SWAZILAND ‘RIDDLED WITH CORRUPTION’

Swaziland is riddled with corruption in both private and public places, according to a new report. Public officials take bribes to avoid regulations and the law, it states.

‘The results of grand corruption are there for all to see in the ever increasing wealth of high-level civil servants and officers of state,’ the report from the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) states.

It adds, ‘For a long time the police, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade as well as the Department of Customs and Excise have often been implicated in corrupt practices.’

It gives many examples including the case of the government propaganda organisation Swaziland Broadcasting and Information Service (SBIS) where E 1.6 million (US$120,000) was paid to service providers for the maintenance of a machine that was neither broken nor in use.  The officer who authorised the bogus job cards has since been promoted and transferred to another government department. 

The report called The effectiveness of anti-corruption agencies in Southern Africa states, ‘This type of behaviour is common albeit covert and therefore difficult to monitor as goods and services are undersupplied or rerouted for personal use. The results of grand corruption are there for all to see in the ever increasing wealth of high-level civil servants and officers of state.’

It adds, ‘It has been suggested that Swaziland has no less than 31 millionaires who are junior government officials. In 2005, the then minister of finance Majozi Sithole estimated that corruption was costing the Swazi economy approximately E40 million a month.’

The report authored by Maxine Langwenya states, ‘Poor people who suffer as a result of corruption took the minister’s statement as confirmation of the extent to which the country was being driven to bankruptcy through corrupt activities. The corrupt public officials thought the minister was exaggerating the extent of corruption while academics were sceptical of the statement as the minister did not provide a basis for his assertion. 

‘The minister’s statement was significant in so far as it highlighted the fact that the economy of the country was being undermined by corrupt activities.’

The report states, ‘In the past, ministers have been found by a parliamentary select committee to have acted in a manner that is tantamount to theft of state property. The ministers had allocated themselves and subsequently “bought” land belonging to the state at ridiculously low prices without competing with other would-be buyers. The land was given to the ministers at below market value.’

The matter was never pursued by the Anti-Corruption Commission.

The report goes on, ‘In 2015 Judge Mpendulo Simelane stated that he had been approached by the former Minister of Justice Sibusiso Shongwe and told that judges could and should make money from cases over which they presided. The then Minister of Justice is then said to have asked the Judge to preside in a case of wealthy business people who were suing the Swaziland Revenue Authority for goods they had imported. The then Minister is said to have told the Judge that the business people were willing to pay about E2 million for help in winning the case. 

‘Shongwe suggested that Simelane should preside in the case and explained how the E2 million would be shared between the parties. Simelane and Shongwe were subsequently arrested by the Anti-Corruption Commission and charged with corruption but charges were subsequently dropped against Simelane. Simelane remains on suspension while Shongwe is presently out on bail. This case illustrates how the Swazi justice system was abused to settle political scores and make it complicit with the actions of corrupt public officials.’

See also

EX-JUSTICE MINISTER ARRESTED AGAIN

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/08/ex-justice-minister-arrested-again.html

‘SWAZI EX-JUSTICE MINISTER TOOK BRIBE’

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/06/swazi-ex-justice-minister-took-bribe.html

ANTI-CORRUPTION DEPUTY CHARGED

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/08/anti-corruption-deputy-charged.html

CALL FOR SWAZI DEMOCRACY GROWING

The support for groups advocating democracy in Swaziland is growing – both inside the kingdom itself and internationally.

Foreign governments are sympathetic to their cause and have made no secret of this. Not because they like the progressive formations but simply because they appeal to the democracy desired by the UN Declaration for Human Rights.

This is the view of Martin Dlamini, managing editor of Swaziland’s only independent daily newspaper, the Times of Swaziland.

Writing in his own newspaper yesterday (19 December 2008), Dlamini says, ‘Swaziland is viewed as swimming against the tide of democracy. University of Swaziland (UNISWA) lecturer Maxine LaNgwenya put it bluntly and labelled the Tinkhundla system of governance as undemocratic.

‘She said while the country had adopted a new constitution with a Bill of Rights, it was being violated at whim and she gave five instances of such violations to an audience that had gathered to commemorate the Declaration of Human Rights last week.

‘She said the freedom of speech guaranteed in the country’s constitution did not guarantee there was a listener on the other side. She said the fact that Swazis could vote did not guarantee representation in parliament.’

Dlamini went on to say that Swaziland’s Foreign Affairs Minister Lutfo Dlamini thinks LaNgwenya is just blowing hot air. His argument is that she was enjoying her freedom of speech when she made the remarks despite being employed by the system.

According to Martin Dlamini, Lufto Dlamini and LaNgwenya ‘represent the divided Swazi nation we have today. While it is true that no country in the world speaks in one voice it is equally true that no government has ever succeeded in forcing its citizens to think in a particular direction.

‘It therefore must simply be accepted that the Tinkhundla System of Governance is open to criticism, more so now than ever before due to rising unemployment, escalating poverty, high levels of sickness and a frighteningly wide gap between the rich and poor.

‘A system that provides visible solutions to these problems in an accountable and transparent manner is all what Swazi people want.’

Martin Dlamini says, ‘Instead of moving towards this goal, however, the ruling party has demonstrated, especially in 2008, that it will focus its time and resources in silencing its critics.’

To read the full article click here.

TERROR BILL ERODES CONSTITUTION

A Swazi Constitutional Law expert says the Suppression of Terrorism ‘erodes the gains we had made through the constitution’.

Maxine Langwenya, a lecturer at the University of Swaziland, says that the new Act takes away the civil liberties of the people, when those liberties are entrenched in the Bill of Rights.
She said the Act tended to supersede the Bill of Rights which guarantees the rights of the populace.

‘For example, when arrested under the provisions of this law, you cannot be brought into a court of law within the 48 hours stipulated in the Constitution. The Act has provisions that work against the Constitution as regards to this. There is also another problem, that of definition. If terrorism causes death, then what does murder do. Couldn’t we have continued to charge such people with murder, or is it because our criminal justice has failed.'

Langwenya is featured in a report in the Weekend Observer today (22 November 2008). She says the introduction of the terrorism law was a bit heavy-handed because there were other already existing laws in Swaziland that could deal with the present unrest in the kingdom and they have been working fine up to now.

According to the Weekend Observer, ‘Langwenya wondered if there was any difference between terrorism and treason.

‘Was there a need to adopt such a high profile word without even exhausting the present legislation? This is why I feel that this law cancels most of the rights that are bestowed to the individual by the Constitution including the gains made thereof,’ she said.