MINISTERS GO IN STYLE AS POOR SUFFER

On the day it was revealed that ministers in the Swaziland Government are getting E16,000 each and every month in travel expenses comes news that the poorest and most vulnerable in the kingdom will lose farming grants.

The government says it doesn’t have the money to supply orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) and poor farmers with maize seeds as well as other implements this year.

But, seemingly it does have the money for the ministers and their cars.

The Minister of Agriculture Clement Dlamini blamed donors for the lack of funding, ignoring the fact that the government prioritises spending in the kingdom and prefers to spend on its own members rather than the poor.

Dlamini said government had not received funding from the Global Fund through the National Emergency Relief Council on HIV and AIDS (NERCHA).

The Swazi Observer newspaper quotes him saying that he had no idea how many Swazi people would be affected by the cut, but it says there are about 200,000 OVC in the kingdom.

He said he did not know whether the grants would be available next year.

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that ministers get a car allowance of E16 171.92 – which is about three times the monthly salary of a teacher in Swaziland.

The Times of Swaziland said that a cabinet minister’s salary is E40 000 per month but with all of their allowances they end up getting close to E70 000.

LUTFO: SWAZI MEDIA TALK IN RIDDLES

I wish the newspapers in Swaziland would stop talking in riddles about the Lutfo Dlamini corruption scandal.

Today (21 January 2011), it’s the turn of the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper.

Its managing editor Mbongeni Mbingo writes about how the Swaziland Government Cabinet often talks about ‘collective responsibility’.

He then asks, ‘How does Cabinet reconcile this with what is happening with their colleague at foreign affairs?

‘We do not know as yet the extent of the problem that we are made to believe the minister has got to answer to, to his superiors, but I was just thinking that his colleagues would perhaps have taken the fall too.

‘But then again, perhaps this was a decision that did not involve Cabinet! Only time will tell, and the public waits, with bated breath.’

Indeed, if by the ‘public’ Mbingo means Times’ readers, they do indeed wait with baited breath to find out what’s going on. The rest of us know that Lutfo Dlamini, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and Phesheya Dlamini, Swaziland Ambassador to Kuwait, were both sacked from their jobs last week because they are implicated in a corruption scandal involving missing millions of emalengeni that was intended for King Mswati III, King of Swaziland and the last absolute monarch in sub-Saharan Africa.

Yesterday, the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned and edited by King Mswati, dribbled on about Lutfo Dlamini being away from work ‘sick’ and his cabinet post being assigned temporarily to Clement Dlamini, the Agriculture Minister.

We expect this misleading reporting from the Observer, but the Times claims to be an ‘independent’ newspaper. Could the people at the Times show us that independence and tell their readers what is really going on. Please.

LUTFO ‘TOO SICK TO WORK’

I smell a cover-up. News comes today that Lutfo Dlamini is too sick to carry on in his job in the Swaziland Government.

And his post as Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation will be taken temporarily by Clement Dlamini, the Agriculture Minister.

But reader, you and I know that Lutfo Dlamini was sacked from his cabinet post last Thursday because of his involvement with Phesheya Dlamini, Swaziland’s (now ex-) Ambassador to Kuwait, in a scandal involving stolen money that was meant to be delivered to King Mswati III from the Kuwaiti Royal Family.

The Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned and edited by King Mswati, reports today (20 January 2011) that Lutfo Dlamini is on sick leave until 31 January 2011.

With, I suspect, its tongue firmly in its cheek, the newspaper that has not yet told its readers the truth about the Lutfo scandal, suggests that his illness may be connected with a visit the police made to Lutfo last Thursday when they escorted him to a meeting with Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister.

I don’t know if the police visit brought on Lutfo’s 'illness’, but if I were a betting man I’d wager the house that Lutfo is in some distress now wondering what fate King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, has in store for him.

As for the cover-up? Let’s see if Lutfo returns to work on 31 January 2011. Or will we be told that his illness is so serious he will have to retire early? And, quietly, the scandal stays hushed up.

SWAZI HUNGER AS CASH RUNS OUT

Swazis may face widespread hunger following an admission from the Swazi Government that it does not have the money to subsidise farming this year.

In particular Swaziland staple food - maize - will be badly affected.

Minister of Agriculture Clement Dlamini said there ‘was no money in place’ to subsidise the cost to farmers of seeds, fertiliser and other necessities.

He said without the subsidies it was impossible to ensure food security.

In the recent past about 600,000 people of Swaziland’s one million population have received food aid from international agencies.

Dlamini now hopes that the NGO World Vision will be able to come up with a plan to help. World Vision has been investigating how countries such as Zambia and Malawi organise their own farming and Dlamini hopes it can recommend to the Swazi Government how to move forward.

(Incidentally, in Malawi last year it was reported people were denied farm subsidies if they hadn’t voted in the national elections. I hope something similar is not on the Swazi agenda.)

Dlamini admission that money is not in place is puzzling because the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation has previously announced aid to the Swazi Government to provide assistance to Swaziland farmers. This was announced as part of a Swazi Government strategy on farming.

But Dlamini is now saying that no strategy exists and he must rely on the good works of World Vision to get Swaziland out of this mess.

Did Dlamini forget about the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation? Or does he hope the rest of us will? Maybe the UN funds have disappeared.

Who knows? I certainly don’t, but I do know that Dlamini and his fellow government ministers are letting the people of Swaziland down badly. As the ordinary Swazi family face hunger and possible starvation Swaziland’s Government ministers and MPs pocket their pay rises and bury their heads in the sand.