‘TIMES SUNDAY’ CENSORS SELF ON KING

The Times Sunday, an independent newspaper in Swaziland, has censored its own report on international media coverage of the mass protest on Friday (18 March 2011) that called on the government to resign.

It reported today that the protest attracted journalists from all over the world, including the US, France, Germany and the UK.

It then gave some examples of what the media said.

But – this is Swaziland after all – it censored the coverage. And, admitted it.

‘Comments deemed insensitive have been edited,’ the Times Sunday said.

Readers of this blog and the Internet generally will be very aware that the international media coverage has been highly critical of Swaziland’s King Mswati III, who is also sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

I doubt if there was a single report that didn’t point out that the king was rich, while he’s subjects lived in abject poverty.

Here are some extracts from reports the Times Sunday doesn’t want the people of Swaziland to read.
The impoverished kingdom is under pressure from the International Monetary Fund to cut its wage bill if Swaziland is to qualify for much-needed international loans. King Mswati, Southern Africa’s last absolute monarch, is criticised for his lavish spending on luxury cars and palaces for his 13 wives. – AFP news agency

The austerity budget has galvanized an anti-monarchy movement in the southern African country of about 1 million led by King Mswati III. Some protesters on Friday carried signs saying: "We want political reforms" and "tyrants must fall." – Canadian Press

"Swaziland cannot remain an island of dictatorship in the sea of democracy," Mario Masuku head of the banned opposition People's United Democratic Movement (Pudemo) told the crowd, reports the AP news agency. "Royalty has squandered the economy... We want a government by the people," he said. – BBC

Unemployment in the nation of 1.4 million people is about 40 percent, with 70 percent of the population living below the national poverty line. In contrast, King Mswati III -- who has 14 wives -- has a personal fortune of $200 million, according to Forbes magazine. – Reuters news agency

Mswati has a personal fortune of $200 million, New York’s Forbes Magazine said on its website. The nation’s gross domestic product was $3 billion in 2009, according to the International Monetary Fund. He holds stakes in most major businesses, including a venture with Illovo Sugar Ltd., Africa’s biggest producer of the sweetener, and Swaziland’s only mobile phone services provider, the local unit of Johannesburg-based MTN Group Ltd. Mswati’s allocation of 210 million emalangeni in this year’s budget is nearly as much as the government spends on medicines, including anti-AIDS drugs. - Bloomsberg agency report

TOP SWAZILAND DEFENCE MAN FIRED

John Kunene, the top civil servant at the Swaziland Ministry of Defence, has been fired because of the food crisis that has hit the Swazi Army.

Barnabas Dlamini, the illegally-appointed Prime Minister of Swaziland, called a press conference at 10.20pm last night (18 March 2011) to announce a reshuffle of principle secretaries. The PSs were made to play a game of musical chairs and when the music stopped Kunene was the only one left standing without a chair. He will be replaced by Andreas Mathabela, from the Tikhundla Administration and Development.

The Canadian Press news agency reports today that Kunene was sacked because of the food crisis that has hit the Umbutfu Swaziland Defence Force (aka the army).

Food is in such short supply that soldiers are reportedly going from homestead to homestead in Swaziland begging for food. Shortages have occurred because the army has changed the way it procures food and supplies.

It is not clear whether at the heart of the problem is the government’s inability to pay its bills because of the present economic meltdown or the corruption that riddles the army.

Earlier in the day King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, said the army’s ‘top brass’ would be ‘taken to task’ for the shortage. The king made the comment at an army passing-out ceremony.

According to a report in the Swazi News, an independent newspaper in the kingdom, he was ‘livid’ that he had not been told about the shortage. He had heard about it from the media, he said.

‘This shall be corrected immediately,’ he reportedly said to loud cheers from the soldiers.

And, by the end of the day Kunene was out on his ear.

It is not clear whether the king’s main concern was that he hadn’t been told, or that his soldiers were having to beg for food from ordinary Swazi people – six in ten live in abject poverty and three in ten are officially classed as under nourished.

The sacking also came on the day that thousands of people marched on the office of the prime minister to demand that the government resign.

Yesterday’s protest was the first of a number planned over the coming weeks and months. An ‘uprising’ coordinated through a Facebook site is planned for 12 April.

The king and the government he handpicked have been showing signs in recent weeks that they are worried that Swazi people have been encouraged by the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa and are prepared to fight for their own democratic rights.

Obviously, if an uprising starts in Swaziland, King Mswati will want the army on his side. If he has allowed them to go hungry, they will think twice about whether he is worth supporting.