Swaziland’s Prime Minster Barnabas Dlamini turned 75
on Monday (15 May 2017) and the Swazi Observer
newspaper published a front page tribute and four pages
inside to the man who was never elected to office and owes his position to the
patronage of King Mswati III.
King Mswati rules Swaziland as an absolute monarch. He
appointed Dlamini Prime Minister and he chooses all the government and top
judges in his kingdom. He also in effect owns the Swazi Observer.
The newspaper failed to remind its readers that
Dlamini has been involved in a questionable business deal that netted him
millions of emalangeni. He was also involved in a dubious land deal and was
only saved from a formal inquiry by the personal intervention of the King.
Barnabas Dlamini was also humiliated on the world
stage in 2010 when he accepted an international award for his ‘humanitarian
work’ from a known con-man.
And, he has a record as an anti-democrat who has
advocated that his opponents be tortured.
In 2015, the Times Sunday
reported (10 May 2015) that Fusini Investments (Proprietary)
Limited, directed by the Prime Minister and two others, bought land for E93,120
from government in 2005, which by then had generated a profit of E7.4 million
(US$740,000 at the then exchange rate): a profit of more than 800 percent.
The PM’s company sold the land to the Public Service
Pension Fund (PSPF), a public organisation that was established in 1993 for the
management and administration of pensions for government (public sector)
employees.
Prime Minister Dlamini has a history of involvement in
questionable land deals. In 2011, he and others escaped scrutiny on land deals
after the direct intervention of King Mswati.
They had bought Swazi nation land for themselves at
what a select committee report later called ‘ridiculously cheap’ prices and
‘tantamount to theft of State property’.
In late
December 2010 it
was revealed that Dlamini, his deputy, and four
cabinet ministers were at the centre of a land purchase scandal.
Dlamini, who constantly claims he wants to stamp out
corruption in
the kingdom, was allowed to buy government-controlled land at half price,
netting himself a E304,000 (US$43,000 at the then exchange rate) saving. Themba
Masuku, the then Deputy PM and four ministers each received discounts of
between 30 and 50 percent on their purchases. None of these people were elected
to the Swazi Parliament – all were appointed by the King.
The politicians were allowed to purchase the so-called
‘crown land’ (which is owned by the King on behalf of the Swazi nation) in the
Swazi capital Mbabane without having to compete with other would-be buyers.
They were given the land at below market value, in effect cheating the Swazi
people out of the money.
Two of the ministers who took advantage of this scam
were members of the Swazi Royal Family, which is headed by King Mswati,
sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.
The ministers involved were Minister of Natural
Resources and Energy, Princess Tsandzile; Minister of Economic Planning and
Development, Prince Hlangusemphi; Minister of Home Affairs, Chief Mgwagwa
Gamedze; and the Minister of Agriculture, Clement Dlamini.
The Times of
Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper,
reported at the time that the Prime Minister made the biggest
killing. He was allocated ‘a portion of land measuring 6,084 square metres. He
paid E304,000 for the land after it was discounted from the initial price of
E608,000. Effectively, he was granted a 50 percent discount.’
In total the land was sold at about E1 million less
than it was worth, the Times estimated.
Former government ministers also benefited from the
land purchase scandal. They included two members of the Swazi Royal Family.
Prince David received a 50 percent discount on land worth E97,000 allocated to
him. Prince Mbilini also received land, but the exact details of his windfall
were not known, the Times reported.
It was believed that at least nine former ministers
were also given land at discounted prices.
It later
emerged that the Swazi Cabinet, which was hand-picked by the
King, approved the land purchase. This, in effect, meant they approved a plan
that allowed themselves to save hundreds of thousands of emalangeni on the land
scam.
It was later
revealed that the Prime Minister and the others were not
eligible for discounts on the land because such discounts were only available
to poor people. In Swaziland seven in ten people have incomes of less than US$2
per day.
Prince
Guduza, Speaker of the Swaziland House of Assembly, rebuked Barnabas
Dlamini, the Prime Minister, for ‘interference of the highest
order’, after the Swazi Parliament decided to set up a seven-member select
committee to investigate the land deals and he called MPs in to
see him ‘one-by-one’ to try to get them on his side.
The whole land deal scandal reached
a climax in May 2011 when Dlamini took Prince Guduza,
the Speaker of the House of Assembly, to court to stop a debate about the PM’s
irregular land deals taking place.
He succeeded
in getting a High Court order to stop parliament debating the land issue and
publication of a select committee report into the affair. The House of Assembly
ignored the court and debated anyway.
The select
committee report described the conduct of Lindiwe Dlamini,
Minister of Housing and Urban Development, in the deals as corrupt and
treasonous.
The report stated that the authority for land deals
was unconstitutionally taken away from the King’s Office, by Lindiwe Dlamini.
‘The act of the minister was not only unconstitutional
but also seriously undermined the authority and sovereignty of the office of
the Ingwenyama [the King] and was therefore treasonous,’ the report stated.
That
the Minister for Housing and Urban Development [Lindiwe Dlamini] acted
unconstitutionally and with total disregard of the Crown Land Disposal
regulations of 2003, which were promulgated in line with the provisions of the
Crown Land Disposal Act of 1911.
That
the cabinet ministers concerned used their positions to gain unfair advantage
over other Swazis who had applied for the land many years ago, by-passing the
Crown Land Disposal Committee in the process.
The
Prime Minister and the Minister for Natural Resources and Energy [Princess
Tsandzile] bought the land at ridiculously low prices. The most disturbing
aspect is that the Prime Minister was awarded the certificate to develop his
portion and designs approved without having paid for the plot and records show
that he only did so on February, 22 2011, long after the Select Committee was
appointed.
That
the current administration has no respect for the constitution, as there are
many laws that deal with land issues and until now they have not been aligned with
the constitution.
That
the Attorney General was never consulted on this land deal.
That
the allocation of land to ministers through a cabinet decision was unlawful and
it smacks of an element of personal aggrandisement since such action is not
supported by any legal instrument. Receiving a housing allowance on the one
hand and on the other hand apportioning crown land to oneself, is tantamount to
theft of State property.
That,
as a custodian of State assets and property, by virtue of its position in
government, cabinet had no legal right to take a collective decision on the
allocation of land to ministers, even worse, that in the process it violated
the Constitution, 2005.
In June 2011, King Mswati confirmed his status as an
absolute monarch when
he ordered the House of Assembly and the Senate to stop
discussing the land scandal. He said he would decide what would happen to the
land.
The King’s decision to intervene was kept private and
the media were excluded from a joint meeting of the House of Assembly and
Senate at which the King’s dictate was given.
Dlamini then instructed the media in Swaziland to stop
discussing the land deal. He
said, ‘His Majesty said the issue should be put to rest. It
means the matter has been concluded because the King’s word is a command and
the law. I take it that it is over and I hope journalists will take it as
having been concluded. There is no need for journalists to keep bringing this
matter up and spicing it. It has to be taken out of the news,’
Parliament was informed by both its presiding officers
(Speaker Prince Guduza and Senate President Gelane Zwane) that the King had
ordered the PM to withdraw his court action regarding the land issue and that
the land in question would be returned to government ownership.
Dlamini
is a human rights’ abuser
Dlamini has a poor human rights record going back more
than a decade, but he is known to be close to King Mswati. In October 2012, the
House of Assembly passed
a vote of no-confidence in Dlamini and his government and
according to the Swaziland Constitution the King was obliged (he had no
discretion in the matter) to sack the PM and government.
King Mswati did not do so and instead put pressure on
the House of Assembly to reverse its vote.
Dlamini has been appointed four times by the King to
be PM of Swaziland. His record shows him as a hard man with little regard for
human rights. He supports the King in his desire to stop all dissent and brand
oppositions as ‘terrorists’.
When introducing Dlamini as the PM in 2008, King
Mwsati told
him publicly to get the terrorists and all who supported
them. Dlamini set about his task with zeal. He banned four prodemocracy
organisations.
His Attorney General Majahenkhaba Dlamini told Swazis
affiliated with the political formations to resign with immediate effect or
feel the full force of the law. Under the Suppression of Terrorism Act (STA),
enacted the same year Dlamini came to power, members and supporters of these
groups could face up to 25 years in jail.
Under the draconian provisions of the STA, anyone who
disagrees with the ruling elite faces being branded a terrorist supporter.
The Attorney General stressed that the government was
after supporters of the banned organisations. Supporting an organisation, he
said, ‘includes associating with such banned formations or aiding materialistic
through provision of commodities such as food and weapons.’
This happened at a time when the call for democracy in
Swaziland was being heard loudly both inside the kingdom and in the
international community.
The Dlamini-led Government clamped down on dissent. In
2011,
Amnesty International reported the ill-treatment,
house searches and surveillance of communications and meetings of civil society
and political activists. Armed police conducted raids and prolonged searches in
the homes of dozens of high profile human rights defenders, trade unionists and
political activists while investigating a spate of petrol bombings. Some of the
searches, particularly of political activists, were done without search
warrants.
In 2010, Dlamini publicly
threatened to use torture against dissidents and
foreigners who campaigned for democracy in his kingdom. He said the use of ‘bastinado’,
the flogging of the bare soles of the feet, was his preferred method.
Dlamini told the Times of Swaziland newspaper he wanted, ‘to
punish dissidents and foreigners who come to the country and disturb the
peace’.
But Dlamini’s abuse of human rights did not start with
his appointment in 2008. He was a former PM and held office for seven and a
half years until 2003. While in office he gained a reputation as someone who
ignored the rule of law.
In 2003, he refused to recognise two court judgements
that challenged the king’s right to rule by decree. This led to the resignation
of all six judges in the Appeal Court. The court had ruled that the king had no
constitutional mandate to override parliament by issuing his own decrees.
In a report running for more than 50,000 words, Amnesty
International looked back to the years 2002 and 2003 and
identified activities of Dlamini that, ‘included the repeated ignoring of court
rulings, interference in court proceedings, intimidating judicial officers,
manipulating terms and conditions of employment to undermine the independence
of the judiciary, the effective replacement of the Judicial Services Commission
with an unaccountable and secretive body (officially known as the Special
Committee on Justice but popularly called the Thursday Committee), and the
harassment of individuals whose rights had been upheld by the courts.’
Barnabas
Dlamini falls for Humanitarian Award con-trick
In October 2010, Barnabas Dlamini travelled to the
Bahamas to receive an international award for his ‘humanitarian’ work, even
though it had been revealed to be a con-trick.
He
received a medal from a known con-artist called Rudy King. At the centre of the scandal was an organisation
called World Citizen Awards (WCA) headed by King. The Swazi Government had put
out a press release saying WCA was to honour Dlamini for the work he was doing for human
rights.
The Swazi Media Commentary
(SMC) website went to the Internet and found the website for WCA. On there was
a list of trustees who were said to be the backbone of the organisation. Each
person listed had a reputation as advocates for human rights and it seemed odd
that they would vote to give Dlamini a medal.
SMC emailed each of the
trustees and within hours received a reply from one of them that said he was
the victim of a hoax. It turned out that none of the trustees had ever heard of WCA and
certainly were not supporters.
The Associated Press (AP) news agency took up the story and realised that the WCA was a
sham organisation consisting only of a website and an accommodation address.
Once the AP story hit the Internet,
journalists in the Bahamas who knew Rudy King of old ran reports about his
background as a con artist.
But
Barnabas Dlamini still flew at Swazi taxpayers’ expense across the world to collect his medal.
Later,
he defended accepting the award by saying Rudy King was respected in
Swaziland and had been ‘in and out of
the country since the century began’.
He told a news conference
that the media ‘had sung his praises’ when he wanted to open an office in Swaziland.
Dlamini also said King had
previously awarded his medal to other Swazi luminaries.
He said,
‘In 2005 he gave an award to a prince (David), gave a medal to Prince Guduza in
2007 and to the prime minister in 2008, so what is the difference now in 2010?
His history in Swaziland is rich. This is the fourth medal he has presented to
Swazis but now the focus is on 2010.’
See also
SWAZILAND PM IN LAND SALE SCANDAL
MPs ATTACK LAND-SCAM MINISTER
PM SAYS GOD SUPPORTS LAND SCAM
CABINET APPROVED ITS LAND SCAM
PM ‘STOLE FROM POOR’ IN LAND SCAM
LAND-SCAM PM DECIDES HE’S INNOCENT
SWAZI PM UNDER THE COSH
SWAZI PM ‘FACES NO-CONFIDENCE VOTE’
SWAZILAND’S BULLY PM ‘MUST GO’
LAND SCAM: TREASONOUS AND CORRUPT
KING SHOWS HE IS ABSOLUTE MONARCH
PM ORDERS MEDIA SILENCE ON LAND
SWAZILAND
PM IS A BOGUS DOCTOR
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