Elected members of
parliament in Swaziland have been told they are not above chiefs, because
chiefs are appointed by the King.
King Mswati III rules
Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.
The MPs were put in their
place by the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC).
The Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by the King, reported
on Wednesday (29 March 2017), ‘The EBC told residents that it was not
acceptable have elected politicians to behave as if they were above community
leaders.’
It added, ‘Chiefs remain
superior to any other person in communities as they are the administrative arm of
His Majesty King Mswati III.’
This was said by the EBC
during a voter education exercise at Engwenyameni Umphakatsi.
Swaziland is due to hold
its national elections in 2018. Political parties are banned from taking part
and King Mswati’s subjects are only allowed to pick 55 of the 65 members of the
House of Assembly; the other 10 are appointed by the King.
None of the 30 members of
the Swazi Senate are elected by the people; the King appoints 20 members and
the other 10 are appointed by the House of Assembly.
The King choses the Prime
Minister and cabinet members. Only a man with the surname Dlamini
can, by tradition, be appointed as Prime Minister. The
King is a Dlamini.
He also choses senior civil
servants and top judges.
Khethiwe Vilakati, one of
the educators reportedly told residents of Engwenyameni, ‘Chiefs represent the
King, so people must make that distinction. For someone to feel superior to the
chief is very wrong and we don’t encourage it.’
In Swaziland chiefs do the King’s bidding at a local
level. People know not to upset the chief because their livelihood depends on
his goodwill. In some parts of Swaziland the chiefs are given the power to
decide who gets food that has been donated by international agencies and then the
chiefs quite literally have power of life and death in such cases with about a
third of the population of Swaziland receiving food aid each year.
Chiefs can and do take revenge on their subjects who
disobey them. There is a catalogue of cases in Swaziland. For example, Chief
Dambuza Lukhele of Ngobelweni in the Shiselweni region banned his subjects
from ploughing their fields because some of them defied his order
to build a hut for one of his wives.
Nhlonipho Nkamane Mkhatswa, chief of Lwandle in Manzini,
the main commercial city in Swaziland, reportedly
stripped a woman of her clothing in the middle of a Swazi
street in full view of the public because she was wearing trousers against his
orders.
See also
CHIEF’S THREAT TO EVICT 1,000 PEOPLE
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/11/chiefs-threat-to-evict-1000-people.html
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