FEARS OVER KING’S MENTAL HEALTH

In the week it was revealed that one in four people in Swaziland suffer from a mental illness, King Mswati says he has been contacted directly by God through a television remote control.

The king, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, told a group of evangelical Christians at the weekend that he has seen a TV remote control unit fall from a table to the floor and through this action he knew that God was giving him a sign that he was ready to meet with him.

The African Eye News Service reports that when King Mswati preached at a prayer meeting at Lozitha Palace near Mbabane, Swaziland, on Saturday, he said God miraculously communicated with him.

Reverend Jonas Dlamini, one of the preachers at the event, is reported saying, ‘The king preached to us. He was filled with the light of the Lord when he told us that God had given him a sign when he was getting ready to meet us. He said a TV remote on his table dropped to the floor with no one touching it and that is how he knew God was communicating with him.’

The Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, confirmed that Mswati told his audience about the ‘miraculous’ experience.

‘His Majesty saw a miracle yesterday when he was preparing his sermon. The King said a remote control lay at the centre of a coffee table but something mysteriously brought it down.

‘He said there was no person or wind that could have brought it down. The King said he realised that God was with him. It was Him who brought the remote control down,’ reported the paper.

African Eye reports that Mswati and his Dlamini clan believe that they were chosen to rule Swaziland. His older brother, Prince Masitsela Dlamini, told African Eye that God had given the royal family authority to rule over other Swazi clans.

‘The Dlaminis are closer to God,’ said Dlamini.

Meanwhile, Psychiatric Centre Matron Phumelele Dlamini said during the launch of the mental health week, that one in four people in Swaziland suffered from mental illness.

She didn’t mention the king, but gave a variety of examples of mental illness, including alcoholism and schizophrenia. One of the symptoms of schizophrenia is hearing voices that are not there which direct a person to act in a way they wouldn’t otherwise do.

The Swaziland Solidarity Network in a statement was less circumspect. It said, ‘Mswati’s lack of sobriety manifested itself at the prayer that he had at the royal palace on Saturday. He told the packed gathering that while he was preparing for his hypocritical sermon, he had witnessed a television remote control mysteriously moving from the table to the floor without anybody touching it.

‘This in scientific terms points to either the misuse of hallucinogens and narcotics or possibly an advanced state of schizophrenia. Just because we are opposed to the man’s agenda does not mean that we should not be concerned for him as a human being, and we sincerely suggest that his family makes sure that he receives medical attention very urgently.’

See also

SWAZI KING LIES TO CHRISTIANS AGAIN

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/10/swazi-king-lies-to-christians-again.html

ABUSED LIFE OF THE SWAZI CHILD

Who would want to be a child in Swaziland?

Hardly a week goes by without some news of another atrocity committed against children. The latest reveals that teachers are having sex with their pupils. Last year 100 teachers were investigated on charges of having sex with pupils. That hundred only represents the cases that were reported and dealt with, there is every reason to suspect that many more children are being abused than this number suggests.

According to Muziwethu Mhlanga, Secretary General Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), one of the reasons teachers get away with child abuse is that parents, especially in rural areas, ‘sold’ their daughters in return for groceries from male teachers.

He told African Eye, ‘We have incidents where parents send their daughters to go and clean for a male teacher or tell him to bring his washing so that their daughter can wash for him, or even go to the extent of cleaning his house.’

He said poverty exacerbates the problem.

Mhlanga added, ‘There are a lot of things wrong in this country and we can't only accuse teachers of abusing school children. There are a lot of people in the country who grab young girls against their will to make them wives, while some take advantage of the fact that they are poor and promise to do everything for them (in return for sex).’

Mhlanga is quite right when he says that it is not only teachers who abuse children (sexually and physically).

I have written many times about the plight of Swazi children. They live appalling lives of deprivation and abuse. Here are some of the articles I have written. When you put them altogether they make a depressing picture of the life of the Swazi child.

One in three children is sexually abused. Click.

Four in ten children are so malnourished that their growth is stunted. Click.

Hunger and lack of medicine kill up to one Swazi child in seven before they reach the age of five. Click.

About 3 000 Swazi households are headed by children. Click.

Eight year olds scrap for food on streets of Mbabane. Click.

Two children have been jailed in Swaziland for being vagrants Click.

Police fire live bullets at schoolchildren protesting against their deputy principal. Click.

Twenty teachers lined up to thrash children in a sadistic corporal punishment ritual. Click.

Eighteen primary school children were whipped because they were eating their lunch from buckets. Click.

Children are subjected to whipping as punishment by Swazi law courts. Click.

A representative of an international aid agency working in Swaziland called for some Swazi children to be sterilised to stop them having children of their own. Click

Children get a raw deal in the Swazi Press, where in some cases the reporting of children does not uphold the rights of vulnerable children and the reporting of victimised children further victimises those children. Click