SWAZILAND ADMITS IT IS BROKE

Despite finding US$30 million to buy the kingdom’s absolute monarch King Mswati III a second private plane, earmarking E1.5bn (US$125m) this year to build a conference centre and five-star hotel to host the African Union summit in 2020 that will last only eight days, budgeting E5.5 million to build Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini a retirement house, and planning for a new parliament building that will cost E2.3 billion, the Finance Minister of Swaziland / Eswatini Martin Dlamini has publicly admitted the kingdom is broke.

He told parliament that there was not enough money to pay public servants’ salaries or to pay government suppliers and things were set to get worse.

This was despite the government in the March 2018 budget increasing Value Added Tax (VAT) by 1 percent to 15 percent, increasing electricity tariffs and freezing pensions for people aged 60 and over.

The Swazi Observer newspaper reported on Friday (15 June 2018) that Dlamini highlighted three main areas of budget spending: salaries (E7.7 billion), transfers to government-subvented enterprises (E5.8 billion), and statutory expenditure including debt service (E2.3 billion) that added up to E16 billion. This accounted for the total amount of revenue available to the government, he said.

The newspaper added, ‘The projected cashflow deficit by the end of the present financial year would be E7.1 billion. As at March 31, 2018, government arrears stood at E3.28 billion.’

Dlamini said budget projections indicated ‘exponential growth in the arrears,’ the Observer reported. He added that issuing government bonds to get more cash was unlikely to improve the situation. 

The cash balance at the end of the first quarter of the financial year was expected to be negative and continue growing, despite the receipt of Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) revenue at the start of each quarter. 

The Observer reported, ‘Dlamini further mentioned that government’s cashflow position had an enormous impact on the payment of government’s trading partners, including suppliers and contractors, as well as government’s overall ability to meet its priority expenditure obligations such as salaries, debt service, statutory payments and transfers. 

‘For the month of June alone, a total of E1.1 billion was required to settle priority expenditure that could not be postponed. Of this amount, E702 million was for June salaries (including payment of on-call allowances of E56 million), E363 million was for outstanding deductions for pensions and cooperatives due in May 2018.’

It added, ‘Dlamini said it was essential that government reduced its spending to financeable levels by identifying areas for possible cuts and cost-saving.’

Despite the financial crisis King Mswati, who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, continues to live a lavish lifestyle.

On Monday last week King Mswati received gifts of furniture made of gold and at least E15 million in cheques to mark his 50^th birthday that fell on 19 April 2018. On that day he wore a watch worth US$1.6 million and a suit weighing 6 kg studded with diamonds. Days earlier he had taken delivery of his second private jet. This one, an Airbus A340, cost US$13.2 to purchase but with VIP upgrades was estimated to have cost US$30 million.

He also has thirteen palaces and fleets of top-of-the-range BMW and Mercedes cars.

Meanwhile, seven in ten of the 1.1 million population live in abject poverty with incomes less than the equivalent of US$2 per day. The global charity Oxfam named Swaziland as the most unequal country in the world in a report that detailed the differences in countries between the top most earners and those at the bottom.

Last week it was reported that children collapsed with hunger in their school because the government had not paid for food for them. The kingdom had previously been warned to expect children to starve because the Swazi Government had not paid its suppliers for the food that is distributed free of charge at schools. The shortage is reported to be widespread across the kingdom.

Medicines, including  vaccines against polio and tuberculosis have run out in many government hospitals and clinics because drug suppliers have not been paid. In June 2017, Senator Prince Kekela told parliament  that at least five people had died as a result of the drug shortages. About US$18 million was reportedly owed to drug companies in May 2017.

See also

KING EATS OFF GOLD, CHILDREN STARVING

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/06/king-eats-off-gold-children-starving.html

 

MEDICINE SHORTAGE: FIVE DIE

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2017/06/medicine-shortage-five-die.html

 

SWAZI BUDGET A TALE OF WOE

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/03/swazi-budget-tale-of-woes.html

CONFUSION OVER SWAZI VOTER NUMBERS

Commentary

As registration for the forthcoming election in Swaziland entered its second week, more than 100,000 had reportedly signed up.

Martin Dlamini, the Managing Editor of the Times of Swaziland, and one of the chief cheerleaders for King Mswati III, the kingdom’s absolute monarch, called the turnout ‘impressive’. In his column in the newspaper on Friday (25 May 2018) he said it showed there were ‘potential voters eager to elect new Members of Parliament’.

But he (and we) have no way of knowing if these figures are impressive or not. That is because we do not know how many people in the undemocratic kingdom are entitled to vote.

At the start of registration for the last election in 2013 the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) announced 600,000 people were eligible to vote (but observers questioned at the time this was an under-estimate of the true figure.) At the election in 2008, the EBC gave the figure as 400,000.

This time around no figure has been given. It is not even clear what Swaziland’s total population is. In November 2017, the Swaziland Government announced it was 1,093,238 people, according to the 2017 census. Of these, 562,127 were females and 531,111, males. It did not give a clear breakdown according to age, but said 35.6 per cent of the population were of ‘working age’. That would amount to 389,192 people, a far cry from the 600,000 eligible to vote last time.

The accuracy of the total population count is in doubt. For years, outside organisations had been estimating the size of the population in Swaziland and recording it as much higher than 1.1 million. The CIA Factbook gave the figure in July 2017 as an estimated 1,467,152 (373,914 higher than the government figure). 

The CIA figures breakdown the ages. Unfortunately, it does not state how many are aged 18 and over (the eligible voting age), but it shows the number of people aged 25 and over as 628,935. It also shows 324,495 people aged between 15 and 24. We cannot be certain how many from this group are aged 18 or over, but an educated guess would be that when added to those aged 25 and over the number of  people eligible to vote is comfortably between 700,000 and 800,000.

Which of the two estimates of the population is more accurate? We cannot say for certain, but it is on public record that there were many problems collecting information for the 2017 census. In April 2018, long after the census was completed and results announced, the Swazi Observer reported that enumerators (the people who did the counting) were still owed E1.3 million (US$104,000) in payments. That suggests the census was not run very efficiently.

It matters that we have an accurate figure for the number of people eligible to vote. Elections in Swaziland are recognised outside the kingdom to be undemocratic. Political parties cannot take part and people vote under a system of ‘Monarchical Democracy’ that underpins the King’s place as an absolute monarch. The King and his supporters say that the people of Swaziland like it that way and there is no need for change.

But that has never been tested. Media are censored and freedom of assembly is limited, so there has never been an a opportunity to debate whether people are truly happy with the political system. The turnout at elections is used by the King’s supporters as a way of measuring this. That is why it is in the interest of the King to spread the message that they are well supported. 

Martin Dlamini, who doubles up as a newspaper editor and an official paid praise singer for King Mswati, says the 100,000 who have signed up to vote so far is ‘impressive’. But, really it is not if there are more than 700,000 people able to vote.

At the last election in 2013 the EBC said there were 600,000 people eligible to vote. Assuming (although it was disputed as being too low) this was an accurate figure, in 2013 414,704 people registered to vote. At the final (secondary) election, 251,278 actually voted. That was only 41.8 percent of those supposedly entitled to vote and hardly a ringing endorsement for the validity of the election.

Richard Rooney

See also

VOTERS SNUB SWAZI ELECTION

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/voters-snub-swazi-election.html

 

VOTING CHAOS AS NUMBERS DON’T ADD UP

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/voting-chaos-as-numbers-dont-add-up.html

FOREIGN BANKS ‘MIGHT QUIT SWAZILAND’

Foreign-owned banks in Swaziland might leave the kingdom if a proposed new levy announced by the Minister of Finance Martin Dlamini goes ahead.

Banks will be expected to pay 2.5 percent of their annual income to the government of King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

Standard Bank Chief Executive Mvuselelo Fakudze told a meeting at Gigi’s Restaurant, Ezulwini on Monday (12 March 2018) banks had parent companies in other countries which would close their Swaziland operations if profits fell.

The Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, reported that Fakudze said, ‘Government may be forcing investors which are the parent companies of most of the banks we have in Swaziland to review their reason of being in the country. With Swaziland being a small economy, the percentage of what we give back to our parent companies is far less than what subsidiaries in other countries are offering, so now the bank revenue levy will make us even less profitable.’ 

He said banks had not been consulted on the new levy.

The Swaziland Government owns 25 percent of the shares in Standard Bank Swaziland Ltd. There are three foreign-owned banks in the kingdom: Standard Bank, Nedbank and First National. The government-owned Swaziland Development and Savings Bank went bankrupt due to millions of dollars of unpaid loans in June 1995. Today, the kingdom’s only local bank is SwaziBank.

The total assets of Swazi banks is estimated by the United States Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs to be approximately E15.4 billion (US$1.2 billion). 

See also

SWAZI BUDGET A TALE OF WOE

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/swazi-budget-tale-of-woes.html

ELECTRICITY VAT RISE SHELVED FOR NOW

Members of the House of Assembly in Swaziland have voted against putting a 15 percent Value Added Tax on electricity prices.

It happened during a debate on the national budget on Wednesday (7 March 2018). In his budget speech on 1 March 2018 Finance Minister Martin Dlamini said government wanted to review the VAT Act to allow the tax to be added to tariffs. The order to raise VAT generally by 1 percent to 15 percent goes ahead.

The VAT increases were not well received in Swaziland where seven in ten of the estimated 1.1 million population have incomes less than the equivalent of US$2 per day. 

The Times of Swaziland reported Acting Finance Committee Chairperson Marwick Khumalo in a report said the VAT on electricity had been deferred pending a cost-benefit analysis to be undertaken by the Ministry of Finance.

In his budget speech Dlamini had said the VAT increase was needed to keep the kingdom in line with neighbouring South Africa which announced its own increase in February 2018.

However, when the South African Treasury announced its increase in VAT it also announced measures to mitigate the impact of the VAT increase on poor households with above inflation increases in social grants, partial relief for inflation for the bottom three personal income tax brackets (for people who do not receive social grants), a marginal increase in the tax credits for medical aid contributions and maintaining the 19 zero-rated food items.

Swaziland’s Finance Minister made no concessions. Dlamini also announced additional taxation on alcohol and tobacco products. There are also plans to increase the fuel tax rate by 20 cents from the current E3 and a review of user fees for mobile phones. 

On Monday, members of parliament in Swaziland sent the national budget back to the Ministry of Finance be reviewed because they said it did not meet the needs of poor people and rural communities.

See also

SWAZI BUDGET A TALE OF WOES

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/swazi-budget-tale-of-woes.html

MPS SEND BUDGET BACK FOR REVIEW

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/mps-send-budget-back-for-review.html

HOSTILE REACTION TO VAT INCREASE

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/hostile-reaction-to-vat-increase.html

BUILDING HOTEL A BUDGET PRIORITY

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/building-hotel-budget-priority.html

CABINET DEFIES KING OVER BUDGET

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/cabinet-defies-king-over-budget.html

 

SWAZI BUDGET GIVES PM NEW HOUSE

http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/swazi-budget-gives-pm-new-house.html

SWAZI BUDGET A TALE OF WOES

Swaziland’s economy is in disarray and the kingdom continues to fail to raise enough money to pay for its spending, the national budget reveals.

All government job recruiting will be frozen, Value Added Tax will go up by 1 percent to 15 percent and there is a plan to try to impose VAT on electricity tariffs for the first time.

Pensions for people aged 60 and over will be frozen, but E5.5 million is earmarked to buy the Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini a retirement home. E1.5 billion will be spent on a conference centre and five-star hotel to house an African Union summit.

Local pension and insurance companies are to be compelled to invest at least 50 percent of their funds within Swaziland.

Swaziland received a B2 negative credit rating from international agency Moody’s.

Swazi Finance Minister Martin Dlamini delivered a catalogue of woes during his budget speech on 1 March 2018. He said he took his lead when constructing the budget from King Mswati III who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. Dlamini was not elected to parliament and along with the Prime Minister, Cabinet ministers and top public servants was appointed by the King.

In his speech opening Parliament in February 2018 Dlamini said the King commanded his government, ‘to prepare a budget that is based on available resources’. Dlamini said, ‘Government has conducted a thorough analysis of our expenditure in order to prioritise only the most pressing concerns.’

He told Parliament, ‘The public sector has grown at a much faster pace over the years creating significant dependency in the economy and compromising growth and employment creation. This has led to the large size of government, increased the wage bill significantly, and limited the space for social and infrastructure spending.’

He added, ‘Government spending continues to outpace its ability to raise enough revenues resulting in cash flow challenges and accumulation of arrears.’

He said the Government owed E3.1 billion to its suppliers for goods and services and it was trying to find ways to find money to repay these debts.

Dlamini added, ‘In recent years, Government has not been able to raise enough revenues to cover the ever increasing expenditures, which is a clear indication that the current Government model cannot be sustained in the medium-term.’ He announced a freeze on all government recruiting.

He reported the economy in Swaziland was projected to have grown by 1.9 percent in 2017 from 1.4 percent in 2016. Crop production which had been hit by drought grew by 17.2 percent in 2017, but livestock production was ‘significantly reduced due to the drought’.

He said, ‘There has been a decline in the construction sector as implementation of various construction projects slowed largely due to the current fiscal challenges’

Economic performance in 2018 was anticipated to grow by 1.3 percent.

Inflation continues to grow. In 2016 consumer prices grew by 7.8 percent. They increased a further 6.2 percent in 2017.

The cost of food for a kingdom where seven in ten of the estimated 1.1 million population have incomes of less than the equivalent of US$2 per day rose 19 percent in 2016 and a further 2.6 percent in 2017. The slowdown in price increases was put down to improved weather conditions for agricultural production after the drought. 

Transport costs rose 9.6 percent in 2016 and a further 3.9 percent in 2017. Communication costs (mainly phones) rose 4.7 percent in 2016 and by a further 0.4 percent in 2017.

The Finance Minister reported that Swaziland’s ‘current account’ had a surplus of E8.6 billion in 2017, but this was down from E9.5 billion in 2016. Export earnings fell by 1.3 percent in 2017 to E24.1 billion. Foreign Direct Investment declined over the year.

He announced that the government would compel local pension fund and insurance institutions to invest 50 percent of their holdings within Swaziland. At present that figure is 30 percent. He said government would also reduce the amount of retirement funds and insurance assets that can be held as cash, ‘in order to encourage retirement funds and insurance companies to invest in the domestic economy’. 

Swaziland’s official currency reserves fell by 7.8 percent in 2017 to E7.6 billion. ‘This development was mainly due to inadequate Government revenue to cover public expenses,’ Finance Minister Dlamini said.

Swaziland has been given a B2 rating (on a scale from A – C) with a ‘negative outlook’ by international credit rating agency Moody’s, he said. The poor rating is ‘due to the financial and economic pressures we continue to face’, he added.

The year ahead in Swaziland is bleak. In line with the King’s command, Dlamini said, government would spend only on the ‘most critical’ items. He said, ‘In managing the financing, the gap, Government aims to do the following: a. Monitoring and controlling all commitments including those of Ministries that had been previously ring-fenced to avoid unnecessary and wasteful expenditure with the aim to prioritise critical expenditure; b. Prioritising payment arrears and aligning them to cash available. c. Continue exploring the possibility for other sources of funding including but not limited to utilising excess balances on Government special accounts.’

The kingdom is in debt. He said, ‘As of December 2017, total debt stock stood at E11.51 billion, which is an equivalent of 19.29 per cent of GDP. Of this stock, external debt is at E4.35 billion, whilst domestic is E7.15 billion.’

Government has taken out loan agreements with among others; EXIM Bank – China, the Kuwait Fund for Development, the Saudi Fund for Development, the Arab Bank for Economic Development (BADEA), the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID). The loan agreements are for the following approved projects; National Referral Hospital, Five Star Hotel, LUSIP II, Lukhula-Big Bend Road and Lukhula-Siteki Road. 

He said, ‘The livelihood of our people continues to be Government’s priority, with the agriculture sector playing such a large role in the economy’. He allocated E1.4 billion to the Department of Agriculture which is less than the E1.5 billion to be spent on a convention centre and hotel at Ezulwini.  

He said the total expenditure for financial year 2018/19 was estimated at E21.6 billion, a reduction of 1 percent on the previous year. He added, ‘I am pleased to announce that Government has been able to deliver on His Majesty’s directive from the Throne regarding a realistic budget. Government has conducted a thorough analysis of our expenditure in order to prioritise only the most pressing concerns.’

As is customary, he did not announce how much of the annual budget would go to King Mswati for his upkeep and that of his Royal Family. The King has at least 13 palaces, fleets of top-of-the range BMW and Mercedes cars and at least one Rolls Royce. He has a private jet airplane and is due to take delivery of another during 2018.

The 2017 budget increased spending on the Swaziland Royal Household by E200 million to E1.3 billion.

See also

MPS SEND BUDGET BACK FOR REVIEW

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/mps-send-budget-back-for-review.html

HOSTILE REACTION TO VAT INCREASE

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/hostile-reaction-to-vat-increase.html

BUILDING HOTEL A BUDGET PRIORITY

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/building-hotel-budget-priority.html

CABINET DEFIES KING OVER BUDGET

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/cabinet-defies-king-over-budget.html
 

SWAZI BUDGET GIVES PM NEW HOUSE

http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/swazi-budget-gives-pm-new-house.html

SWAZI BUDGET GIVES PM NEW HOUSE

Swaziland is budgeting to build the Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini a retirement house for E5.5m even though members of parliament rejected the move last year.

The MPs said last year the kingdom was too poor to afford the house. The money is back on the table this year even though Finance Minister Martin Dlamini announced in his budget speech on Thursday (1 March 2018), ‘Government spending continues to outpace its ability to raise enough revenues resulting in cash flow challenges and accumulation of arrears.’

Dlamini was not elected to the office of Prime Minister. In Swaziland political parties are banned from taking part in elections and King Mswati III who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch chooses the PM and government ministers.

Dlamini is aged 75 and in poor health. He is widely expected to retire at the next national election due sometime in 2018.

The house in Thembelihle will have four bedrooms, all with en-suite bathrooms.

The house is only part of Dlamini’s retirement package. The Financial Circular No 2 of 2013 sets out his benefits. He will receive 80 percent of his final salary until he dies. In 2013 it stood at E617,646 (US$51,700). In Swaziland seven in ten of the estimated 1.1 population have incomes less than the equivalent of US$2 per day.

The Swazi taxpayer will contribute the full amount payable to a medical aid scheme of which the Prime Minister is a member. They will provide a house and a vehicle of the same status as the one he has while in office. Dlamini will also ‘be afforded security in line with the risk profile as determined by the Commissioner of Police’. He will be provided with a personal assistant.

When the cost of the PM’s house was included in the 2017 national budget, MPs protested that the amount was too much and should be frozen to a time when the kingdom could afford it.

Finance Minister Martin Dlamini did not make reference to the PM’s house in his budget speech, but he did state that the budget only included ‘the most critical expenditure items’.

He increased Value Added Tax (VAT) by 1 percent to 15 percent and said he was exploring the possibility of putting VAT on electricity prices. There is already a 15 percent increase in electricity tariffs due on 1 April 2018. Commentators have said this will have a big effect on the poor. The Times of Swaziland, the only independent daily newspaper in the kingdom said the ‘budget robs the poor’.

See also

BUILDING HOTEL A BUDGET PRIORITY

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/building-hotel-budget-priority.html

‘CABINET DEFIES KING OVER BUDGET’

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/cabinet-defies-king-over-budget.html

SWAZI PM’s FALSE CLAIM TO BE A DOCTOR

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/swazi-pms-false-claim-to-be-doctor.html

TRUE LIFE OF SWAZI PRIME MINISTER

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/true-life-of-swazi-prime-minister.html

SWAZI GOVT RUNNING OUT OF MONEY

Swaziland’s public spending is so out of control the kingdom has to rely on income from a customs union to pay public service salaries, but it is not enough, Finance Minister Martin Dlamini told Parliament.

The admission comes as hospitals go short of vital medicines, children go hungry at school and elderly peoples’ pensions go unpaid. Meanwhile the budget for King Mswati III who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch increases.

Dlamini reported in his md-year budget review on Wednesday (6 December 2017) that the Swazi Government was at least E2.5 billion (US$180 million) in arrears by the end of July 2017.

He told the House of Assembly that this did not include E619 million which government had been operating on a cash flow deficit at the end of the second quarter, up to September 2017.

He said the funding gap was projected to increase to E4.5 billion by the end of the financial year, 31 March 2018, the Times of Swaziland reported.

He said the kingdom relied on money from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) receipts as a revenue source for the budget. The newspaper reported him saying, ‘Despite its volatility, SACU has now become the only reliable source of payment of civil servants salaries.’

The newspaper added, ‘He said it was worth mentioning that even with the higher than average SACU receipts for 2017 which stood at E7.1 billion, government was unable to meet the entire wage bill obligations through this source of revenue.’

The money from SACU was only enough to cover 2.5 months of salaries in each quarter, he said.

The Swazi Government which is not elected by the people but handpicked by King Mswati has lurched from one financial crisis to another for many years. In the past few months it has not paid bills for medicines and food for schoolchildren which has resulted in great hardship among King Mswati’s 1.3 subjects. Seven in ten live in abject poverty with incomes of less than US$2 a day.

In November 2017 it was announced there was not enough money to pay people who reached the age of 60 this year their elderly grants (pensions).

 

In February 2017 King Mswati’s budget was increased by US$14 million.

In October 2017 it was reported that the Government was broke and ‘living from hand to mouth’ and public servants’ salaries had been paid late in recent months.

The happened as it was publicly revealed that senior public servants received an 18.9 pay increase that month. Meanwhile, ordinary public servants had been told by government they would get no increase at all this year.  A dispute between workers and Government over this continues.

Also in October 2017, it was reported the government had borrowed E1.2 billion  from the Central Bank of Swaziland.

In September 2017 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported that increased government spending in Swaziland resulted in the highest deficit since 2010. It said the outlook for the future of the economy was ‘fragile’ and that the medium term outlook was ‘unsustainable’ without policy changes.

It also said the governance of public entities was poor.

The IMF recommended that the government should contain ‘the bloated government wage bill’, curb non-essential purchases and prioritize capital outlays. 

See also

GOVT FAILS TO PAY ELDERLY GRANTS

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/swazi-govt-fails-to-pay-elderly-grants.html

 

SWAZI KING’S BUDGET INCREASES US$14 MILLION

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/swazi-kings-budget-increases-14-mil.html

‘CHILDREN COULD SOON DIE OF HUNGER’

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2017/06/children-could-soon-die-of-hunger.html

PUBLIC SERVANTS PAY STRIKE ‘ON WAY’

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/public-servants-pay-strike-on-way.html

SWAZI MPS REJECT NATIONAL BUDGET

Members of Parliament in Swaziland rejected the entire national budget and called for it to be replaced with one that favoured ordinary people.

The unprecedented move came on Wednesday (1 March 2017) when the budget delivered the previous Friday by Martin Dlamini, Swazi Minister for Finance, was supposed to be debated and approved.

Instead, MPs rejected the E21.8 billion (US$1.66bn) national budget. A motion called for the budget to be scrapped because it was not responding to the needs of the people.

They called for a revised budget to be tabled that addressed the needs for portable clean water; feeder roads networks; increase of community projects budget; an increase in the elderly and people living with disability grants, taking into consideration the cost of living; an increase in the allocation of the ministry of agriculture for food security and the construction of new health clinics.

The Minister of Finance was told to bring a new budget to Parliament on Friday (3 March 2017).

MINISTER MISLEADS OVER IMF SUPPORT

Swaziland’s Minister of Finance Martin Dlamini misled the people of the kingdom and the global community when he claimed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had given Swaziland an ‘almost clean bill of health’ on its economy.

He was reacting in local media to the latest IMF statement following its recent ‘mission’ visit to Swaziland.

In fact, the IMF statement issued on 12 May 2014 said the opposite. It said Swaziland’s challenges were ‘significant’.

It said in particular that, ‘the economy has suffered from weak growth performance, which adversely affects social developments. Furthermore, there are risks to Swaziland’s economic prospects, in particular the uncertain global and regional economic outlook that could lower SACU [Southern Africa Customs Union] revenues.’

It went on say that Swaziland should make reforms to its public sector, by which it meant reduce the amount of money spent on public servants’ salaries.

‘To help implement the prudent fiscal policy, the mission also encourages the authorities to enhance efforts for public sector reforms and public financial management reforms, while welcoming further efforts to enhance tax administration,’ it said.

It also said Swaziland had ‘weak growth performance’, adding, ‘This weak performance has been largely associated with low private sector development (depressed private investment in particular).’

It concluded, ‘In this light, the [IMF] mission encourages the authorities to proceed with wide-ranging structural reforms, including further improving business climate, facilitating financial intermediation, and pursuing land management reforms.’

This is not the first time the Swaziland Government has misled the public about its relationship to the IMF. 

In 2013, the then Finance Minister Majozi Sithole was untruthful when he said the kingdom’s economy had recovered. He said at the time, ‘I can safely say the economy is now under control. We have survived the worst economic challenges ever.’  

But, the IMF had never said such a thing. Instead, in February 2013 it reported the Swaziland economy, ‘will be unsustainable over the medium term and subject to significant downside risks’. It said there needed to be ‘upfront expenditure cuts, including on the wage bill’.

The IMF said that in the recent past the government had repaid some of its debt but this was ‘partly achieved through cuts in education, health, and other poverty-alleviating spending’.

To underline the fragile state of the economy, the IMF said, ‘Swaziland’s economic prospects remain difficult and that, without credible and comprehensive fiscal adjustment and structural reforms, the current fiscal and external position will be unsustainable over the medium term and subject to significant downside risks.’

There are many similarities between the 2013 IMF report and the one published this month, including poor economic prospects, underfunding of social care projects and the need to reduce spending on public service spending.

The Swazi Government has a long history of being untruthful about the IMF and what it says about Swaziland.

In 2011, the Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini called a press conference to announce that the IMF was about to issue a ‘letter of comfort’ that would express its confidence in the Swazi economy and allow the Government to seek loans from international organisations such as the Africa Development Bank. But, no letter existed and since that date, the IMF has never given its support to Swaziland’s economic policies.

See also

IMF CONFIRMS ECONOMY IN TROUBLE

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/02/imf-confirms-economy-in-trouble.html  

NOT MUCH COMFORT FROM IMF

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/05/not-much-comfort-from-imf.html

THE ‘TIMES’ AND POOR PRESS STANDARDS

One of the fiercest campaigns by readers against a newspaper in Swaziland that anyone can remember has been raging this week.

At least six organisations and countless individuals have criticised the Times Sunday newspaper after one of its regular columnists wrote last week that battered women were ‘bitches’ and said ‘most’ women who were beaten up by men brought it upon themselves. 

Since the article was published, a petition demanding an apology from the Times and supported by Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA), Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organizations, Coordinating Assembly for Non-Governmental Organisations (CANGO), Swaziland Concerned Church Leaders, Swaziland National Association of Teachers, Swaziland Positive Living and the Swaziland Agricultural Producers Union (SAPU) has been circulating.

The article’s author Qalakaliboli Dlamini is no stranger to controversy and was suspended by his newspaper in May 2012 after he wrote he was a proud homophobe and he hated homosexuals.  

Once critics complained Qalakaliboli identified himself as a victim who was having his right of freedom of expression curtailed. Alec Lushaba, chair of the Swazi chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (a press freedom group), and the Times managing editor Martin Dlamini publicly supported him in this view.

In their support of Qalakaliboli both men missed a crucial point being made by critics: the attack on the article was not about freedom of speech, it was about poor journalistic standards at the newspaper.

Here’s an example of what critics meant. In his article Qalakaliboli wrote that women abused men more than the other way round and said ‘most’ women who are beaten up by men brought it upon themselves. He wrote, ‘Let us be honest with each other, women are the biggest abusers in the world.’

None of what Qalakaliboli wrote there is actually true. Nowhere in the world is there a country where more women are accused or convicted of gender-based violence than men. 

Alec Lushaba, chair of MISA, wrote on his Facebook page,‘It is wrong of us to suffocate such opinions.’ Lushaba was wrong because what Qalakaliboli wrote was not ‘opinion’, which is defined as reasoned argument based on facts. What the Times Sunday actually published was Qalakaliboli’s prejudice, which was not based on fact.

What Qalakaliboli said cannot be considered as ‘fair comment’, since it is provably untrue.

What has angered critics is that journalism standards at the Times are so poor that his column was allowed to be printed. Any journalist at the newspaper, including the editor, who read the article before it reached publication, should be able to spot the falsehood in Qalakaliboli’s assertions that women abused men more than the other way round.

The same journalists should also have realised that for Qalakaliboli to write of a woman trying to escape an abusive marriage, ‘I am reminded of the saying: “B***es come and go – real women give it their best’, was unacceptable.

Alec Lushaba, in his support of Qalakaliboli’s ‘right’ to say what he wanted about violence against women, however unpalatable it might be, denied his own organisation’s policy on gender violence.

The MISA policy recognises that reporting of gender violence, ‘is often sensational, lacking in depth, context and analysis’. That description aptly sums up the Times Sunday article.

MISA’s policy goes on to state, ‘As one of the main shapers of public opinion, the media has a critical role to play in the advancement and attainment of gender equality.’

It also says. ‘As an agenda setter, the media has a duty to portray not just what is, but what could be ...’

It is baffling to see how Lushaba can reconcile his own belief that the Times Sunday had a right to publish Qalakaliboli’s article, with the policy of the organisation he chairs. Clearly, he has some explaining to do to colleagues at MISA.

Martin Dlamini, the managing editor of Times of Swaziland newspapers and the man ultimately responsible for what is published, misled his readers badly when he tried to defend the article. He wrote in his own newspaper that there was evidence from around the world that women were abusing men. But he did not tackle Qalakaliboli’s central claim that ‘women are the biggest abusers in the world.’

It is a sad reflection on the poor standards at the Times newspapers that Martin Dlamini, the most senior person in the company’s three editorial offices, seemed to genuinely believe that he had provided compelling ‘evidence’ to support  Qalakaliboli.

Martin Dlamini also asked rhetorically, ‘Would he have been said to have used hate speech if the article headline was: “Men are the worst abusers?”’ The answer to his question, of course, is: No, because that headline is a statement of provable fact. It is very sad that Martin Dlamini was unable to see the difference.

Yesterday (14 December 2012), it was revealed that Qalakaliboli Dlamini was bragging to his Facebook readers that the controversy he had created with his article would help sales of a book he was about to publish. This has raised speculation that he had tricked his newspaper and its readers into creating a publicity stunt for his own ends which raises another question about the judgement of the Times in allowing the article to be published.  

See also

HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS TAKE ON ‘TIMES’

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/human-rights-groups-take-on-times.html