CRISIS: ‘TIME FOR GOVERNMENT TO GO’

Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations

Statement

12 November 2011

As a result of the worsening economic crisis in Swaziland, and the inability of the Swazi Government to pay its November salaries on time, the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations calls for the entire Swazi Cabinet to step down and a government of the people to be set up.

This economic crisis is not a surprise, the government has been warned about it for years. But they continued to ignore the warnings and award themselves and their friends more pay rises, bigger contracts, more power. They have plundered our national reserves to make themselves rich.

When a government is not even able to meet its wage bill, it is time for that government to go. But to only change the faces at the top will not solve Swaziland’s problems.

Tinkhundla is based on lies. It is a lie those already in power know best. It is a lie that the people cannot be trusted. It is a lie that political parties cause violence. And the biggest lie of all – that the Swazi people actually want this system.

All that this system has done is to oppress and disrespect the Swazi People. It keeps the vast majority poor while the few get even richer. The people that drove us into this catastrophe do not have skills to get us out of it because they were chosen for their loyalty not their ability.

This government is so lost in a spider’s web of arrogance, deceit and corruption that it cannot tell what is real and what is not. It thought that it would be able to lie its way out of the trouble by making promises that it had no intention of keeping. In the end the only people that were fooled were its supporters, the loyalists who were well paid for years. Finance and economics do not work that way. They respond to hard facts not easy lies.

Bishop Meshack Mabuza Chair of the Swazi Coalition said “It is the economics of the pigsty. If the government meets the November wage bill from the money it earns in December, how will it be able to meet the December wage bill? We all know that there is money coming from the Southern African Customs Union in January, but what happened to the money that came in September?”

He went on to say “This is a crisis that will not go away. I have consulted widely on this and I can say with certainty that this government does not have the confidence of the people. It is time they went. 11.11.11 marks the day that the Swazi system of government called Tinkhundla died. It is now the duty of every true Swazi to give it a decent burial. It is time to set up a proper government of the Swazi People, for the Swazi People.

See also

PANIC AS SALARIES CUT NEWS LEAKS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/11/panic-as-salaries-cut-news-leaks.html

GREEDY SWAZI PM ‘COST 500 JOBS’

The Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO) has hit out at the greed of Barnabas Dlamini, the kingdom’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister, his deputy, four members of the Swazi Royal Family, at least nine cabinet ministers (past and present) and a gaggle of petty council officials, who are embroiled in a controversy over the purchase of Swazi nation land in Mbabane.

SCCCO says the million emalengeni they have saved themselves in the land purchase could have saved 500 of the jobs of civil servants that have to be cut in an attempt to gain International Monetary Fund (IMF) support for a loan after the Swazi economy went into meltdown after years of mismanagement by governments appointed by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

The comments come in an end of year message delivered by Bishop Meshack Mabuza, the SCCCO chair.

The following is how the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, reported the statement. LINK

23 December 2010

‘E1million land discounts could have saved 500 jobs’

MBABANE – The Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO) has expressed discontent over the land purchase discounts received by ministers saying that money could have gone towards job saving.

In an end of year statement released yesterday touching on wide ranging issues, the SCCCO, through its Chairperson Bishop Meshack Mabuza, expressed concern in the manner in which the matter, which is now under parliament investigation, was handled.

"Look at the Circular No 1 which gives our politicians undeserved and unaffordable pay increases while at the same time they are calling for 7 000 of the lowly paid to become unemployed.

Allocate

"Look at how they allocate themselves E1 million discounts on land, how many jobs does that equate to? For those on the grade of a lowly office cleaner who earns E2 000 per month, that is 500 jobs that could have been saved, and 5 000 lives spared starvation, desperation and humiliation," he says.

The SCCCO also expresses concern over the issue of human rights.

"We stand beside our brothers and sisters whose pain was so openly and tragically expressed at our people’s parliament this month.

We will not let their stories be forgotten or their suffering ignored. If civil society is about one thing only, it is about calling those in power to account. The courts are an important way to stand up for our rights but they are not the only ones.

"We must recognise that we have to stand up for ourselves each and every day as well; we must retain our dignity in our homesteads, our families, our clans and our communities," it states.

Mabuza says as a Coalition they will continue to campaign for the ability for the people to claim their rights and human dignity.

RETRACT JUDAS JIBE, KING’S MAN TOLD

The Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO) is demanding an apology from Prince Mangaliso-Logcogco, the chair of King Mswati III’s advisory council Liqoqo, following revelations that a US$5 billion deal to build a power station in the kingdom was a contrick.

In 2009, when the project involving Franken Mining was announced with great fanfare as a great coup for the king, SCCCO was among a small band that doubted the viability of the project.

For this, Bishop Meshack Mabuza, SCCCO Chairman, was branded a ‘Judas’ by Prince Mangaliso.

In a statement SCCCO now demands a retraction from the Prince.

Here is SCCCO’s statement in full.

COALITION DEMANDS RETRACTION FROM PRINCE MANGALISO FOR ‘JUDAS’ COMMENT

The Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations notes with relief that the proposed US$5 Billion Mine and Power Station project is now dead. It also notes that the reasons that the deal is dead was because it was simply a corrupt money laundering scheme that would never have brought a cent to the country.

In April 2009 when the project was announced, the Coalition took a little time to do some research and within a day knew that the project was never going to be viable. It compared how other African Leaders, especially President Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, had negotiated their deals with western businesses. It looked at the way that this project was put together and came to only one conclusion. It was ripe for corruption from the start and should not be touched.

The Coalition set out a series of 20 questions that were designed to test the ability of this project to benefit the Swazi Nation. For these questions Prince Mangaliso, called the Coalition and its Chairman Bishop Meshack Mabuza ‘Judas’ for betraying the Swazi Nation. The Coalition thinks that it would be appropriate for the Prince to acknowledge his misjudgment and publicly withdraw that remark.

The Coalition also questions the assertion that no money has been spent. Who paid for the tendering process that appeared in the ‘Engineering Times’ last year? Does Professor [Frans] Whelpton work for free? Who paid for his trip to Germany and Switzerland last year?

Bishop Meshack Mabuza, Chair of the Coalition said ‘The Coalition was called terrible names for asking the questions that nobody else asks and shining a light into some unwelcome places. This is what a healthy Civil Society is supposed do. Because we do not seek power or riches, we can ask questions of those who do. It turns out that when they are too arrogant to answer us, and childishly call us names, it is because we were right. Ordinary Swazis know what happens when deals are done in the dark. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The real Judases are those who are betraying the Swazi Nation for their own thirty pieces of silver.’

See also

$5bn SWAZI POWER PLANT WAS A CON

SWAZI POWER ‘FRAUD’ RETURNS

SWAZILAND KING LOSES POWER

$5bn SWAZI ‘FRAUD’ MYSTERY DEEPENS

RAGE AT $5bn SWAZI ‘FRAUD’ REPORT

$5bn SWAZI FRAUD IN THE MAKING?