IS SWAZILAND KING SENT BY GOD?

All right, can we sort this out once and for all: is King Mswati sent by God?

I ask because there seems to be a campaign underway in Swaziland to convince us that he is.

I wrote on Wednesday (21 October 2009) about Lufto Dlamini, Swaziland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, his excruciating poetry and his statement that the king was ‘ordained by God to lead his people’.

Now, the acting ‘traditional’ prime minister Timothy Velabo Mtsetfwa has joined in.

Mtsetfwa reckoned, ‘Royalty was a gift from God’. He said this while urging the Swazi nation ‘to respect the Royalty because it cares for the needy’ (no I promise you, he really said this).

Perhaps, King Mswati would care to clear up this matter. Does he know God personally and if he agrees with Dlamini and Mtsetfwa could he tell us exactly why he was sent to Swaziland, rather than some place on Earth more significant?

Of course, we know the king wasn’t sent by God, but it is worrying if he believes that he was. A spell in a psychiatric hospital would be in order.

I suspect what’s happening is that the Swazi people are being softened up. The ruling elite, aided and abetted by the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, seem to be gearing up for a fight over multi-party democracy in Swaziland (the king, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, opposes it).

If the Swazi people can be made to believe that King Mswati speaks the word of God how could they speak against him?

Mtsetfwa also spoke about how multi-parties ‘were a monster to which many countries had succumbed and fell’. He then went on to say, ‘in other countries, especially those under multi-party democracy, the leaders only think of themselves and their immediate families and forget about the needy people’. How odd, since Mtsetfwa has perfectly described the situation in Swaziland where all parties are banned.

Mtsetfwa then went on to say ‘many countries envy the Swazi nation’. All right Mtsetfwa, name three of them.

OUTCRY AT SWAZI LESBIAN WEDDING

It will come as no surprise to observers of Swaziland to hear that ‘traditional authorities’ and the church have condemned in the strongest terms the news that two lesbian women have announced they are to marry.

There is a possibility that the ‘traditional authorities’ will try to stop the marriage going ahead.

Timothy Velabo Mtsetfwa, the acting ‘traditional prime minister’ told the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, ‘This is really worrying as we have never heard of such in the country. It is the first of its kind and we are not taking it lightly.’

Mtsetfwa refused to elaborate on his veiled threat not to take the couple’s decision to marry ‘lightly’. When the Times asked him if anything would be done to the couple, Mtsetfwa said it would be difficult for now to state if the matter would be taken up or not.

The fact that the couple’s decision is private and nothing whatsoever to do with the Swazi state was lost on Mtsetfwa.

As I have written before homosexuality is demonised by the media and those in power in Swaziland so again it is no surprise that Mtsetfwa went on to condemn the two women in very ugly terms.

He was joined in his condemnation by Bishop Steven Masilela, President of the Swaziland Conference of Churches (SCC).

Masilela, who clearly doesn’t get out enough, said, ‘It is shocking that there would be people who would have the guts of informing the whole nation that they are lesbians.’

Of course, in Swaziland gays and lesbians cannot legally marry so the proposed ‘wedding’ is purely symbolic, but that hasn’t stopped Masilela getting the church involved.

‘As a church, it shows that we have failed to transform our values. I believe we should have been the ones making sure that people understand what a sin is,” he told the Times.

So with the ‘traditional authorities’ and the church ganging up on them, we can expect a few more fireworks before the wedding takes place in six months time.

NOW THEY COME FOR THE PASTORS

First it was the journalists and now it’s the pastors.

Nobody in Swaziland is allowed to say a word against the king and if they do they get hauled before the traditional authorities to ‘explain themselves’.

The latest to feel the wrath of authority are pastors at the Swaziland Conference of Churches (SCC) who have been called before the ‘traditional authorities’ at Ludzidzini Royal Residence by acting Ludzidzini Governor (traditional prime minister) Timothy Velabo (TV) Mtsetfwa.

Members of the SCC executive had to explain why one of their pastors, Justice Dlamini dared to tell a congregation of 300 Christians that the Incwala ceremony was evil and witchcraft was practiced there.

The Incwala ceremony, which takes place each December is one of those national rituals (the Umhlanga Reed Dance is another) which traditional authorities claims unites the Swazi nation as they seek blessings from ancestors. It is also a time to renew the kingship of the nation which in practice means young men pay homage to King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

The SCC executive members were told to explain what the purpose of Dlamini’s comments was and why they allowed him to talk about the Incwala during the prayer service. When they were released they were warned they could be called back for a further grilling.

Mtsetfwa has previously said that he took Dlamini’s comments seriously and his ‘loose tongue’ was a serious cause for concern.

I don’t know what Dlamini’s game was, he is, I think many readers would agree, more than a little eccentric at the best of times, but that doesn’t stop him having the right to speak as he pleases.

The SEC members are not the only ones to be hauled in to be given a grilling by the state and traditional authorities. Mfomfo Nkhambule, an outspoken critic of the ruling regime was also taken to task for articles he wrote in the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper.

He was hauled in by Swaziland’s state police and threatened with torture if he continued to criticise the king. He was later dropped from his traditional regiment, threatened with banishment from his homeland, and his family was threatened because he refused to be silenced.

SWAZI KING IN ANOTHER HIV AIDS ROW

Swaziland’s King Mswati III is once again at the centre of a row over HIV / AIDS testing.

This time it revolves around news that he has ordered his staff to undergo compulsory HIV testing.

The Times Sunday, an independent newspaper, reported that Indvuna TV Mthethwa had told the newspaper on the record that this was the case. The newspaper electronically recorded his comments.

Once the news was out the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch,was quick to rubbish the story with Bheki Dlamini, Chief Officer in the King’s Office, saying, ‘At no time did the King or the King’s Office call on staff within the institution, to do what the report claimed.’

Dlamini says Mthethwa denies having made the statement: Times Sunday editor Mbongeni Mbingo stands by the story.

I don’t know the truth of the story but it sounds plausible that the king’s office wanted people to be tested. We know that King Mswati himself is personally worried about contracting the HIV virus and that each time he chooses a new wife, the woman selected is required to undergo HIV testing before the marriage can go ahead.

Also we know that there is mild hysteria in Swaziland over HIV. In May 2009 there were calls for people with the virus to be branded on their buttocks to advertise the fact.

In February 2009, King Mswati was blamed for the spread of HIV in Swaziland because of his lifestyle which encouraged Swazi men to disrespect women.

King Mswati has at least 13 wives (we don’t know the figure for sure because this is information the Swazi people are not allowed to have) and this encourages polygamy (men having more than one wife) in the kingdom.

AIDS activists in Swaziland also blame King Mswati III for doing too little to spread prevention messages and promote condom usage and HIV testing, and they say he sets a bad example by having so many wives.

‘The nation, especially polygamous men, look up to the monarch,’ Sphiwe Hlophe, who runs the support group Swaziland for Positive Living, told the Associated Press.

King Mswati has a poor record on HIV in Swaziland. He was slow in recognising there was an HIV problem in the kingdom and despite the urging of the international community he would not admit that the virus was in Swaziland and refused to declare a state of emergency. He did this even though it was estimated that 90 percent of the beds at Mbabane Government hospital were filled by people with AIDS.