KING COSTS 3,000 WORKERS THEIR JOBS

The refusal by King Mswati III, the absolute monarch in Swaziland, to accept democratic change in his kingdom has cost at least 3,000of his subjects their jobs.

This is because the United States withdrew Swaziland’s trading privileges under the Africa Growth Opportunities Act (AGOA). 

Swaziland had previously been able to export to the United States without having to pay tariffs. This privilege ended on 1 January 2015. 

In the six months since, at least 3,000 jobs have been lost in the textile industry, dominated by Taiwanese companies. 

The Observer Sunday, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati reported the job losses and the difficulties faced by workers who had been retrenched or laid-off. But, it did not make the connection between the plight of the former workers and King Mswati’s refusal to give up his power in the kingdom of 1.2 million people.

All political parties are banned from taking part in elections, the King chooses the Prime Minister and the government and the top judges. All public discussion for democratic reforms is crushed by police and state forces and democrats languish in prison in remand awaiting trial on sedition charges under the Suppression of Terrorism Act.

The King has a personal stake in great swathes of the Swazi economy and he uses dividends and royalties from these to finance a lavish lifestyle which includes a private luxury jet aircraft, a fleet of top-of-the-range Mercedes and BMW cars and at least one Rolls Royce. He also has 13 palaces in his kingdom which is about the same size as the US state of New Jersey.

Meanwhile, seven in ten of his subjects live in abject poverty with incomes of less than US$2 per day. More than a third of the population rely on international food aid in any given year.

The Observer Sunday reported this week (31 May 2015), ‘The loss of AGOA, effectively at the beginning of this year, resulted in two major textile factories closing down. These are Tex Ray and Leo Garments. Knitwear also closed down but for less than a month as they re-opened a few weeks later.

‘Close to 3,000 lost their jobs when these factories closed shop a few months ago. Some of these were fortunate as they managed to get employment in other factories while others migrated to South Africa. However, a majority of these workers were left unemployed and had to seek alternative employment.

‘About five factories have conducted these lay-offs, which have seen a number of workers sitting at home without getting paid. The factory owners have attributed these lay-offs to non-availability of a market for their products. Some of the factories include Union Washing, Kasum Investments, New Life and Kang-Fa at Siteki.’

The Observer interviewed some of the workers. One of them said, ‘The money we earn is very little and it being deducted means nothing but poverty for most of us.’

Another said, ‘We have really suffered because of this issue and are hoping that government will meet all the requirements needed for us to get it back. Our lives were turned upside down and some of us had to relocate and find much smaller houses to rent because I could no longer afford the two-room I rented before.

‘We are also being subjected to degrading treatment from our employers. What is saddening however is that we have, through our union, tried to engage labour officials but there isn’t much that has been done to address our concerns.’

The US had wanted Swaziland to implement the full passage of amendments to the Industrial Relations Act; full passage of amendments to the Suppression of Terrorism Act; 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, announcing the withdrawal of AGOA, a White House spokesperson said, ‘The decision to withdraw Swaziland’s AGOA eligibility comes after years of engaging with the Government of the Kingdom of Swaziland on concerns about its implementation of the AGOA eligibility criteria related to worker rights.’

The statement said after an ‘extensive review’ the US, ‘concluded that Swaziland had not demonstrated progress on the protection of internationally recognized worker rights. In particular, Swaziland has failed to make continual progress in protecting freedom of association and the right to organize. Of particular concern is Swaziland’s use of security forces and arbitrary arrests to stifle peaceful demonstrations, and the lack of legal recognition for labor and employer federations.

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. We hope to continue our engagement with the Government of the Kingdom of Swaziland on steps it can take so that worker and civil society groups can freely associate and assemble and AGOA eligibility can be restored.’

See also

SWAZI HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD KILLS AGOA

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2014/05/swazi-human-rights-record-kills-agoa.html

AGOA PROPAGANDA FROM KING’S NEWSPAPER

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/01/agoa-propaganda-from-kings-paper.html

 

PM MISLEADS ON AGOA PROGRESS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2014/12/pm-misleads-on-agoa-progress.html

PM WRONG ON AGOA IMPACT

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/01/pm-wrong-on-agoa-impact.html

CALL TO BOYCOTT KING’S SOCCER CUP

Swazi democrats are urging two of South Africa’s premier soccer teams Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates not to take part in a football tournament to honour King Mswati III.

A new tournament which is variously being called the Super King’s Cup  or the King’s Super Cup is due to be played on 18 July 2015 at the Somhlolo National Stadium in Lobamba.

The two Sowetan soccer clubs have announced they will take part in the tournament named in honour of King Mswati, who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

The Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN), a non-violent pro-democracy group banned in Swaziland under the Suppression of Terrorism Act, has called on both clubs to withdraw from the tournament.

In an open letter to Irvin Khoza, Chairman of Orlando Pirates Football Club and Kaizer Motaung, Executive Director, Kaizer Chiefs Foodball Club, the SSN said, ‘It is clear from the name of the event that this is not just a sporting event meant to promote goodwill but rather a political event meant to legitimise a despot who has lost credibility in the eyes of the world and the country that he rules with an iron fist.’

Political parties are banned from contesting elections in Swaziland, the King choses the government and top judges. Pro-democracy campaigners are jailed, often for more than a year before coming to trial.

In its letter, SSN said, ‘It has long been widely known in South Africa and beyond that Swaziland’s government has no respect for human rights and that the country has no political freedom. Swaziland is a dictatorship. It continues to evade the international media radar mainly because the country is so miniscule, with even less prestige internationally. 

‘The country has no democracy at all. All power is vested in the monarchy, which rules by decree despite the existence of a worthless constitution which was imposed on the citizens ten years ago. As an absolute monarch the King only delegates his judicial, executive and legislative powers to powerless institutions which may make one believe that the country is run like modern state when it is in fact run like the king’s personal farm.

‘While there is no law that explicitly bans the formation and functioning of political parties, they are effectively rendered useless by the fact that they cannot contest state power as that power is vested exclusively in the King who appoints the prime minister, deputy prime minister, all cabinet ministers, a third of parliament, all senior civil servants and members of the diplomatic corps. As another King’s appointee, the country’s Senate President recently pointed out, the king is the state.

‘With all this power vested in him, the King of Swaziland has not held back on abusing it to fulfill his selfish personal greed. This has resulted in him forcing all major investments in the country to guarantee him and his family’s trust fund, Tibiyo, shares in their businesses. As a result of this he owns virtually half the country’s economy. Despite his hold on so much personal wealth the King still draws royal emoluments from the state which is over a fifth of the nation’s budget.

‘It is these kleptocratic tendencies which have resulted in the country’s economy growing sluggishly while the rest of the region’s economies make major strides. It is worth pointing out for example that the country remains the only one in the region with a sole mobile phone operator, MTN Swaziland, a company that retains its monopoly primarily because the King has substantial shares in it. All attempts by other companies to break into the market have been futile. This is perhaps the reason why some mobile phone operators may wish to sponsor an event like the Super King’s Cup in order to gain favour with the country’s despot.

‘Human rights abuses in Swaziland are endemic because the people have no government of their own. At every level of society people are denied basic human rights. Political dissenters are detained arbitrarily or with spurious charges levelled against them. 

‘Like the Apartheid regime, King Mswati’s regime has gone to great lengths to tarnish the image of those who call for democracy in the country and there are legal instruments that are used to achieve this end such as the infamous Suppression of Terrorism Act, which gave the country’s government legal authority to declare any entity as a terrorist organisation. Once declared terrorist organisations such formations are proscribed and any association with them results in severe sanction including harsh prison sentences.

‘It was due to this act that one political activist by the name of Sipho Jele was arrested in 1 May 2010 for merely wearing a T-shirt inscribed with the name of one proscribed entity, PUDEMO. He never lived to see his day in court as he died in custody possibly from police torture.

‘There are other oppressive laws also used to suppress dissent such as the law against sedition. The president of the same organisation (PUDEMO), Mario Masuku, and the Secretary General of its youth league, Maxwell Dlamini, were also arrested in 2014 for what the state claims were seditious statements made at a Workers’ Day rally.

‘In the same year their arrest was followed by that of two columnists, Bheki Makhubu and Thulani Maseko who were charged and later convicted for criticizing the manner in which the then country’s Chief Justice had handled the detention of a government cars inspector. 

‘They remain behind bars while ironically the Chief Justice and the presiding judge in that case have been arrested by the country’s authorities for abuse of power and corruption. The manner in which this arrest was conducted was also flawed as it saw the country’s prime minister appointing himself the state prosecutor withdrawing and reinstating charges against those who had been arrested in the state’s publicity stunt.

‘Political activists are not the only ones denied basic human rights as even those who choose to shy away from political involvement end up on the wrong end of the country’s suppressive institutions. Poor Swazis are evicted annually for one reason or another without compensation from their ancestral lands. All their attempts to seek redress from the courts are futile as the King is effectively above the law and therefore immune from prosecution or civil charges.’

‘ABUSE OF POWER’ INQUIRY POSTPONED

The inquiry into the alleged abuse of power of Swaziland’s Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi opened on Monday (25 May 2015) and was postponed to allow him more time to prepare his defence.

Ramodibedi was first issued with a warrant for his arrest on 17 April 2015. He faced 23 charges and he has been under self-imposed house arrest since.

He did attend the inquiry set up by the Swazi Judicial Service Commission and successfully argued he was not ready to go ahead. The inquiry has been postponed to 3 June 2015.

The original 23 charges have been consolidated into eight new charges.

 As published by the Swazi Observer, the charges are:

 1. Abuse of office – In the allocation of the Swaziland Revenue Authority matter

The Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi is guilty of serious misbehaviour in that he allocated his case against SRA to Justice Mpendulo Simelane in full knowledge that Judge Simelane, in his then capacity as Registrar of the High Court of Swaziland had made both written and oral representations to the SRA on behalf of the chief justice in the same matter and was accordingly conflicted. This the chief justice did unlawfully and with the intention to obtain a judgement in his favour and or an undue benefit from the SRA in an amount of E128 800.75 

ALTERNATIVELY

The Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi is guilty of serious misbehaviour in that he allocated his personal court case against the Swaziland Revenue Authority to Justice Mpendulo Simelane in full knowledge that Judge Simelane in his then capacity as Registrar of the High Court had made oral and written representations to the Swaziland Revenue Authority on behalf of the chief justice in the same matter prior to the institution of the court proceedings. By doing so the CJ eroded the confidence of the public.

 2. Abuse of office – In the hearing of the Impunzi Wholesalers (PTY) Ltd v The Swaziland Revenue Authority

The Chief Justice Michael Mathelira Ramodibedi is guilty of serious misbehaviour in that he undermined the confidence of the public in the country’s justice system by sitting as the presiding Judge in the appeal of Impunzi Wholesalers (Pty) Ltd v Swaziland Revenue Authority at a time when he was personally engaged in pending litigation against SRA and as such was conflicted.

 3. Abuse of office in order to achieve an ulterior motive – In the hearing of the Estate Policy matter.

The Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi is guilty of serious misbehaviour in that contrary to the integrity expected of a judicial officer he directed that the application of Wezzy Ndzimandze and Others v Titselo Ndzimandze and others (Estate Policy Case) be heard and proceed to

3.1 Frame the issues for determination by the court

3.2 Personally enrolled the application when the applicants had withdrawn the matter 

3.3 Insisted on the application proceeding in circumstances where the applicant’s attorney had withdrawn as attorneys of record

3.4 Manipulated the outcome of the matter by giving instructions to the presiding judges

This demonstrated vested interest in the outcome of the matter in order to achieve an ulterior motive and constituted serious misbehaviour. 

ALTERNATIVELY 

The Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi is guilty of serious misbehaviour in that he unlawfully directed the application of Wezzy Ndzimandze and others v Titselo Ndzimandze and Others (Estate Policy case) be heard well aware that this was contrary to Constitutional provision S34 (2) which required that such matters be dealt with through the promulgation of a legislation in order to achieve an ulterior motive. 

       

 4. The Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi is guilty of serious misbehaviour in that on or about the year 2014 in his capacity as Chairman of the Judicial Service Commission he advised on and or authorised the reappointment of Lillian Zwane, Deputy Commissioner Operations of the Anti Corruption Commission for a third term in breach of the Prevention of Corruption Act of 2006 which provides for a maximum of two terms in respect of that position.

5. The Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi is guilty of serious misbehaviour in that on or about the year 2014 he unlawfully obstructed investigations by the ACC into allegations of misconduct of Lillian Zwane, the Deputy Commissioner of the ACC by failing and or neglecting and or refusing to take action on a report filed by the commissioner of the ACC. 

6. The Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi is guilty of serious misbehaviour in that on diverse occasions he instructed his government appointed chauffer to drive him out of the country when the driver, contrary to Cabinet Circular No1/2009 and government policy on external travel had not been authorised by the head of government to leave Swaziland and further caused his chauffer and security officers to incur or claim travel and subsistence allowances in respect of trips not authorised by government contrary to the said circular and policy. 

7. The Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi is guilty of serious misbehaviour in that on or about January 2015 and contrary to the integrity expected of a judicial officer and in contravention of the Government Stores Regulations he travelled to the Republic of South Africa in a Swaziland government issued motor vehicle without his designated chauffer.

 8. The Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi is guilty of serious misbehaviour in that on about August 2014 contrary to the integrity expected of a judicial officer and in breach of the principle of the independence of the Judiciary he unlawfully directed Acting High Court Justices Dlamini B.S. Dlamini A AND Simelane M to decide the matter wherein the Law Society of Swaziland sought the removal from office of Justice Mpendulo Simelane in favour of the Swaziland Government.  

See also

CJ HAS HISTORY OF ABUSE OF POWER

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/04/cj-has-history-of-abuse-of-power.html

 

SWAZI JUDICIAL CRISIS: KING’S WORD IS LAW

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/05/judicial-crisis-kings-word-is-law.html

JURISTS: DEEP FLAWS IN JUSTICE SYSTEM

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/05/jurists-deep-flaws-in-justice-system.html

GOVT ACCUSES EU OF ‘POLITICAL RAPE’

Percy Simelane, the official spokesperson for the Swazi Government, has described the European Parliament’s call for political prisoners in Swaziland to be freed as ‘political rape’.

Simelane said the European Union had no business interfering in the internal affairs of Swaziland and likened the European parliament to a ‘street mob’.

King Mswati III rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, political parties are banned from taking part in elections and the King chooses the government and the top judiciary. Pro-democracy campaigners currently languish in prison, many on remand awaiting trial for more than a year, under the kingdom’s Suppression of Terrorism Act.

Members of the European Parliament (MEP) meeting in plenary session on Thursday (21 May 2015) called for the immediate release of Thulani Maseko and Bheki Makhubu from jail in Swaziland. Maseko, a human-rights lawyer, and Makhubu, editor of the Nation magazine were jailed for two years after writing and publishing articles critical of the Swazi judiciary.

MEPs said ‘their imprisonment relates directly to the legitimate exercise of their right to freedom of expression’.

They also called for the release of all political prisoners, including Mario Masuku, President of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), and Maxwell Dlamini, Secretary-General of the Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO).

A statement issued by the European Parliament said, ‘Parliament considers the imprisonment of political activists and the banning of trade unions to be in clear contravention of commitments made by Swaziland under the Cotonou Agreement to respect democracy, the rule of law and human rights, and also under the sustainable development chapter of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Economic Partnership Agreement, for which Parliament’s support will depend on respect for the commitments made.’

The Times Sunday, an independent newspaper in Swaziland, reported on 24 May 2015, ‘In response to the resolution, Government spokesperson Percy Simelane said they had no reasons to entertain calls for political rape on the country.’

The Times reported that Simelane said in a text message to the newspaper that the kingdom ‘had the potency to correct or sort themselves out without any pressure from street mobs’.

See also

FREE POLITICAL PRISONERS: EURO MPs

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/05/free-political-prisoners-euro-mps.html

KING MSWATI IS ALSO BOGUS DOCTOR

Swaziland’s Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini is not the only leader the kingdom to accept a bogus ‘doctorate’ – King Mswati III has one too. 

He got his from Swaziland’s controversial Limkokwing University in July 2013. 

In return, he granted Limkokwing land for the institution to build a permanent site in his kingdom.

At a ceremony, Limkokwing announced the King would receive his Ph.D doctorate in ‘human capital development’ in recognition of the King’s ‘commitment to improving the lives of the Swazi people’.

The announcement was greeted by ‘rapturous applause’ that lasted ‘several minutes’, according to a report at the time in the Weekend Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by the King himself. 

However, nobody pointed out that Limkokwing did not award doctorates to students in the usual course of events because it is not really a university. Limkokwing, which is based in Malaysia, has set up branches in Africa in Lesotho, Botswana and Swaziland. They have all been attacked for the poor quality of their staff and the inferior courses they offer.

In Swaziland, Limkokwing offers ‘associate degrees’, a term invented to disguise the fact that they are courses inferior to a bachelor degree. Associate degrees are better known in other educational institutions as ‘diplomas’.

In June 2012, after one year of operation Bandile Mkhonta, Head of Human Resource for Limkokwing in Mbabane, Swaziland, told local media that of 53 professional staff at the university; only one had a Ph.D doctorate. A Ph.D is often considered by universities to be the minimum qualification required to be given the rank of senior lecturer.

The Swazi Observer reported Mkhonta saying Limkokwing had fewer Ph.Ds because it was a ‘non-conventional’ university whose curriculum was mainly based on practice than theory.

Limkokwing in Swaziland had no staff at professor rank and no record of conducting scholarly research.

Educational standards at Limkokwing are lower than those at other universities, including the University of Swaziland. It does not require students to have qualifications in the English language. 

Despite these shortcomings, King Mswati told an audience at Limkokwing the university was providing the kind of degrees that empower Swazi youths and said he strongly believed the future of Swaziland was effectively being transformed by it.

He did not give details on exactly how this was being achieved.

Nor, did Limkokwing explain what it meant when it spoke of the King’s ‘commitment to improving the lives of the Swazi people’.

King Mswati is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch and rules over a population of about 1.3 million people and 70 percent of his subjects live in abject poverty, earning less than US$2 per day. The kingdom has the highest rate of HIV infection in the world.

King Mswati allows no opposition to his rule and all political parties are banned from taking part in elections. The Swazi parliament is widely considered by democrats to be a sham that only exists to follow King Mswati’s wishes.

Limkokwing has been controversial ever since it opened in Swaziland in May 2011. It struggled for many years to be allowed to open until King Mswati personally gave his blessing. 

In June 2011, it emerged that the university’s founder Tan Sri Dato Lim Kok Wing had a meeting with King Mswati and ‘persuaded’ him that Swaziland needed a new university – and Limkokwing should be it. He persuaded the King to believe that low-level courses in such subjects as Graphic Designing, TV & Film Production, Architectural Technology, Advertising, Creative Multimedia, Information Technology, Event Management, Business Information Technology, Journalism and Media, Public Relations and Business Management, would help Swaziland which is mainly an agricultural society to prosper.  

Once the King gave his support nobody in his kingdom stood in its way. Limkokwing started in Swaziland illegally because an Act of Parliament is needed to set up a university, but Limkokwing was allowed to start without parliament’s approval. 

The cash-strapped government that was seeking ways to save money on higher education at the kingdom’s established University of Swaziland offered Limkokwing US$2 million a year it could not afford for scholarships for up to 800 students.

Soon after Limkokwing opened, students began protesting that they were not getting their allowances and there were no text books and too few laptops. There were at least 20 protests, class boycotts and closures during the first year after it opened. Police used teargas and rubber bullets against protesting students. One student was shot in the leg. 

See also

NEW SWAZI UNIVERSITY SUBSTANDARD

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-swazi-university-substandard.html

 

KING FELL FOR BOGUS UNIVERSITY

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/06/king-fell-for-bogus-university.html

 

LIMKOKWING UNIVERSITY IS ILLEGAL
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/05/limkokwing-university-is-illegal.html

 

SWAZILAND PM IS A BOGUS DOCTOR

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/05/swaziland-pm-is-bogus-doctor.html

FREE POLITICAL PRISONERS: EURO MPs

The European Parliament has voted for the release of all political prisoners in Swaziland.

It also called for the kingdom, ruled by King Mswati III as an absolute monarch, to be monitored for its human rights record.

Members of the European Parliament (MEP) meeting in plenary session on Thursday (21 May 2015) called for the immediate release of Thulani Maseko and Bheki Makhubu from jail in Swaziland. Maseko, a human-rights lawyer, and Makhubu, editor of the Nation magazine were jailed for two years after writing and publishing articles critical of the Swazi judiciary.

MEPs said ‘their imprisonment relates directly to the legitimate exercise of their right to freedom of expression.

They also called for the release of  all political prisoners, including Mario Masuku, President of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), and Maxwell Dlamini, Secretary-General of the Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO).

A statement issued by the European Parliament said, ‘Parliament considers the imprisonment of political activists and the banning of trade unions to be in clear contravention of commitments made by Swaziland under the Cotonou Agreement to respect democracy, the rule of law and human rights, and also under the sustainable development chapter of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Economic Partnership Agreement, for which Parliament’s support will depend on respect for the commitments made.

‘It calls, therefore, on the Commission to honour its obligation to monitor Swaziland’s adherence to human rights and to labour and environmental conventions under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), and to open an investigation to determine whether there has been a serious and systematic violation of the labour rights protected under the GSP.’

The resolution was passed by 579 votes to six, with 58 abstentions. 

See also

JAILED DEMOCRATS NOW IN ISOLATION

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/05/jailed-democrats-now-in-isolation.html

JAILED WRITER TO GO TO HIGH COURT

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/05/jailed-writer-to-go-to-high-court.html

DOCUMENTARY ON FREEDOM STRUGGLE

I could have died at any moment

Kenworthy News Media, 21 May 2015

SOURCE

 “One police officer came with a plastic bag and put it over my mouth and nose, and pressed very hard so that I couldn’t breathe. I could have died at any moment”, Bheki Dlamini says looking at the camera, close to tears, writes Kenworthy News Media.

The scene is from a new documentary, “Swaziland – Africa’s last absolute monarchy”, made by award-winning Danish investigative journalist Tom Heinemann.

The film describes the fight for democracy and socio-economic justice in the tiny sub-Saharan country through the eyes of Bheki Dlamini, a young activist and leading member of Swaziland’s largest banned political party, the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO).

Never misbehaved

Bheki never misbehaved as a child, his father says. He always did his chores at home. He got up at five in the morning and walked the 10 kilometres to school from his home in the rural town of Mpofu in northern Swaziland, and studied hard to fulfil his academic promise.

In fact it was at university, while studying Sociology and Public Administration, that Bheki really started questioning the doctrines and cultural codes of Swazi society.

“University changed my perception and how I looked on society through the different and diverse views from other students and lecturers who have been out in the world”, he says.

Wearing a t-shirt is terrorism

Bheki chose to act on his new-found beliefs by amongst other things helping organize civic education for poor and illiterate people in Swaziland’s rural areas.

But Swaziland’s absolute monarch, King Mswati III, not only demands total loyalty from his citizens, most of who survive on less than a dollar a day from handouts from the UN. He also makes sure that meetings that are deemed “political” are disrupted by police, who harass and beat up activists like Bheki, many of whom are subsequently tried with terrorism for trivial “offences” such as shouting “viva PUDEMO” or wearing a PUDEMO t-shirt.

After having had his home ransacked and been detained on several occasions, Bheki was arrested in 2010, tortured, and charged with terrorism for allegedly having committed arson against an MP and a police officer, crimes that he and his colleagues said he could not have committed.

Into the bigger prison

Bheki was in prison for nearly four years. He was kept in a filthy cell, no larger than five by twelve metres, 24 hours a day with up to 40 other inmates.

When the trial finally began, all charges against Bheki were quickly dropped and he was released. But as Bheki told the large crowd that had gathered outside the courthouse to great him upon his release, “I am moving out of the small prison into the bigger prison”.

A few months later he was forced to flee Swaziland, when the police tried to arrest him after he had given a speech on Mayday.

Make or break

“In life we face challenge”, Bheki’s father says in the film. “But it is how we respond to these challenges that will either make us or break us”.

And Bheki has chosen and stood by his response, even though it means he has had to flee Swaziland to live at a secret location in exile, away from his family. Or that he will almost certainly be arrested, tortured and charged with treason if he returns home.

“No matter what they do to me the fight continues” he says, unflinching and looking straight into the camera. “The state is afraid, so if we can push much harder it is going to succumb to our pressure”.

“Swaziland – Africa’s last absolute monarchy” premièred on May 20 in Copenhagen. The documentary will be screened on Danish national television channel DR2 on the 2nd of August. It has been submitted to several film festivals, including the Al Jazeera International Documentary Film Festival and Movies That Matter.

Bheki Dlamini is the President of the Swaziland Youth Congress, the youth wing of PUDEMO. He currently lives in exile at a secret location in South Africa. The Swazi police’s torture of him by way of “severe beatings and suffocation torture” was mentioned in Amnesty International’s 2011 Annual Report.

Tom Heinemann has won the Danish Outstanding Investigative Journalist of the year award twice, and has been runner up for Journalist of the year in Denmark three times. In 2007 he won the Prix Italia in the current affairs selection.

UNIONS CALL TO END SWAZI REPRESSION

An international delegation of union leaders traveling in Swaziland is calling on the government to guarantee the rights of workers to freely form unions and exercise freedom of speech and assembly, and says repressive legislation used by police against union activities still has not been addressed by Parliament, even as the government continues to imprison human rights activists for exercising their right to freedom of speech, writes Tula Connell at Solidarity Center.

Led by Wellington Chibebe, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) deputy general secretary, the fact-finding group is looking into the ongoing government repression directed at Swazi union leaders and human rights proponents, and plans to issue a report to the ITUC and to several members of the European Parliament by the end of May.

Just days before the delegation arrived on May 14 2015, the Swaziland government announced it had registered the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA), an action it has refused to take for the past three years.

But delegation members say they are not celebrating the action because the government “did not do more than it was supposed to do,” says Jos Williams, president of the AFL-CIO Metropolitan Washington Labor Council, speaking from Swaziland. “We do not see that as a victory of any kind.” Williams is among a six-member delegation that includes a representative from the Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU).

In fact, two days after the government announced TUCOSWA’s official registration, police massed outside a meeting of TUCOSWA affiliates in a show of force, according to TUCOSWA Secretary-General Vincent Ncongwane.

“All that has been told (by the government) to the world is just playing to the public gallery,” Ncongwane says, while the reality of repression in a monarchical government that outlaws political parties continues. Twice this year, police have broken up TUCOSWA union meetings, injuring a union leader in the process. On May Day, brave union members held rallies despite a government ban on public gatherings.

The ITUC is demanding the government repeal anti-terrorism laws that enable it to imprison union leaders and others who call for democracy; provide full recognition of union activities in accordance with international laws; and support freedom of speech, assembly and association.

“The government must meet the demands the ITUC delegation has made if the ITUC is to give a favorable report by the end of the month,” Williams says. “From my standpoint, the actions of the government have not been very encouraging. Yes, they have recognized the union, but regarding the other demands we made, there has been no response.”

Delegation members also sought to visit political prisoners, some of whom have been held for two years. So far, says Williams, they “have gotten the run-around” in efforts “to see our comrades in jail and look at the conditions.” (You can sign a LaborStart petition demanding their release. If you Tweet, use the hashtag #SwaziJustice.)

In June 2014, the U.S. government took the rare step of suspending African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade benefits for Swaziland, citing the Swazi government’s systematic violations of fundamental worker rights, including refusal to legally recognize TUCOSWA. In addition, the 2014 U.S. State Department human rights report cited serious human rights violations in Swaziland, including arbitrary or unlawful killings by the government or its agents and severely restricted freedom of assembly, including violence against protestors.

Given the level of harassment and repression, Williams says he “came here seeking to encourage” union leaders, but instead found that “they are standing tall in the face of adversity.

“It is rewarding to me as a trade unionist to have drawn strength from these individuals.”

SWAZI KING SNUBS HIS OWN UNIVERSITY

Swaziland’s King Mswati III has once again shown his contempt for his own kingdom and the university he heads by sending his own children to be educated abroad.

The King, who is presently on tour of Taiwan, the home of the companies that control most of the textile sweatshops in Swaziland, stopped off at the Shih Chien University in Taipei to visit one of his sons, Prince Buhlebenkhosi, who is studying for a BSc in International Business Management.

The King, who rules Swaziland as an absolute monarch, is Chancellor of the University of Swaziland (UNISWA), which has a large business faculty, but clearly he has no confidence in the standards of education at the institution. What is good enough for his subjects is not good enough for his own children.

UNISWA has been complaining for many years of underfunding and some courses are likely to close.

In April 2015 it was reported that the university was ‘bankrupt’ and could not pay the Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA) an E60 million (US$6 million) Pay-As-You-Earn income tax debt.

Buhlebenkhosi is not the only one of the King’s children to have studied at university abroad. The king is estimated to have 25 children (so far) but we cannot be certain, because like the number of wives he has, this is information that the Swazi people are not allowed to know.

His eldest daughter, and first child, Princess Sikhanyiso graduated from Sydney University, Australia, in 2012 with a Masters in Digital Communication. She completed a bachelor degree at Biola University, in Los Angeles, California, in the United States. She also took acting classes while in the US.

Prince Bandzile Dlamini studied international relations at Zayed University, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). 

Meanwhile, ‘the King’s Office Correspondent’, writing in the Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, reported on Wednesday (20 May 2015), ‘Prince Buhlebenkhosi’s humble and courteous nature has earned him glowing accolades from his university’s administrators.’

The newspaper added, ‘The university’s President Michael Chen, said he had no doubt that Prince Buhlebenkhosi would be an asset to Swaziland.’

He added, ‘“It would not surprise me to see him sit as one of the top company executives in the near future.”’

See also

PRINCESS ON TV: BLUSHES ALL ROUND

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2012/05/princess-on-tv-blushes-all-round.html

KING’S AIRPORT LACKS DISASTER PLAN

News that the SADC Aviation Safety Organisation (SASO), which is responsible for overseeing all safety precautions in the aviation industry, is moving its operations to Swaziland should raise eyebrows because the kingdom itself has no safety plan in operation should a plane crash at the King Mswati III Airport.

This lack of a plan was first disclosed publicly as long ago as November 2010, more than three years before the airport, dubbed King Mswati’s ‘vanity project’, officially opened.

But nothing has been done to ensure passengers have a chance of surviving a crash on take-off or landing.

Musa Hlophe, coordinator of the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations, writing in his regular column in the Times Sunday, an independent newspaper in the kingdom, on 28 November 2010, asked what would happen if an aircraft with (say) 400 passengers on board crashed at the airport?

He wrote, ‘Assuming that we expanded our country’s ambulance fleet to 200 and each one was able to get to Sikhuphe [the original name of the airport]within one hour, how could our hospitals manage with hundreds of extra patients in one day? The closest hospital will be Good Shepherd at Siteki which is not exactly state of the art and the nearest major hospitals are in Manzini and Mbabane. They are already all on their knees, struggling to cope with our current crises of TB, HIV&AIDS. 

‘Do our hospitals have a plan to cope with maybe 400 foreign people all needing bed spaces urgently? Do we have enough doctors and nurses trained in accident and emergency and most importantly do we have the necessary medicines, equipment and blood for this level of disaster? In a country that cannot even supply its own citizens with the proper drugs to prevent a child dying from rabies because of the bite of one dog - I doubt it. I doubt they could cope with fifty people never mind four hundred.

‘Sikhuphe’s business model to attract major foreign passenger carriers is already flawed because of the competition from four other regional airports within half a day’s drive - Kruger National in Mbombela (Nelspruit), Maputo in Mozambique, King Shaka in Durban and, of course, OR Tambo in Johannesburg. But what really stands out for me, as someone who has worked for businesses for a long time, is what little proper risk analysis has gone on here. Can you imagine an airline that wanted to carry rich western investors and tourists that would risk the lives of hundreds of its passengers? Can you imagine them ignoring the lack of medical systems, equipment, personnel or facilities to cope with even a relatively minor crash that required treatment of only a quarter of their passengers and staff?

‘If we adapt our medical systems to meet this need, will we take resources away from our families who are living with and dying from HIV&AIDS? So I ask a question that does not seem to have been considered in public before. How will the disaster plan for Sikhuphe affect the provision of health care for the rest of us? Will the health budget be diverted from the families of our sick and dying to allow for the imagined needs of strangers who will only stay a few hours in our country? Has Minister Xaba and his team even considered it - have they thought it through? What do they say to the foreign investors?’

The answers to Holphe’s rhetorical questions were, and remain, No. There is no plan in operation, nor is there any indication that anyone connected with the organisation of the airport or the Swazi Government is trying to create one.

Despite this obvious lack of a safety plan, Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA) Director General Solomon Dube told the Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III, the kingdom’s absolute monarch, that SASO was moving its operations from Botswana to Swaziland because, among other reasons, ‘there was continuous surveillance to make sure that safety precautions were always observed in the aviation industry’. 

He also said SASO wanted to ensure ‘that there was severe punishment on any person or organisation that violated the safety standards in the aviation industry’.

On closer inspection it turns out that Swaziland’s civil aviation record was last audited in 2007 by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) - seven years before the new airport opened. ICAO found that Swaziland was only 16 percent compliant to the ICAO safety standards.

SASO based its decision to move to Swaziland on the results of this audit.

See also

U-TURN ON SUCCESS OF KING’S AIRPORT

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/05/u-turn-on-success-of-kings-airport.html

DISASTER AT SIKHUPHE AIRPORT

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2010/11/disaster-at-sikhuphe-airport.html

PROOF: KING’S AIRPORT POINTLESS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/02/proof-kings-airport-pointless.html