swazi Observer
group and was described by the Media Institute of Southern Africa in a 2013 report
on press freedom in the kingdom as ‘a
pure propaganda machine for the royal family’ reported Dube’s comments
even though it knew he was not telling the truth.
The newspaper along with others in the Swazi Observer stable and the
independent newspaper group Times of
Swaziland have reported many times in the past six months the real reasoning
behind the removal of AGOA.
The US withdrew
Swaziland’s AGOA privileges after the kingdom ignored an
ultimatum to implement the full passage of amendments to the Industrial
Relations Act; full passage of amendments to the Suppression of Terrorism Act
(STA); full passage of amendments to the Public Order Act; full passage of
amendments to sections 40 and 97 of the Industrial Relations Act relating to
civil and criminal liability to union leaders during protest actions; and
establishing a code of conduct for the police during public protests.
In June 2014 the US Trade Representative
Michael Froman said, ‘The withdrawal of AGOA benefits is not a decision
that is taken lightly.
‘We have made our concerns very clear to Swaziland over the
last several years and we engaged extensively on concrete steps that Swaziland
could take to address the concerns.’
The report on Dube seems to be part of a campaign
by the Observer to misrepresent the
scale of the AGOA disaster. Earlier
in January 2015 The Observer Sunday, Chief Editor Mbongeni Mbingo, quoted
Prime Minister Dlamini saying,
‘there is no need for Swazis to behave like a major catastrophe has happened
following the loss of Swaziland’s eligibility status under the African Growth
and Opportunity Act (AGOA). Besides, AGOA did not benefit Swazis or the
country’s economy much.’
This also was not
true as independent reports from economists predicted that without AGOA
privileges the textile industry in Swaziland, which is mostly owned by
Taiwanese companies, would collapse with the loss of at least 9,000 jobs.
Already more than 2,400 people have lost jobs in the textile industry as a
direct result of the withdrawal of AGOA.
In its
report on Dube the Observer
on Sunday also said, ‘Dube says in the bible there are no presidents nor
democracy but kings. “It then means Swazis are on the right track because we
have a King and we should appreciate that as Swazis.”
‘“In Swaziland, Dube added, “there is freedom not
democracy.”’
See also
PM MISLEADS ON AGOA PROGRESS
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