Swaziland
Newsletter No. 798 – 13 October 2023
News from and about
Swaziland, compiled by Global Aktion, Denmark (www.globalaktion.dk)
in collaboration with Swazi Media Commentary (www.swazimedia.blogspot.com),
and sent to all with an interest in Swaziland - free of charge.
‘People want
change but fear the guns’: Fighting for democracy in eSwatini
By Sumayya Ismail, Al
Zazerra, 9 October 2023
The first time
Maxwell Dlamini was arrested, he was 21 years old.
It was April 2011,
and the marketing student was at a demonstration in Mbabane, the capital of
Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland and considered by many to be the last
absolute monarchy in Africa.
Dlamini was out
campaigning for democratic reforms, but the state saw it another way. They
argued he was trying to overthrow the government, classified him as a dangerous
political prisoner, and held him in a maximum security prison where he faced
months of harassment, solitary confinement, and torture.
“I was kept in
isolation for the longest time, not interacting with any other inmates,”
Dlamini told Al Jazeera. “I was denied the right to write my exams, so I ended
up not finishing and was expelled from university … At some stage, while I was
in prison, I also had a stroke.”
Just shy of a year
behind bars, an international human rights campaign helped secure bail and his
release. But his freedom was short-lived. From 2012 to 2014, he was arrested
twice more – once for criticising the king’s lavish birthday party while Swazis
live in poverty and once for attending a May Day workers’ rally.
For his actions, he
was charged with sedition and “terrorism”, and more than a decade later, his
court case is still pending. At the same time, the People’s United Democratic
Movement (PUDEMO), which he is deputy secretary general of, remains a banned
organisation in a country where political parties are illegal.
Meanwhile, Dlamini is
receiving psychosocial support after his ordeal. “I have episodes and
flashbacks,” he said. “I still feel like I’m in a box, so I have to sleep with
the lights on.”
Eswatini, the small
Southern African kingdom of 1.2 million people, has been governed by King
Mswati III for 37 years after he took over from his father, who had ruled since
the country gained independence from Britain in 1968.
Tensions have been
high there in recent years, especially since a crackdown on mass pro-democracy
protests in 2021 killed dozens of people, and calls for greater transparency
and real democratic reform have grown.
King Mswati III of
Eswatini, left, with Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa in Harare,
Zimbabwe [File: Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters]
Eswatini considers
itself a constitutional monarchy. “We are a kingdom that subscribes to
constitutionalism, to the rule of law, to democracy and to all international
norms of human rights and good governance,” government spokesperson Alpheous
Nxumalo told Al Jazeera.
But rights activists
and pro-democracy groups said that in practice, it’s an absolute monarchy where
the king reigns over all else.
According to the 2022
Freedom in the World report, which tracks global trends in political rights and
civil liberties, “The king exercises ultimate authority over all branches of
the national government and effectively controls local governance through his
influence over traditional chiefs. Political dissent and civic and labor
activism are subject to harsh punishment under sedition and other laws.”
In late September,
the country held elections to elect 59 members of parliament. Because the
Eswatini constitution bans political parties, only individuals can stand for
election.
To read more of this
report, click here
King, Queen Mother gets salary increase to share E431
million
By Eugene
Dube, Swati Newsweek, 9 October, 2023
LOBAMBA: The budget for Eswatini Royal family is over
E991 million for 2023 financial year and King Mswati III and his mother Ntombi
Tfwala have received a wage increase.
Eswatini’s new investigative media outlet, Inhlase
Centre for investigative Journalism exposed the huge financial issue.
According to a news report from Inhlase Centre for
investigative Journalism, the royal budget includes an allocation for wages for
the king, Indlovukazi, the rest of the royal household and payments to any
other person as the king may decide.
This year, Rijkenberg’s budget has made a generous
allocation for royal provisions. He has set aside a budget allocation of E431
million for the Royal Emoluments and Civil List.
This allocation represents an increase of E20 million
from E411 million in the 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial year.
Rijkenberg’s overall budget of E1.038 billion,
recurrent and capital, for King Mswati and the royal household represents about
3.8% of the total national budget of E26 billion.
Last year 2022 financial year the Royal family
recieved E1, billion for its upkeep. E411 was set aside for the King and
Queenmother's salaries.
Information about the King’s salary is always ignored
by the Swazi mainstream media.
Inhlase Centre for Invesigative Journalism noted that,
"as ordinary emaSwati battle the realities of high inflation, mounting
national debt and unemployment, government says things are looking up and has
given the king and the royal household a bigger chunk of the budget, three
times bigger than the country’s financially strapped national university will
get."
Government has made as subvention a budget provision
of E446 million for the University of Eswatini which was closed for almost two
months because of a strike by staff including lecturers over salaries.
This is a drop in the ocean for the kingdom’s national
university which is laden with a wage bill of over E40 million a month. The
subvention is not even half of what it had requested; E1billion for a smooth
running of its operations.
eSwatini
conducts a competent caricature of democracy
The elections were quite
well run, say the African Union and SADC. But to what end?
By Peter Fabricius,
ISS (Institute for Security Studies) Today, 6 October 2023
Eswatini – or Swaziland as some of its
citizens still call it – held last Friday what should be called a reasonably
competent charade of a legislative election.
The polls were essentially meaningless
as Parliament has no power in this absolute monarchy. That was demonstrated two
years ago when the state arrested two Members of Parliament (MPs) merely for
suggesting the prime minister be elected by Parliament and not appointed by
King Mswati III. The two MPs are serving jail sentences while a third is in
exile, having fled the country one jump ahead of the police.
But as charades go, it went quite well,
according to both the African Union and
the Southern African Development Community (SADC),
the two organisations that deployed the main official election observer
missions. Their preliminary reports make for interesting, if rather surreal
reading. Both commended Swazis for turning out in large numbers and voting in a
peaceful and orderly fashion.
They also
praised Eswatini’s Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) for running the
process quite competently. Most polling stations opened on time, voting
procedures were largely followed, etc. The SADC Electoral Observer Mission
(SEOM) also commended the electoral commission for its successful voter
registration drive, which registered 584 710 voters, equating to a
‘remarkable 91.2%’ of the 641 121 eligible voters identified in the 2018
National Census.
The SEOM also
noted that ‘in an effort to be more inclusive,’ the electoral commission
targeted marginalised groups in its voter education. This was to ‘encourage
meaningful participation and representation’ to achieve greater ‘democratic
consolidation’ in line with SADC’s Principles and Guidelines for elections.
The elections
were essentially meaningless as Parliament has no power in this absolute
monarchy
As Piers Pigou,
Head of the Southern Africa Programme at the Institute for Security Studies
(ISS), points out, these complimentary observations that suggest complete
normality were rather bizarre. Especially as they were so at odds with other
remarks in the SEOM report – not to mention with reality.
These other
remarks point out that Eswatini’s government hasn’t implemented the SEOM’s main
recommendation after the 2018 elections that it should conduct a ‘peaceful and
tolerant’ dialogue about the country’s political system focusing on ‘the
recognition of the role of political parties.’
For despite the
constitution’s recognition of the rights of assembly and expression, political
parties remain banned from participating in elections. So once again, on 29
September, candidates for Parliament stood as individuals in the country’s
traditional tinkhundla system, which gives enormous powers to chiefs, who in
turn are answerable to the king.
The 2023 SEOM
also said that after Eswatini’s violent June 2021 pro-democracy protests and riots, in which scores were
killed and much infrastructure destroyed, SADC noted that ‘the issues behind
the disturbances were political, structural or systemic in nature, with the
tinkhundla system at the centre.’ The SEOM reiterated its 2018 calls and SADC’s
appeal for Eswatini to embark on a national dialogue to replace its current
political system.
Eswatini hasn’t
implemented SADC’s main recommendation after the 2018 elections
Pigou said the
‘dissonance between the two elements of the SEOM report is remarkable. It
raises the question of why SADC decided to participate at all in a process that
was so compromised.’ Pigou said he understood that the SADC Electoral Advisory
Council had in fact recommended against sending an observer mission to
Eswatini, but had been overruled by SADC’s Council of Ministers.
Probably for
this reason too, the Commonwealth Secretariat, despite being involved in past
efforts to resolve the country’s conflict, did not send an official observer
mission. It did however deploy some election experts to report back to London
on developments.
To
read more of this report, click here
https://issafrica.org/iss-today/eswatini-conducts-a-competent-caricature-of-democracy
Parties urged
members to stand in ‘farce’ Swazi elections
By Sizwe Sama Yende, City
Press (South Africa), 8 October 2023
Some
political parties in Eswatini have allowed their members to individually
campaign and stand for positions in a strategy to canvass for democratic
reforms.
The
landlocked country and Africa’s only absolute monarchy held its secondary
elections, described by the African Union (AU) as peaceful, on September 29.
Sive
Siyinqaba and Swaziland Liberation Movement (Swalimo), a party formed by former
Member of Parliament, Mduduzi “Magawugawu” Simelane, had agreed to allow their
members to participate in the elections to occupy positions as Members of
Parliament, Indvuna Yenkhundla (Constituency Headsman) and 336 Bucopho
(Community Headsman).
Sive
Siyinqaba has claimed that 70% of its members won seats. However, the oldest
and biggest political party in the kingdom, the People’s United Democratic Movement (Pudemo), labelled the
elections a “farce” and did not encourage its members to participate.
Political
parties were banned by the late King Sobhuza in 1973 and cannot contest
elections. The country adopted a Tinkhundla system, which allows individuals to
stand and be voted in positions but not under the banner of political parties.
However, the AU’s observer mission has made a recommendation to the government
to review its legal framework to embrace the participation of political parties
in elections.
The
elections were conducted against the backdrop of pro-democracy protests in July
2021, which have since shone the spotlight on the monarch, King Mswati III, to sit around the table with
all organisations to chart a way forward for the country – towards a democratic
system.
The
Southern African Development Community proposed a dialogue, but King Mswati III
prefers his isibaya (byre) meeting which happens occasionally and where issues
are supposed to be raised.
The
violent protests erupted after three members of parliament - Bacede Mabuza,
Mthandeni Dube and Simelane – publicly advocated for democratic reforms and
protested the king’s appointment of then-acting prime minister, Themba Masuku,
whom they said should have been elected by voters.
Mabuza
and Dube have since been found guilty of terrorism, sedition and murder.
Simelane went into exile and formed Swalimo.
King
Mswati reacted with brutality. His police and soldiers conducted a reign of
terror and torture that led to the maiming and killing of more than 1 000
civilians.
Among the
casualties were human rights lawyer, Thulani Maseko, who was assassinated at
his home in January.
Mswati
has since allegedly hired apartheid-era mercenaries to silence dissent in the
country.
Swalimo
spokesperson, Thantaza Silolo, said that the organisation did not participate
in the elections but urged all citizens to register to vote with the purpose of
electing a certain kind of MP – who would emulate the trio who sparked the
protests.
“Those
MPs provoked the hope of the nation to see that their representatives can
actually bring the positives inside the legislature as far as the call for
reforms is concerned.”
“Indeed,
the system is a farce,” he added, “but with representatives who are pro-change,
you are able to make inroads. Swalimo, being a mass-based movement, had many of
its members and supporters participating indeed and many made it, which
resulted in most of the pro-regime contestants – who are from the old
Parliament – being booted out of the race early in the primaries and some in
the secondary elections.
“I can
mention that we do not have large numbers, of course, but we are happy with the
inroads.”
Pudemo
president, Mlungisi Makhanya, said that his organisation respected other
parties’ decision to allow their members to participate in the elections.
“The
majority of organisations in the Mass Democratic Movement resolved not to
associate themselves with the farce called Tinkhundla elections,” Makhanya
said.
He added:
“Pudemo members in their overwhelming majority didn’t partake in the Tinkhundla
elections. However, there were a few delinquents who went against the
resolution of the organisation and stood for elections. It was few and isolated
cases.”
Eswatini
government spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo said that the government was “quite
comfortable” with the recommendations by the AU and various observatory
missions.
“The
Elections and Boundaries Commission in collaboration with the ministry of
justice and constitutional affairs shall work on the recommendations and do
whatever that is necessary within the provisions of the Kingdom’s national
Constitution,” he said.
Strangely,
he said that political parties were not banned in the country. “They operate
and meet freely, and their respective members have contested the recently
concluded elections.” King Mswati III has announced the 10 MPs as he has the
power to handpick. Among them is his son, Prince Lindani.
Opinion, by Zweli Martin Dlamini, Swaziland News,
11 October, 2023
Even if King Mswati agreed to
allow emaSwati to elect their own Prime Minister (PM), the calls for democracy
wouldn’t be over until political parties are allowed to freely participate or
contest elections.
The calls for an elected Prime
Minister that commenced in Parliament was in fact, a mockery of democracy that
was, however, worth compromising to allow the citizens oppressed for over fifty
(50) years to gradually understand and transform into a new democratic
dispensation.
In this country, the Speaker
is not appointed by the King but elected by the House of Assembly and this, I
would suggest, is just a drop of democracy in an ocean of dictatorship.
As a result, that drop of
democracy cannot breath in a political system established and grounded on
dictatorship values, where King Mswati’s word automatically becomes the law.
It should be noted that, most
elected MPs who previously held this position were elected by the people but,
what they did once they arrived in Parliament is public knowledge, they
submitted to the authority of the King.
Therefore, electing a Prime
Minister under the Tinkhundla system would be reforming this cruel and
oppressive system because that Head of Government, will not serve the interest
of the masses but the King and the stomachs of those who claim they can
democratize Tinkhundla.
The Tinkhundla system of
governance will never be democratic but, like a chameleon, it has been changing
‘colours’ over years to appear as democratic in the eyes of the people and the
international community.
It is therefore important to
state that, democracy is not about individuals or electing a Prime Minister but
the establishment of democratic institutions that enhance accountability of
public power.
Former Speaker Petros
Mavimbela was elected by the people of Mhlambanyatsi but when he arrived in
Parliament, he protected the interests of King Mswati, an absolute Monarch by
blocking critical motions of vital public interest.
The calls for democracy should
not be compromised by short-term political interests, the process of
democratizing this country include unbanning of political parties, establishing
of an independent judiciary and capacitating the civil society and the media
among others, to be more vibrant and hold those in power accountable.
Furthermore, the process
include the establishment of a democratic Parliament and a democratic and
independent Legislature can only be a product of democratic elections.
The Executive Arm of
Government should also be a product of democratic elections that reflects the
will of the people.
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