BOGUS SWAZILAND TERROR FEARS

When will the Times of Swaziland stop insulting the intelligence of its readers over al-Qaeda terrorist threats in the kingdom?

The Times and its companion newspapers have been running articles designed to raise the level of fear among Swazis that they are in immediate threat from ‘Asians’ or ‘Muslims’ who are secretly in Swaziland plotting destruction.

The latest episode in this fantasy comes in the Times today (26 January 2010). The newspaper reports that the Muslim cleric Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal has been in Swaziland ‘recruiting young men who would act as suicide bombers during the FIFA Football World Cup to be hosted by South Africa in June’.

These so-called ‘suicide bombers’ are, the Times tells us, ‘Muslim extremists who would cause terror at the upcoming world showpiece’.

And what’s the Times’ evidence for this? It copied the story down from the City Press newspaper in South Africa.

And where did the City Press get the story? It copied it down from the Sunday Standard newspaper in Botswana.

Do you remember the Standard? Obviously the journalists at the Times don’t. The Standard is the newspaper that in early 2009 told us that al Qaeda terrorists may be in Swaziland disguised as secondhand car salesmen.

They weren’t and they aren’t.

The Standard went further and reported that al Qaeda terrorists were infiltrating Botswana and 10 nations across the world, ‘Brazil, Namibia, South Africa, Malaysia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Lesotho, Mauritius, Swaziland, and Trinidad and Tobago’.

Nonsense. But the Swaziland journalists fell for it (that time it was mainly the Swazi Observer).

Still the Swazi journalists don’t stop and think. They are going great damage to ‘Asians’ and ‘Muslims’ by spreading a fear that they may be terrorists.

They are also playing into the hands of the repressive regime led by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. Every time the media raise fear it gives the anti-democratic supporters of the king the excuse to clamp down on legitimate dissent in the kingdom.

SWAZI NEWSPAPER TURNS PIMP

Just when you think the newspapers in Swaziland can’t get any worse, they do.

The Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, is now acting as a pimp.

This week, the newspaper that has no shame, published a letter from a man in the United States who is seeking a Swazi woman for a wife.

And, according to his letter, any woman will do.

The sad man is visiting the continent next year to watch the soccer at the FIFA World Cup in neighbouring South Africa and while he is over here he wants to pick up a wife.

Don’t worry, he writes, ‘I’m not too picky; I just want a woman with a good heart to help me raise my daughter and take good care of me. I make good money so my wife will not need to work or worry about finances.’ His email address is then given for responses.

The Times editor, in a footnote to the letter says, ‘We [Swaziland] have beautiful women, who were raised right’. Presumably by ‘right’ he means will prostitute themselves to this man.

BOY JAILED FOR SOCCER INSULTS

Has Swaziland scored an own goal on the soccer front?

At the same time as insisting that fans who are travelling to the FIFA World Cup in neighbouring South Africa next year (2010) are welcome to stay in delightful, peaceful (etc etc) Swaziland the police and law courts are clamping down on soccer fans.

The Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily news source, reports that a soccer fan (described as ‘a boy’ by the paper, although no age was given) was sentenced to three months jail time for hurling insults.

A Swazi police spokesman warned fans not to engage in ‘unruly behaviour’ because the police were all out to clampdown on law breakers.

He emphasised that soccer was a family sport that did not need to be blemished by such distasteful behaviour.

Police have promised to arrest all soccer fans who are heard hurling insults during games.

Players and referees have recently fallen victim to fans ‘passing unsavoury marks about them’, the paper reported.

SUSPICION OVER ‘TIMES’ LETTERS

I smell a rat. There has been another letter published by the Times of Swaziland from a reader in Europe following the showing of a documentary about the kingdom there.

Just like in the previous letter (written by a different person) the reader doesn’t give the title of the documentary (so we can only take his word for it about the contents) but uses it as an excuse to criticise people who he says are are putting Swaziland down. Like the other letter it also talks about a desire to visit Swaziland next year (2010) at the time of the FIFA World Cup.

And just like the previous letter the editor of the Times adds a footnote to extol the virtues of Swaziland.

The reader writes, ‘Most media reports suggest that public gatherings are banned in Swaziland and that violent clashes with the police are the result of such gatherings. Does this mean that Swaziland will not have any fan parks during the 2010 World Cup?’

To which the editor responds, ‘This place [Swaziland] is not only beautiful, it is also very peaceful, and I am afraid you have been misled. It is not true that gatherings are banned, but maybe what you mean is gatherings of a political nature where people intending to have such gatherings only have to request permission to hold them. It is not abnormal.’

Tell that to the striking security guards who earlier this week had rubber bullets and teargas fired at them by Swazi police.

In his footnote the editor also says that the Swaziland 2010 Committee (that is organising things to coincide with the football tournament in South Africa) says there will be ‘fan parks’ (that’s places for people to see matches televised on large screens in public areas) and ‘these won’t just be in the urban areas, but will be spread across the country’. Considering the committee’s inability up to now to organise a drink up at a brewery (to coin a phrase) I think this statement is definitely one for our Fantasy Watch game.

So who are these letter writers from Europe and why have they suddenly taken the urge to write (of all places) to the Times of Swaziland? And why do they say share similar sentiments about Swaziland. And why does the editor see fit to add footnotes to these letters, but not to any others he publishes?

Next time I’m at the Times’ office I’ll look out for one of the paper’s hacks hunched over a keyboard in a back room knocking out another ‘reader’s letter’ to the editor.

FOOTNOTE: The editor gave this link for the letter writer to get more information about Swaziland’s preparations for the World Cup. When I tried it I got a message offering to sell me a website for a dollar ninety-nine. Looks like another victory for the Swaziland 2010 committee.

IS SWAZILAND A MAD STATE?

Swaziland not a mad country in some unstable state – heading to a letter from a reader published in the Times of Swaziland.

As any academic might be I was attempted to append the word ‘discuss’ to that statement.

For those who didn’t see the letter it comes from someone from the Netherlands who has never visited Swaziland but saw a documentary about the kingdom on television.

He didn’t say which documentary he watched but it was so powerful he felt compelled to write to the Times of Swaziland to say, ‘What I knew about Swaziland mostly circled around the absolute monarchy and so called liberators running around like chickens with no heads.

'If one was to believe most of what we hear of Swaziland, one would think it is a mad country in some unstable, revolutionary state.'

Now, he reckons he and his pals are coming to Swaziland for the FIFA World Cup next year (2010).

The letter prompted a response from the editor of the Times inviting people to ‘come visit, and experience the true royal experience, and the true beauty and tranquillity of this beautiful country’.

I hope the writer does visit Swaziland but avoids the five star hotels and instead visits the rural areas where more than 70 percent of the population live. Perhaps, the writer would care to live as an ordinary Swazi (70 percent are in abject poverty earning less than a dollar a day) in squalor without health care or clean water and at the mercy of tuberculosis and other disease.

Then he can visit some of the HIV sufferers (at 40 percent the highest rate in the world) and talk to the countless thousands of children who are now head of their household because AIDS has ravaged the Swazi population.

Then he can visit the people in prison whose main crime is poverty (they can’t pay the fine imposed upon them for often quite trivial offences so have to take a prison term as an alternative).

Then he can visit the one in three girls in Swaziland who are sexually abused by their relatives and discuss with them what a tranquil kingdom Swaziland is.

After that he can meet some of the women at Swaziland’s textile factories who are paid such poor wages they have to share one meal with three people, share a bed with six others and prostitute themselves to the local soldiers just to keep from starving.

Then he can go watch a game of football in South Africa with tens of thousands of other Europeans. He won’t see any Swazis there and hardly any black South Africans. They can’t afford a ticket.

SWAZILAND AND ZAMBIA DRAW

To use an old sportswriters’ cliché, Swaziland has gone soccer crazy over the past week or so as qualifying games for the FIFA World Cup have been taking place.

Last week Swaziland (known to supporters as ‘Sihlangu’) beat Togo 2-1 – the first soccer match of any kind that Swaziland had won in six years. Togo had appeared in the last FIFA World Cup finals in 2006, so were a team to reckon with.

Yesterday (15 June 2006), Swaziland managed a creditable nil-nil draw against Zambia. Sihlangu now tops the log table of its group.

Today (16 June 2008), Zambian newspapers have been commenting on the match – and unusually for newspapers who support the ‘other team’, they have had some respectful things to say about Sihlangu.

Here, courtesy of the website zambiafootball.com, are some of those reports (with a couple from Swaziland thrown in for good measure).

Barren Draw - Zambia Daily Mail

“We came for a win. Swaziland is not an easy team and I now understand why Togo lost. Swaziland played with a good heart. We played but not enough to win,” Renard said.

Mashaba said he was happy with the result because Zambia were not an easy team to overcome.

“I said before the game that it would be a difficult game. There was more intelligence than the Togo game. The result shows it’s no longer easy to win at home,” Mashaba said.

Close to 10 000 national team, Sihlangu supporters left the Somhlolo National Stadium not knowing whether to laugh or cry after the nation’s pride held its own to force a tame goalless draw against a tactically astute Zambia’s Chipolopolo in a pulsating Africa Cup/World Cup 2010 qualifier here yesterday.

Then came a defining moment in the 74th minute that almost caused a few cardiac arrests inside the stadium when Tony ‘TT’ Tsabedze made a suicidal back pass to the goalkeeper, only for Jacob Mulenga to steal the ball and round off Njabuliso before laying for Christopher Katongo, who ballooned the ball over the bar.

Swaziland hold Zambia - Times of Zambia

SWAZILAND held Zambia to a barren draw here to continue with their series of surprise results in their march towards the 2010 World Cup and African Cup soccer finals.

In this match played at Somhlolo stadium, Zambia put up a blistering second-half performance and crafted a myriad of scoring opportunities but still could not crack a stubborn Swazi side.Before the match started, the Zambian officials, who included FAZ president Kalusha Bwalya, his deputy Emmanuel Munaile, Mwamelo and a Zambian diplomat accredited to Swaziland, Damales Chamolyo, were denied entry into Somhlolo national stadium and they spent almost over 30 minutes outside before entering.

"It was too bad for our delegation and we didn’t anticipate it from Swaziland. But then, we have concluded that this was a ploy to get back to us as Swaziland complained that they were exposed to sub-standard treatment while in Lusaka for the inaugural CAF African National Championships Tournament. I don’t believe this was the way to go for the Swazi FA more so because they knew we were coming. Another thing that angered us is that they failed to even recognize our government representative madam Damales Chamyolo," Kalusha told the Times of Swaziland.

The gatekeepers had refused entry to the officials, claiming that the Swaziland team was mistreated in Zambia when it came for the African Nations Championships qualifier last month. The Zambian officials were forced to just negotiate their way into the stadium.

Swazis hold Zambia - Zambia's The Post

ZAMBIA’S chances for a place at the 2010 World Cup were yesterday thrown into complete disarray following a barren draw against Swaziland at Somhlolo Stadium in Mbabane.The result leaves the Chipolopolo Boys with the slimmest of chances to get to both the Africa Cup in Angola and the World Cup in South Africa.

Coach Herve Renard’s side is reeling in third position with a single point and no goal after 180 minutes of action.It is one of Zambia’s poorest and extremely dismal performances to the start of any qualifying series.In fact, the last decade has never seen the Chipolopolo Boys launch their campaign on such an embarrassing note – a point without a single goal – after two matches.After the match, Renard conceded it was a tough assignment: “We came for a win. Swaziland is not an easy team. I now understand why Togo lost. Swaziland played with good heart. We played well but not enough to win.”

Oh, so close! - Times of Swaziland

Like a good Chinese take away, Sihlangu were ‘delicious’ to force a draw against Zambia and keep the hopes of qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations and World Cup 2010 alive.

After yesterday’s tame goalless draw, which still leaves Swaziland looking down the rest in the pole position of Group 11, there is no iota of doubt even to the most patriotic Swazi that it will now take more than just gusts, courage, commitment, perfect game plan and luck to win the two away games – in Zambia on Sunday and against Togo in October.

To say Sihlangu can win both away games after so many flaws in their performance yesterday, which lacked the fizz and zest we saw against Togo, would be like applying for a membership of a doomsayer’s choir.

That, however, doesn’t change the fact that the nation’s pride is very much in it despite dropping two precious points at home.The fate of the nation now lies elsewhere – the result of the Togo/Zambia game though they would still need to get a win in any of the two away games.

Subdued atmosphere at Somhlolo National Stadium - Swazi Observer

IT was a subdued atmosphere at the Somhlolo National Stadium after the nation’s pride fell short of courage to settle for a goalless draw against Zambia.For obvious reasons, people were not sure whether or not to celebrate the end result as it still puts Sihlangu at the summit of the log standings in the group with Zambia and Togo.

Against the tough and disciplined Zambian side, it was always going to be difficult for Ephraem ‘Shakes’ Mashaba charges to get a result, no matter how committed his players were.Zambia kept their shape, kept possession nicely and stood firm in defence.

To their credit, Sihlangu’s defence, though constantly under pressure performed reasonably well, particularly left-back Raphael Ntimane and the two central defenders Zakhele Manyatsi and Sihawu Dlamini.Not even the first half pep talk from the country’s Prime Minister Themba Dlamini could work wonders for Sihlangu as goals proved as scarce as water in a desert.

Realistically, Sihlangu faces a mammoth task in the two remaining games but two away draws may just take the local squad to the next phase of the competition. Did I hear you say football is an unpredictable game? Damn right!