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Friday, 27 September 2024

Swaziland Newsletter No. 846 – 27 September 2024

 

Swaziland Newsletter No. 846 – 27 September 2024

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.

 

eSwatini opposition leader in poisoning scare. Incident comes before planned October protests

By Jeanette Chabalala and Zweli Dlamini, Sowetan Live (South Africa), 25 September 2024

SOURCE 

An exiled eSwatini pro-democracy activist has told of how she fears for her life after the alleged poisoning of the country’s main opposition party president Mlungisi Makhanya.

Makhanya, the president of the People’s United Democratic Movement (Pudemo), was rushed to hospital in Pretoria in the early hours of Tuesday after what his comrades said was another attempt on his life.

A trusted person who lived in the same house with Makhanya was allegedly behind his positioning. 

Makhanya was apparently locked inside the house and left to die after the poisoning, with some of his party members saying he was screaming for help.

The incident, according to party members, comes after a few weeks before a planned pro-democracy protest in eSwatini next month, which he had been spearheading.

The activist, who fled eSwatini in September last year, had told Sowetan that when she learned of Makhanya’s attempted assassination she feared that anyone could be next.

“For me, they managed to find Makhanya and got to him... and anyone else can be next,” she said.

The woman said she started fearing for her life following human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko’s assassination last year in January. He was shot through a window at his home while he was with his wife and two children.

“I fear for my life and my family’s lives because they are still in eSwatini. There was a hit list in eSwatini and Thulani Maseko was part of the list, I worked very closely with him,” she said.

The woman said after Maseko’s assassination she received information that her name also appeared on the list while doing advocacy work around Maseko’s assassination.

“I had to leave in September last year, after getting reports that it was a dangerous time for me to be there.

“Makhanya made an announcement that in October there would be some kind of action in eSwatini, so it is not a coincidence that he has been poisoned,” she said.  

The woman said in August she went home “under the radar and I was spotted at the American embassy and all of a sudden there were drones around my house”. 

According to those close to Makhanya, he was allegedly poisoned by someone he lived with in the house.

The suspect is apparently on the run and is believed to have grabbed some of the Pudemo president’s cellphones to prevent him from calling and asking for help.

Sowetan called Makhanya’s cellphone, and while it rang, it went unanswered.

Makhanya’s comrades at Pudemo accused the eSwatini regime of being behind the incident.

To read more of this report, click here

https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2024-09-25-eswatini-opposition-leader-in-poisoning-scare/

 

Mswati allegedly fears another political unrest amid PUDEMO’s looming October week of rage

By Zweli Martin Dlamini, Swaziland News, 20 September, 2024

SOURCE 

MBABANE: Mswati allegedly does not have confidence in Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini that he might handle the alleged looming political unrest, hence the King opted to send him to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly amid the October week of rage threats by the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), royal insiders told this Swaziland News.

It has been disclosed that, the King now takes every threat of a protest or political unrest seriously after the June 2021 nationwide protests that almost toppled him and his Tinkhundla regime.

“The October week of rage threats by PUDEMO are taken seriously by the King and the security agencies, that’s why anything that looks like a protest is quickly attended to by the police even if it could be a few people”, said the royal insider.

The October week of rage was announced by PUDEMO President Mlungisi Makhanya when addressing the Nation recently, this forms part of the efforts to democratize eSwatini.

But Mswati’s Spokesperson Percy Simelane clarified that, the King’s decision to send the Prime Minister to the UN General Assembly had nothing to do with PUDEMO’s week of rage but maintained that, the country remains on high alert.

The Spokesperson said despite the threats by PUDEMO, the King will not lose sleep. 

“Our experience is that he alternates with the Prime Minister for the UN annual meetings (Annual General Assembly in particular). Secondly there is a national event in country this weekend, the Shiselweni Reed Dance. This traditional event is not a duty of the King and Ingwenya which he can delegate but a responsibility, calling for his direct participation. As for the rumoured, I have no reasons to think Eswatini shall ever be caught unaware again. The Kingdom shall, however continue to play it’s cards closer to the chest on the rumoured threat. The King doesn’t have to stay indoors and monitor anything. He had not losing any sleep on the rumored threat in question. Security is a mandate of other clusters within the system should the need arise. We are not aware of anyone who nearing the panic button from the Administrative High Table”, said the King’s Spokesperson.

 

We’re losing skilled labour in droves

By Emmanuel Ndlangamandla, Times of eSwatini, 23 September 2024

SOURCE 

The Kingdom of Eswatini is currently experiencing a critical juncture in its economic situation. Despite government assertions that the economy is on an upward trajectory, the reality on the ground starkly contrasts with the optimistic figures being presented. The daily lives of ordinary citizens are deteriorating. Our youth are increasingly disillusioned, questioning the value of their educational pursuits, once considered the key to success, as many remain unemployed with their qualifications serving as mere wall decorations. Even those with commendable credentials are relegated to jobs traditionally held by individuals with only secondary or high school education. Many employed individuals, both in the public and private sectors, are receiving inadequate compensation, often resorting to unregulated loan providers, exacerbating their financial plight.

A night visit to Manzini City reveals a growing number of young females engaging in sex work to make ends meet, a distressing trend that mirrors scenes more commonly associated with Johannesburg. The current discourse among both the employed and unemployed revolves around the pursuit of job opportunities abroad. Numerous Eswatini citizens have migrated to countries such as the United States, Taiwan, and Northern Ireland, where there appears to be a steady demand for African workers in healthcare, palliative care, and manual labour sectors. This has led to a surge in online agencies claiming to facilitate overseas job placements, although many are merely exploiting desperate job seekers for financial gain. The prospect of overseas employment, despite the inherent risks of human trafficking and organ trade, seems more appealing to the local population than remaining in a country with limited opportunities.

Disconcertingly, individuals who have dropped out of school in regions like Hhohho and engaged in illicit activities such as the dagga trade earn more annually than those with advanced degrees or legitimate businesses. It is not uncommon for teachers in these areas to borrow money from their own students. The perceived value of education has significantly diminished, fostering a generation of youth who are angry, disillusioned, and hungry. Unless immediate action is taken to address the needs of our young people, who constitute the majority of the population, we will face severe repercussions.

To read more of this report, click here

http://www.times.co.sz/thinking-aloud/147218-we%E2%80%99re-losing-skilled-labour-in-droves.html

 

In eSwatini, Africa’s last absolute monarchy, bucolic landscapes belie a darker underbelly

By Micah Reddy, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, 23 September 2024

SOURCE 

Behind the scenes of ICIJ’s Swazi Secrets investigation, reporters encountered smiling citizens, gun-toting security, and a simmering undercurrent of fear and mystery.

After sweet-talking our way past a friendly security guard with a large rifle — “This is nothing; you should see the guns they have inside,” he said — my two colleagues and I were in the courtyard of the Usuthu country club, chatting with the head of a private security firm.

The club, in the serene village of Mhlambanyatsi, surrounded by hills of timber forests, is about a 30-minute drive south of Mbabane, the capital of Eswatini. We were in the tiny Southern African country to follow a couple of leads — information that pointed to the security firm’s potential involvement in quelling anti-government dissent — as part of a reporting trip for what would eventually become the Swazi Secrets project. Based on leaked documents from a local financial oversight body, which were obtained by Distributed Denial of Secrets, the ICIJ-led investigation brought together 38 journalists from 11 countries to shed light on the role that Africa’s last absolute monarchy plays in the regional and global illicit economy.

The security company was rumored to be acting as a secretive mercenary outfit, suppressing pro-democracy protests that swept the country since 2021. The leaked documents didn’t include enough evidence to establish exactly what the company’s employees were up to. What the leak did show, however, was that the company that owned the country club and had hired the security firm — and which was founded by the country’s finance minister — had procured sensitive surveillance equipment, seemingly to help prop up the state.

ICIJ journalist Micah Reddy traveled multiple times to Eswatini during the Swazi Secrets investigation. Image: Yeshiel Panchia / ICIJ

At this point we had made steady progress in sifting through the over 890,000 documents in the leak. Over successive reporting trips, I visited much of the west and central parts of Eswatini, interviewing sources, badgering reluctant officials for information, and tracking down the many, many addresses that cropped up in the leaks, like the Usuthu country club.

On the face of it, most of the locations I visited seemed totally unremarkable and innocuous — even boringly pleasant, like the country club, or the rural church we visited just off the main arterial road that bisects the country.

There is little that sets apart the All Nations Christian Church in Zion from the countless other churches that have mushroomed across the country in recent years. Outside the main church hall — a building resembling an industrial warehouse — we met the “archbishop,” Bheki Lukhele.

Lukhele is a stocky, affable man with a disarmingly gappy smile. But his overly protective bodyguards were odd for someone who’s supposedly just a middling man of God. Perhaps, I thought at the time, they were a sign of someone who wanted to keep scrutiny of his earthly activities at bay.

Inside the cavernous hall, churchgoers swayed in song or spoke in tongues as one particularly irritable bodyguard tried to swat away ICIJ’s photographer. Presumably, the congregants had no clue that the humble church and its leader were conduits for millions of dollars. That’s why we were there — to see firsthand the scene that Swazi authorities had flagged as a key node in complex transactions involving politically connected figures in Eswatini and across the border in South Africa. The authorities determined that the transactions were suspicious and potentially unlawful.

From the church, we drove about 60 miles north — sometimes over rough four-wheel drive terrain — to the remote border town of Bulembu, a former asbestos mining town that was largely deserted after demand for the material plummeted. The picturesque town had undergone a minor revival in recent years as the site of a church and orphanage.

We had come to Bulembu to find a new bank that, bizarrely, had opened in a town with an almost non-existent economy. Again, what we saw was unremarkable: a modest, freshly painted building. Inside were brand-new steel waiting room benches and counters. It looked like any other bank, but the story behind it was full of intrigue.

The bank existed in limbo amid an ongoing tussle between its shadowy Canadian founders and Swazi authorities who were concerned about the lack of transparency around the bank’s ownership and were demanding answers about the source of its funding. Our Swazi Secrets investigation revealed the political interests behind the bank, questionable money flows, and the opaque role of a controversial and highly litigious Canadian property developer — John Asfar.

Farmer’s Bank downplayed Asfar’s role, and he failed to produce required personal financial records, according to a firm that reviewed the bank’s license application. He and his brother Alexandre, who formally owned the bank, had been involved in endless litigation with the Canadian tax authority and with other family members over issues like their father’s estate. His company, Travellers Inn, had also filed for bankruptcy in Canada.

To read more of this report, click here

https://www.icij.org/investigations/swazi-secrets/in-eswatini-africas-last-absolute-monarchy-bucolic-landscapes-belie-a-darker-underbelly/

 

See also

How international gold dealers exploited a tiny African kingdom’s economic dream

https://www.icij.org/investigations/swazi-secrets/eswatini-mswati-economic-zone-gold-dubai/


Lawmakers signal crackdown on press freedom following Swazi Secrets

https://www.icij.org/investigations/swazi-secrets/lawmakers-signal-crackdown-on-press-freedom-following-swazi-secrets/

 

The central bank in a tiny African country tried to block a suspicious banking venture. Then the king’s allies intervened.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/swazi-secrets/eswatini-farmers-bank-rijkenberg-belumbu/

 

Environmentalists, Taiwanese company clash over mining in eSwatini

By Nokukhanya Musi, Voice of America, 20 September

SOURCE 

MBABANE: Residents and environmentalists in Eswatini have arrayed against Taiwan’s Michael Lee Enterprises in a battle over mining in the country’s picturesque Malolotja Nature Reserve.

The company has been accused of exploiting the park for green chert, a rare mineral found in the area, putting the park’s wildlife and natural beauty at risk.

Some locals and environmentalists are calling for an unbiased investigation to determine what damage, if any, is being caused by the green chert mining by Michael Lee Enterprises in the Malalotja reserve.

Government spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo has maintained that no violations by the mining company have been confirmed and has urged community members to report any potential breaches to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy.

“We have spoken to both the Ministry of Natural Resources and we have spoken to the company,” Nxumalo said. “The directors themselves, they are disputing what the community members have supposedly told you in respect to this company and its activities.

“However, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy has committed that they do investigations from time to time to ensure companies continue with compliance in terms of protecting environment and in terms of complying with the laws governing the mining industry in the kingdom of Eswatini.”

To read more of this report, click here

https://www.voanews.com/a/environmentalists-taiwanese-company-clash-over-mining-in-eswatini-/7792727.html

 

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