High Court ruling banning news report another blow to press freedom in Swaziland

Media freedom in Swaziland / eSwatini suffered another blow with a High Court decision to ban a newspaper from reporting on the people behind the Farmers Bank that was recently set up in the kingdom.

The Central Bank of Eswatini brought an urgent application against the Times of Swaziland newspaper to prevent it using information contained in a confidential report on the licence application of Farmers Bank.

Judge Nkosinathi Maseko supported the central bank. A review of the case by Carmel Rickard, published by Legal Brief on Thursday (9 May 2019), stated, ‘Investigative journalist Welcome Dlamini had obtained the report, prepared by the central bank’s financial regulation department, while he was working on a story about Farmers Bank. The central bank maintained that the law provided for strict security and confidentiality about all its business and that for an employee or former employee to have ‘leaked’ the document to the media was unlawful.

‘Approached by Dlamini for comment about the circumstances of the licence approval, the governor of the central bank, Majozi Sithole, established that Dlamini had a copy of the report. Sithole told him the document was strictly confidential and required Dlamini to undertake not to publish his intended report. When no undertaking was forthcoming, the central bank successfully applied for an interim order barring the newspaper from publishing. The matter was fully argued soon afterwards.’

High Court judge Maseko in his judgement noted Sithole’s claim that the planned publication was an unlawful breach of the central bank's privacy and ‘would cause irreparable harm’ to the central bank, Farmers Bank and to the ‘integrity of the financial systems of the country’. Confidentiality had to be preserved ‘at all costs’ because of the potential consequences for banking in the country ‘and beyond’ of any disclosure.

The newspaper argued that the central bank should also protect the kingdom from ‘unscrupulous business people’. Investigations into the people wanting to set up a banking business were thus surely a matter of importance and of ‘utmost public interest’.

Maseko ruled the law required the work of the central bank to be highly guarded and surrounded by ‘utmost secrecy and confidentiality’ with criminal sanctions for any breach. He granted, ‘with costs’, a restraining interdict, and barred the paper from publishing ‘information contained in a confidential report on Farmers Bank's licence application’, Rickard reported.

The court ruling is only one example of the harassment journalists in Swaziland face. In the past year alone journalists have been beaten by state forces and teachers as they try to cover public events. Two were detained at the Qatar Embassy in Mbabane, the Swazi capital, when they went to question a diplomat. A government minister called for a journalist to be arrested for taking photographs of ministerial cars parked in a public place. A former newspaper editor was questioned by police about allegations he had interviewed members of banned political organisations back in 2011.

See also

Journalists in Swaziland endure year of harassment as they try to do their jobs

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/05/journalists-in-swaziland-endure-year-of.html

ECONOMY SLUMP AFTER TRADE SANCTIONS

The trade sanctions imposed by the United States because of King Mswati III’s poor record on human rights will contribute to a slump in the kingdom’s economy, a senior Central Bank of Swaziland (CBS) official said.

On 1 January 2015, the US withdrew Swaziland’s trading benefits under the Africa Growth Opportunities Act (AGOA) after the kingdom ruled by King Mswati as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch refused to accept democratic change.

Swaziland had previously been able to export to the United States without having to pay tariffs. In June 2015 it was reported that in the six months since the loss of AGOA benefits, at least 3,000 jobs had been lost in the textile industry, dominated by Taiwanese companies.

CBS General Manager: Economic Policy Research and Statistics Bhadala Mamba told a pensions funds investment forum in Swaziland, ‘Going forward, economic growth will continue to slump and pickup around 2017, this is because of shocks in the local economy because of AGOA.’

The US had wanted Swaziland to implement the full passage of amendments to the Industrial Relations Act; full passage of amendments to the Suppression of Terrorism Act; full passage of amendments to the Public Order Act; full passage of amendments to sections 40 and 97 of the Industrial Relations Act relating to civil and criminal liability to union leaders during protest actions; and establishing a code of conduct for the police during public protests.

In June 2014, announcing the withdrawal of AGOA, a White House spokesperson said, ‘The decision to withdraw Swaziland’s AGOA eligibility comes after years of engaging with the Government of the Kingdom of Swaziland on concerns about its implementation of the AGOA eligibility criteria related to worker rights.’

In Swaziland political parties are banned from taking part in elections and King Mswati choses the government and top judges. Groups advocating for democracy are outlawed as terrorists under the Suppression of Terrorism Act.

Mr Mamba told the forum that another factor to affect the Swazi economy badly was the closure of the Ngwenya iron mine.

He did not reveal that this mine was closed after King Mswati, who owned 25 percent of the mine withdrew US$10 million from the company to purchase a private jet for himself. Sihle Dlamini, the King’s representative on the board of directors then stopped the mine from trading. 

Eventually it had debts of US$4 million when it was legally wound up in December 2014and more than 700 jobs were lost. King Mswati took the US$10 million loan from the company less than six months after it started trading which he refused to pay back when it hit difficulties. 

A compensation claim for at least US$141 million has been prepared by Southern Africa Resources Ltd (SARL), the company that owned half the mine, against the Kingdom of Swaziland at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The Swazi Government owned 25 percent of the mine and King Mswati also had 25 percent which he held ‘in trust for the Swazi nation’.

See also

HOW SWAZI KING DESTROYED IRON MINE

http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/how-swazi-king-destroyed-iron-mine.html

KING COSTS 3,000 WORKERS THEIR JOBS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/king-costs-3000-workers-their-jobs.html

BANK KEEPS SWAZILAND ‘AFLOAT’

Southern Africa Report

29 September 2011

SOURCE

Swaziland: 'Smart' Denial Amid Creeping Paralysis

Though the aftermath of the robust anti-government protests of early September [2011] has deepened government paralysis and created a more volatile situation across the country, Swaziland's government continues to play for time.

The government is keeping itself afloat - barely - by borrowing from the country's central bank, despite entreaties in August from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) not to do so and to repay as soon as possible the outstanding emergency credit line it secured from the bank.

In addition to the pillage of the central bank, the Swazi government has also dipped into the country's emergency fuel fund to pay its public sector wage bill, a situation that is unsustainable beyond October.

The more it borrows from the central bank, the greater the distance the government is putting between itself and its ability to meet the conditions on fiscal continence attached to the R2.4-billion loan it hopes to receive from South Africa. The first part of the loan was supposed to have been paid in August, but the government of King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa's last fully fledged royal despot, has so far resisted signing the Memorandum of Understanding on the loan's conditions, which include democratic reforms and strict adherence to the IMF's recipe for fiscal restraint. These conditions are anathema to Mbabane.

What moves there have been on opening up to change have tended to be clumsily arranged forums for some sections of civil society. Lately, though, even these seem to have dropped by the wayside. The latest effort at engagement was more true to established form - the Smart Partnership National Dialogue, held in mid-September at the Mavuso Trade and Exhibition Centre. Though a regular event on the royal calendar down the years, this year's conference was billed as the leading channel of debate on the country's political and economic troubles.

Mswati described the dialogue as an event "designed for individuals and not organisations", which put paid to any chances that the event would engage Swaziland's increasingly restless civil society. Though the king's organisers balked at inviting opposition parties and organisations to the conference, individual members were ostensibly welcome, but those from the pro-democracy organisations, including the newly formed Swazi Democratic Party, said they would not attend anyway.

In the end it was only the Swaziland Council of Churches' Convention of Civil Society, a pro-government formation boycotted by trade union movement and the People's United Democratic Movement (Pudemo), that looked as if it might turn up to the king's "dialogue" with a list of proposals for democratic change. But it too threw in the towel when it was told that it would not be heard.

Instead the king used the event to lambast the IMF, the media and the political opposition for failing to take a proactively positive stand in solving Swaziland's troubles. He urged the business community to get Swaziland out of its financial mess, among other things by pioneering mineral prospecting. He referred to attacks on the lack of detail on the South African loan, but gave no indication that the loan was still on the cards.

The tiny landlocked kingdom of about a million people is beset by crises on a number of fronts. It is fiscally insolvent due to the sharp decline in Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) revenue since the end of last year, unsound spending on capital projects urged by the monarch, a top-heavy wage bill of 18% of GDP, and helter-skelter corruption. There is a constant leakage of state funds to sustain a rapacious royal family, including the king's 13 wives. The country also faces a developmental meltdown, with the world's highest levels of HIV and TB, 70% poverty and 40% malnutrition.

Heavily insulated from such grim realities, the Smart Partnership conference barely registered the mounting turmoil across the country.

To read the full Southern Africa Report article, click here.

SWAZI CURRENCY CRISIS INTENSIFIES

Times, South Africa

17 May 2011

SOURCE

Economic crisis threatens Swazi unit’s rand parity

Swaziland’s economic crisis is threatening the parity of the kingdom’s lilangeni currency with the rand.

Central Bank of Swaziland governor Martin Dlamini observed in a statement yesterday (16 May 2011) that the persistent drop in the country’s reserves threatened the level of confidence of markets in the country’s ability to meet its external obligations.

“Gross official reserves were enough to cover 2.5 months of imports of goods and services compared with 2.9 months covered in January 2011, which is far below the internationally recommended level of three months,” Dlamini said.

He attributed the decline in foreign reserves mainly to the government’s payment of external debts and the appreciation of the rand-lilangeni exchange rate.

And this is not scoring any points for a country that hopes to secure a R1.2 billion loan from the African Development Bank and World Bank.

The crisis has also contributed to a drop in car finance, while there has been an 18.7 percent increase in housing loans.

“Year-on-year credit extended for the purchase of motor vehicles, however, recorded a contraction of 2.8 percent, with other personal loans reflecting a decline of 17.7 percent,” Dlamini said.

The governor noted that the implementation of the government’s fiscal adjustment roadmap (FAR) was exerting pressure on the economy in the short term, although in the long run it would yield benefits.

FAR is the government’s plan to cut costs as a condition set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a letter of comfort issued last month.

Swaziland needs to reduce its public sector wage bill by R240 million this year and the government hopes to cut politicians’ salaries by 10 percent.

“The letter of comfort confirms the imminent inception of an IMF staff-monitored programme that the IMF approved on April 4,” Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini said.

But the government failed to secure a 4.5 percent wage cut for public servants, with trade unions arguing that the political system led to the crisis.

“We can only consider pay cuts in a multiparty system,” said National Public Service and Allied Workers Union general secretary Vincent Dlamini.

Senators are also refusing to have their salaries cut, arguing that the government cannot decide on their wages because they are a personal right.

The IMF is in the country for an assessment and since the mission came two weeks ago, no statement has been made on their consultations. The mission leaves Swaziland tomorrow. - Business Report

OFFICIAL: SWAZILAND CAN’T PAY WAGES

At last, the Swaziland Government has confessed. It cannot pay its public service salaries.

It is possible that the May 2011 payment will not be made – and there is definitely no money to pay salaries after that.

And, Majozi Sithole, Swaziland’s Finance Minister for the past 10 years and a key player in the government actions that has brought Swaziland to its economic knees, also admitted that the so-called ‘Letter of Comfort’ the Government says it has received from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will not automatically mean that it will get a loan from international banks.

Without the loan, Swaziland will in effect be bankrupt. And even if it did get the loan the money wouldn’t be released until at least July 2011.

Sithole made his revelation on state-run SBIS radio yesterday (9 May 2011).

The Times of Swaziland reported today that Sithole told listeners it would be difficult to pay salaries in May, but impossible for June and beyond. There are between 30,000 and 35,000 public servants in Swaziland.

The Times said, ‘Since openly acknowledging that it is faced with a fiscal crisis, government has, for months, said civil servants’ salaries are a priority and would be guaranteed.’

Sithole said that Government revenue collections were not enough to meet the wage bills. He refused to say if the government would try to get loans from banks in Swaziland to pay the bills. In February 2011 when it last tried to raise money this way through bonds it could only sell one-fifth of the number it needed.

He also refused to say if the government had contingency plans if the banks did not bail him out.

The Swazi Observer reported Sithole saying even though Swaziland had received the letter of comfort from the IMF which makes it eligible to be get credit from international financiers such as the World Bank, that process was not automatic.

See also

SWAZI GOVERNMENT TO BLAME FOR CRISIS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/01/swazi-government-to-blame-for-crisis.html

SWAZILAND GETS ‘PLANELOAD OF CASH’

Does the Swaziland Government have a secret benefactor to bail it out of its economic crisis?

It looks like a planeload of cash arrived in Swaziland on Friday (4 March 2011) and was unloaded at Matsapha Airport by members of the Swazi paramilitary wing, the Operational Support Services Unit (OSSU).

The offloading of the money was supervised by heavily-armed police. It took a longhorse-and-trailer truck with three containers to take the money away to the Central Bank of Swaziland in Mbabane.

Below is a report from the Times Sunday, an independent newspaper in the kingdom. The report only appeared in the print edition and not online.

Times Sunday

6 March 2011

WHAT WAS IN THAT TRUCK?

Mbabane - Officers of the Kingdom's paramilitary wing, OSSU, offloaded a large batch of unidentified cargo from a large aircraft at Matsapha International Airport last Friday.
OSSU stands for Operational Support Services Unit and is under the Royal Swaziland Police (RSP)

When the four jet-engine powered aircraft landed at the airport around noon, it was an instant attraction to a number of people there at the time.

According to an eye witness who preferred only to identify himself as Gamedze, the plane, which was white in colour, did not park in the front of the airport but at the back, adjacent to the runway.

"Airport visitors watched from a distance as OSSU officers were busy offloading and then loading the cargo into a longhorse-and-trailer truck with three containers" said Gamedze
He said that the aircraft left about two hours later.

Work still continued when the Times SUNDAY arrived at the airport. What was also conspicuous was that the loading and offloading zone was guarded by heavily armed police officers. The cargo was eventually transported to the Central Bank of Swaziland in the capital later in the evening.

Superintendent Wendy Hleta, Police PRO, said this was nothing different from the daily operations of OSSU.

For security reasons, Hleta could not divulge what was being escorted or its destination.
Jabulani Ngubane, Airport Manager, when reached for comment said the fact that OSSU officers were there possibly meant that the cargo was money.

"It's not unusual for OSSU to escort money on behalf of financial institutions like the Central Bank of Swaziland" he said

He added that the slightly unusual thing was that the plane was huge.

Sibusiso Mngadi, Central Bank's Communications Manager, said the activities of OSSU at the bank were highly classified information and cannot be given to the media.