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Wednesday 9 March 2016

SWAZI SECURITY BUDGET SOARS

Swaziland is to spend US$150 million on security in the coming year, the kingdom’s annual budget reveals.

It amounts to 11 percent of the tiny kingdom’s total budget.

The money will be spent on the army (USDF), police and correctional services. It continues a trend of massive military spending by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

The security budget of E2.3bn is more than the E2.0bn set aside for health. The total budget is E20.6bn.

In his budget speech Finance Minister Martin Dlamini, said, ‘Government has, over the past years, actively enhanced the capacity of the USDF and the Police in order to safeguard peace and security of Swazis and their property.’

He added, ‘Government will therefore ensure that the USDF and Police continue to have what they need to ensure Swazis are secure.’

He said, ‘These resources will be utilized to further strengthen the USDF, Correctional Services and the Police. Specific emphasis will be placed on strengthening intelligence capability, training and welfare.’

Swaziland is a tiny landlocked kingdom with a population of about 1.4 million people. Seven in ten live in abject poverty, with incomes of less than US$2 per day.

Political parties are banned from taking part in elections and groups advocating multi-party democracy are banned under the Suppression of Terrorism Act.

Swaziland spent US$259.8 million on its military in the years 2011 to 2014. In 2014 military spending amounted to 5.9 percent of all government, spending in Swaziland, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in its Military Expenditure Database for 2015.

The military spending amounted to 2.2 percent of Swaziland’s entire gross domestic product (GDP).
In the calendar year 2014, Swaziland’s military spending was estimated to be US$80.6 million; about the equivalent of US$62 for every person in the kingdom.
In 2011, the Swazi Government set aside more than US$100 million for spending on the army and police force and the then Finance Minister Majozi Sithole admitted that the army was prepared for an uprising by the population in Swaziland.
This followed a series of prodemocracy uprisings in North Africa, leading to what became known as the ‘Arab Spring’. King Mswati was fearful something similar could happen in his kingdom.  A Facebook group calling itself the April 12 Uprising had already called for an overthrow of the King.
In February 2011, Sithole told an open stakeholder dialogue on the 2011-2012 budget and Fiscal Adjustment Roadmap, ‘Yes, we are spending a lot on the army but we are not anticipating what is happening in North Africa to come here,’ he said.
He added, ‘However, the army is there to avoid such situations.’ 
In 2009, the Swazi Government was revealed to be engaged in arms dealing by the United States. A diplomatic cable written by Maurice Parker, the then US Ambassador to Swaziland, and later published by WikiLeaks revealed that the UK Government had blocked an arms deal between a UK company Unionlet and the Swaziland Government because it feared their ‘possible use for internal repression’. 
The Swazi Government wanted to buy equipment worth US$60 million.
Among items listed for purchase were, ‘3 Bell Model UH-1H helicopters, FN Herstal 7.6251mm Minimi light machine guns, blank and tracer ammunition, armored personnel carriers, command and control vehicles including one fitted with a 12.7x99mm M2 Browning heavy machine gun and others fitted with the FN Herstal light machine guns, military ambulances, armored repair and recovery vehicles, weapon sights, military image intensifier equipment, optical target surveillance equipment, 620 Heckler & Koch G36E assault rifles, 240 Heckler & Koch G36K assault rifles, 65 Heckler & Koch G36E rifles, 75 Heckler & Koch UMP submachine guns 9x19mm, and 35 Heckler & Koch USP semi-automatic pistols’.
The Swaziland Government said it wanted the items to fulfil its United Nations ‘peacekeeping’ obligations in Africa.
The UK Government did not believe it and thought either the weapons would be used against the Swazi civilian population, or they were being bought in order to sell on to another country, possibly Iran. The UK Government blocked the deal.
In his diplomatic cable, Parker said, ‘The array of weapons requested would not be needed for the first phases of peacekeeping, although it is possible someone tried to convince the Swazi government they were required. The GKOS [Government of the Kingdom of Swaziland] may have been attempting to build up domestic capability to deal with unrest, or was possibly acting as an intermediary for a third party such as Zimbabwe or a Middle Eastern country that had cash, diamonds or goods to trade.’
Once the cable became public in 2011, John Kunene, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, who signed the original deal in 2008, said the kingdom had never given up trying to buy the weapons.
The Swazi News, an independent newspaper in Swaziland, reported (26 February 2011) that Kunene was still trying to broker a deal. 
In March 2011 Kunene was sacked from his job after a disclosure that the army had run out of food to feed its soldiers. 
See also
MONEY FOR KING’S JET, BUT NOT DROUGHT

SECRET ARMS DEAL FOR IRAN
SUPPORT FOR BLOCK ON SWAZI ARMS
ARMS SHIPMENT HEADS TO SWAZILAND
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/03/arms-shipment-heads-to-swaziland.html

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