GAMA, ENEMY OF SWAZI FREEDOM, DIES

Jim Gama, the ‘traditional’ prime minister of Swaziland, and an enemy of freedom and progress in the kingdom, has died after a long illness.

He died in a hospital in South Africa, after he was taken there at the request of King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

Health services in his kingdom are so poor that the king ensured that his pal was taken out of his Swaziland, at the Swazi taxpayer’s expense, to get preferential treatment.

Gama, was ‘traditional’ prime minister and in Swazi culture that placed him higher than the actual prime minister. When Gama pronounced on a subject, it carried more weight than Barnabas Dlamini, the present, illegally-appointed ‘official’ prime minster. When Gama spoke, he was assumed to speak with the voice of the king.

A list of Gama’s attacks on freedom and progress in Swaziland would fill a book, but here are some of his more recent outrages.

In June 2008, Gama announced that journalists who disrespect King Mswati should die. He said a report published in the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, about the financial cost to the kingdom of holding a three-day ‘people’s parliament’ had been ‘very disrespectful to royalty and the king’.

According to the Times Sunday, Gama said, ‘whoever wrote the report should be punished using “umphini” which in Swazi terms means a serious punishment or even death’.

In November 2008, Gama banned all public conversation about the king. This followed some mildly critical comments in Swazi newspapers about the speech King Mswati made introducing Barnabas Dlamini as the king’s new appointment as Prime Minister. The king had told Dlamini to get the terrorists and all who support them.

Gama issued an edict to say that the king’s subjects must not refer to the king’s speech ever again.

According to the Swazi News (22 November 2008), Gama argued that the king ‘was in an emotional state when the remarks were made’.

In 2009, Gama led the attacks of dissident Mfomfo Nkhambule who had written a series of informed articles in the Times that highlighted injustice and the way the elite groups exploited ordinary people.

Gama accused Nkhambule of disrespecting the king. Gama said. ‘The king is the father of the nation hence he deserves to be accorded respect by every citizen at all times.’ Nkhambule and his family were harassed by the Swazi authorities and he was eventually forced to give up his writings.

In August 2008, Gama banned women from marching for any reason whatsoever, because it was ‘uncultural’. He said, ‘Culturally, a woman does not participate in a march. It is traditionally not allowed. Even if they are aggrieved, they should not march.’

The women wanted to march to the real prime minister’s office to seek information about a shopping trip that eight of King Mswati’s wives had made to Europe. The Times reported, ‘Their observation is that HIV people in the country were struggling to get their medication yet funds are used on projects they do not even understand. They say elderly people sometimes go without grants yet public funds are used to hire a private plane for such a trip.’

KING’S PAL GETS SPECIAL TREATMENT

In Swaziland, there’s one rule for the pals of King Mswati III, and another rule for everyone else.

This is confirmed by the case of Jim Gama, the ‘traditional prime minister’ of Swaziland, who has received financial support ‘from the King’ to travel to South Africa for medical treatment after he suffered a stroke.

Meanwhile, ordinary Swazi people, including cancer sufferers, have been denied treatment in South African hospitals because the Swazi Government won’t pay its bills.

Jim Gama first. He is the ‘traditional’ prime minister of Swaziland and that makes him more important than Barnabas Dlamini, the ‘real’ prime minister. It also makes Gama one of King Mswati’s most important supporters. In Swaziland, when there is a dispute over the two, cultural and traditional law trumps constitutional law. When Gama pronounces on a matter, he speaks with more authority than Barnabas Dlamini.

Gama has been sick since suffering a stroke in 2009 and Swaziland’s appalling health service hasn’t been able to treat him. So, Gama has been sent off to Johannesburg, South Africa, for treatment. He left Swaziland on Friday (28 January 2011) in a Ministry of Health ambulance, accompanied by a senior nurse.

The Weekend Observer, a newspaper in effect owned and edited by King Mswati, reported that over the past two years the King has seen to it that ‘Gama receives the best treatment from premier hospitals in the country [Swaziland] and in South Africa to heal him of the effects of a stroke he suffered’.

The newspaper said ‘the King’ also pays ‘a substantial allowance’ to Gama’s wife who looks after him. It is not clear if this money comes out of the King’s own pocket (he has a personal fortune estimated by Forbes in 2009 to be $US200 million), as the newspaper also reported that assistance came from a health fund administered by the King’s Office and another at Tibiyo TakaNgwane (which is the conglomerate of businesses that the King owns ‘on behalf of the nation’).

Bhekie Dlamini, Chief Officer in the King’s Office, told the newspaper that the King was a caring father and leader. Dlamini said there were many people from all backgrounds who had received assistance from him, be it in education, health or other challenges they may face.

‘It is just that we do not go to the roof top to pronounce to the world what the King has done to help his people,’ Dlamini said.

So, Gama, the King’s pal is well taken care of. What about the rest of the King’s subjects, seven in ten of whom live in abject poverty, earning less than one US dollar a day?

Because Swaziland’s health service is so bad, the Swazi Government administers a fund called Phalala, which allows sick Swazis to travel to hospital in South Africa for treatment, which the Government then pays for.

But, of course, this is the Swazi Government we’re talking about here, and the bills don’t get paid, so sick people get turned away at the door when they arrive at hospital.

It happens all the time. Earlier this month (January 2011), it was revealed that cancer sufferers who needed chemotherapy treatment were ‘blacklisted’ by hospitals in South Africa because the government hadn’t paid bills for treatment given to previous patients. It was reported that one hospital threatened to recover the outstanding monies from individual patients.

One estimate was that bills amount to E100,000 ($US14,000) per patient.

Some of the patients have been receiving calls allegedly from debt collectors hired by some of the doctors to track them down.

As recently as Friday (28 January 2011), it was reported that a number of patients who were transferred to different hospitals in South Africa had been turned back because government had not settled outstanding payments.

The hospitals would not do some medical procedures or admit any of the patients from Swaziland until government paid its bills.

The non-payments are not connected to the present meltdown of the Swaziland economy: the Swazi Government has a long history of incompetence in handling the Phalala fund and there have been many reports of corrupt misuse of monies.

ELITE DEATH THREAT TO REPORTERS

Another member of the Swazi ruling elite has said journalists face death if they continue to criticise the kingdom’s leadership.

Prince Mahlaba, a member, Liqoqo, a shady group that advises King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, said some sections of the media were trying to undermine the kingdom’s system of governance.

According to the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, Prince Mahlaba, told a meeting of the Smart Partnership that he thought there were ‘clandestine manoeuvres in the media that sought to undermine the country’s leadership and system of governance and said that for prolonged periods of time he has been silent, hoping that people would come to their senses and stop the wrong they were doing.’

The Times quoted Prince Mahlaba saying, ‘It’s a fact that journalists earn their living by writing lies and if they do not write the lies then their source of livelihood is threatened and this is fact and beyond debate.’

He added, ‘I want to warn the media to bury things that have the potential of undermining the country, rather than publish all and everything even when such reports are harmful to the country’s international image.

‘Journalists who write bad things about the country will die.’

Prince Mahlaba is not the only member of Swaziland’s ruling elite to threaten journalists with death.

In June 2008, Jim Gama, the ‘traditional prime minister’ of Swaziland (who has more real influence in the kingdom than Barnabas Dlamini, the man King Mswati illegally appointed as the official prime minister) said that a journalist who had written a report critical of King Mswati should face serious punishment, including death.

SWAZILAND'S GAY LEADER IS BACK

Swaziland’s most prominent gay rights advocate is back in the news.

The Times Sunday reports that Mangosuthu Simanga Dlamini, the president of Gays and Lesbians Association of Swaziland (Galeswa) was present by invitation at the state opening of parliament earlier this month (February 2009).

Both Mangosuthu and the newspaper are silent on who it was who invited him to the opening officiated by King Mswati III.

Mangosuthu came to notice in Swaziland in 1997 when on national television he publicly declared that he was a homosexual.

His statement was seen as such a threat to the stability of Swaziland that Barnabas Dlamini, the then Prime Minister, (and also the present illegally-appointed Prime Minister of Swaziland) called homosexuality ‘abnormality and sickness’ and declared that the government would not accept homosexuals unless society did so first.

A former Prime Minister Prince Bhekimpi, who is also a chief, said, ‘Homosexuality is regarded as Satanic in Swaziland. Therefore, I am forced to evict all gays and lesbians in my area.’

King Mswati III, speaking at a national prayer meeting on the one occasion when he mentioned same-sex relations, said gay people were possessed of Satanic notions.

Mangosuthu, who was 21 years old at the time, responded by challenging Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini to a televised debate on homosexuality. Barnabas being a bully and a coward chickened out and refused to appear.

After declaring his homosexuality, Mangosuthu was sacked from his job at a security firm and was believed to have moved to South Africa, where, unlike in Swaziland, equality of gays and lesbians is enshrined in the country’s constitution. The Times Sunday reported (15 February 2009) that Mangosuthu was now back in the country and instrumental in developmental projects in the Lubombo region – his home area.

Gays and lesbians continue to be oppressed in Swaziland and from time to time the Swazi media collude in this oppression. I have written before here and here about the way the newspapers use hate speech to demonise homosexuals and how journalists peddle their ignorance on the subject.

Swaziland’s so-called leaders continue to harass homosexuals. Only this month Sigwe MP Sivumelwano Nxumalo, told a church meeting that Christians must fight tooth and nail to ensure that country is protected against ungodly practices like gay marriages. Nxumalo is so dripping in hatred that ‘he further urged all Swazi folk to fight against all non-Christian religions’.

Despite this open hostility, gays and lesbians continue to meet and to advocate for their rights. Galeswa relaunched in 2006 with the aim of encouraging more people to openly declare their sexuality.

A spokesperson for the organisation said, ‘As gay people, we want everyone to understand that gays are not made, but are born.’ Galeswa said even though the Swaziland Constitution did not guarantee gays and lesbians equality, at the same time people cannot be arrested for living gay lives.

In 2005, Swaziland’s first gay club opened in Mbabane. It was described by one attorney as offering ‘limitless’ opportunities for blackmail, financial and political.

The nation’s foremost traditional leader, Jim Gama, the ‘traditional’ prime minister, was said to be ‘apoplectic’ when alerted by the Swazi media about the gay bar. One Swazi newspaper said the bar would lead to a ‘Gays invasion!’

We shouldn’t be surprised by this attitude to homosexuality in Swaziland, this is after all a kingdom where Swazis subjugate their women, flog their children and wave their Bibles in the face of anyone who is different from them and where the absence of freedom of expression helps to keep people in ignorance.

But Swaziland’s gays and lesbians, although repressed, are resilient – to find out how, click here.