King Mswati, attracted derision in the international arena in February 2015 when he told the Swazi Parliament ‘I wish to assure the nation that I will personally see to it that the First World Swaziland is HIV and AIDS free.’
The Observer reported on Monday (3 August 2015), ‘President Barack Obama is fully behind His Majesty King
Mswati III’s pledge and commitment to have an AIDS free Swaziland by 2022.’
It
said President Obama made the statement in a speech to the Africa Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 28 July
2015. But, in fact, the President made no reference to King Mswati in his
speech.
In a wide-ranging speech the
president drew attention to the need to rid Africa of HIV / AIDS and an initiative
of the United States to target teenaged girls, which included working in
Swaziland. But he did not endorse King Mswati’s pledge to personally rid his
kingdom of AIDS by 2022.
The Swazi Observer’s attempt to claim support from the President hid
the fact that much of his speech was devoted to the need for democracy in
Africa.
King Mswati rules
Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s only absolute monarch, political parties are
banned from taking part in elections and the King chooses the government and
top judges.
In part of his speech that
went unreported by the Observer,
President Obama said, ‘I believe Africa’s progress will also depend on
democracy, because Africans, like people everywhere, deserve the dignity of
being in control of their own lives. We
all know what the ingredients of real democracy are. They include free
and fair elections, but also freedom of speech and the press, freedom
of assembly. These rights are universal. They’re written into African
constitutions.
‘The African Charter on
Human and Peoples Rights declares that “every individual shall have the right
to the respect of the dignity inherent in a human being.” From Sierra
Leone, Ghana, Benin, to Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, democracy has taken
root.’
He added, ‘Yet at this
very moment, these same freedoms are denied to many Africans. And I have
to proclaim, democracy is not just formal elections. When journalists are put behind
bars for doing their jobs, or activists are threatened
as governments crack down on civil society then you may have democracy in name,
but not in substance.
‘And I'm convinced that
nations cannot realize the full promise of independence until they fully
protect the rights of their people.’
See also
MEDIA
BACK KING’S FALSE HIV PROMISE
SWAZI
KING’S HIV PLEDGE IN RUINS
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