There is no stopping the media in
Swaziland / Eswatini as they continue to mislead their audiences on how close
the kingdom is to achieving King Mswati III’s aspiration to be the ruler of a
‘First World’ nation by 2022.
One cannot be entirely surprised by
this since the King rules Swaziland as an absolute monarch and in effect owns
the Swazi Observer, one of only two
newspaper groups in the kingdom. Nearly all radio and television in the kingdom
is state-controlled
and censored.
The King can and will close down media
houses if it suits him and there are plenty of reasons for journalists
and owners to be afraid of him.
But that should not stop independent
observers from discussing the King’s claim that his kingdom is on track to be a
‘First World’ nation.
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Swaziland
issued a report in 2014 that received no publicity in the kingdom at the time,
that said if Swaziland were to achieve ‘First World’ status it would have to be
‘among high human development countries like Norway, Australia, United
States, Netherlands and Germany to name a few’.
UNDP went on to give these statistics comparing
present-day Swaziland with Norway, the United States and Germany.
Life
expectancy: Swaziland (48.9 years); Norway (81.3); United
States (78.7); Germany (80.6).
Mean average
years of schooling: Swaziland (7.1); Norway (12.6); United States
(13.3); Germany (12.2).
Percentage
of population with at least secondary school education: Swaziland
(48); Norway (95.2); United States (94.5); Germany (96.6).
The UNDP in Swaziland did not comment on the
likelihood of Swaziland reaching ‘First World’ status by 2022; it did not have
to. Any independent observer can see from these statistics that Swaziland is
not even close to reaching the King’s target.
The UNDP is not alone in this. In 2012 a report published
by 24/7 Wall St in the United States, and based on data from the
World
Bank, identified Swaziland as the fifth poorest country in the
entire world.
It said 69 percent of King Mswati’s 1.3 million
subjects lived in poverty.
Its report stated, ‘[T]he country’s workforce is
largely concentrated in subsistence agriculture, even though the country faces
serious concerns about overgrazing and soil depletion. While these factors harm
the nation’s economy, health concerns are likely one of the major factors
preventing Swaziland’s population from escaping poverty.’
In 2017, the global charity Oxfam named
Swaziland as the most unequal country in the world in a report called
Starting With People, a human economy approach to inclusive growth in Africa
that detailed the differences in countries between the top most earners and
those at the bottom. The Oxfam report stated the government,
which is handpicked by King Mswati, ‘failed to put measures in place to tackle
inequality, with poor scores for social spending and progressive taxation, and
a poor record on labour rights’.
Despite these obvious facts the media in Swaziland
will continue to claim that the kingdom is on-track to 2022 and any alternative
view will be suppressed. This is because it was King Mswati himself who decreed
that the kingdom should achieve ‘First World’ status and the media are
terrified of contradicting him.
Here’s an example
of how far the media will go in its sycophancy to the King. In
October 2013, the Observer on Saturday,
part of a newspaper group described by the Media Institute of Southern Africa in a report
on press freedom in the kingdom, as ‘a
pure propaganda machine for the royal family’ reported that King Mswati told an admiring
audience in Swaziland that Americans ‘have travelled to the moon and stayed
there for about six to eight months’ and he hoped Swazi people would one day do
the same.
Richard Rooney
See also
SWAZI
GOVT FAILS ON POVERTY: OXFAM
PM
GETS IT WRONG ON POVERTY
ECONOMY:
IMPOSSIBLE TO CUT POVERTY
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