Swazi Media Commentary: Nation magazine

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Thursday, 12 December 2019

U.S. Ambassador to Swaziland renews criticism of King’s lavish spending while people live in poverty

US Ambassador to Swaziland (eSwatini) Lisa Peterson has renewed her criticism of absolute monarch King Mswati III’s decision to buy his family a fleet of Rolls-Royce cars.

Reports on the number purchased have ranged from 13 to 15 and they were reported to have cost up to US$4 million.

Swaziland also bought him 126 BMW cars and motorbikes to escort the Royal family around the kingdom.

In an interview with The Nation, a monthly independent magazine in Swaziland, Peterson said, ‘Since the arrival of the Rolls-Royce fleet [in November 2019] I have both witnessed directly and heard about the level of anger among emaSwati [the people of Swaziland] over these cars that were “purchased privately.”

‘My initial anger was at the excessive luxury enjoyed by a tiny segment of the country, while 40 percent of the population lives on less than E29 per day [US$2], according to the World Bank.’

She added that people in Swaziland felt bound by ‘a cultural expectation’ to keep quiet while more powerful people took advantage of their goodwill and respect.

She said, “Goodwill and respect should be earned based on a person’s actions, which must be guided by giving the utmost consideration to human dignity.

‘They require that a person deal honestly with those around him, particularly those who depend on his conscientious leadership. By always dealing honestly, a leader gains the trust and respect of his public.’

Ambassador Peterson said the United States taxpayers invested E7.5 billion (US$500 million) in Swaziland for the fight against HIV and AIDS. She hinted the future of this investment was threatened.

She said, ‘If your brother’s family is sick but he doesn’t have the money to care for them, you assist without question.

‘But if your brother continues to count on you to pay for his family’s health care even after he buys himself a Rolls-Royce you will surely speak up to question how he can afford one and not the other.’

This was not the first time Peterson had criticised King Mswati for his lavish spending. Last month [November 2019] authorities in Swaziland said they wanted to censor her future public speeches after she criticised the King for his spending on the luxury Rolls-Royce and BMW cars.

An online newspaper the Swaziland News reported she was now under police surveillance.

Peterson had made comments while giving certificates to young entrepreneurs at Nhlangano on 8 November 2019.

A transcript of her speech issued by the US Embassy in Swaziland quoted her saying, ‘While the government continued using its existing vehicle fleet, the palace sees fit to acquire more than a dozen Rolls-Royce vehicles with a minimum price tag of E52.5 million. To accompany this royal fleet, there is now an even larger fleet of official escort vehicles, purchased with public funds.’

She said, ‘It is exceedingly difficult for development partners to continue advocating for assistance to eSwatini when such profligate spending or suspicious giving is taking place.’

She said, ‘However, should the people of eSwatini really be comfortable with such disregard for the perilous fiscal state of the country, particularly with so many of His Majesty’s subjects living below the international poverty line?’

Following her comments the former chief executive officer in the King’s Office, now Shiselweni Regional Administrator, Vincent Mhlanga, told the Eswatini Observer (formerly Swazi Observer), a newspaper in effect owned by the King, that he was angered by the Ambassadors speech.

The Observer quoted him saying, ‘Going forward, when she comes to the region for any activity or event, we need to first know what she will say.’

The Swaziland News reported, ‘The Regional Administrator said it was unfortunate that he was not present when the Ambassador made these sentiments, otherwise, he could have stopped her from continuing with the speech.’

The Swaziland News also reported that Ambassador Peterson was under police surveillance. It said plain clothes police posing as journalists took photographs of the Ambassador during her visit to Nhlangano.

eSwatini Police Spokesperson Superintendent Phindile Vilakati told the Swaziland News, ‘We go to any gathering and collect information, it’s not like we’re only targeting the American Ambassador. We have been doing this for a long time, collecting information for our files.’

Ambassador Peterson had previously criticised the absolute monarchy in Swaziland. In an article published in November 2018 by both of Swaziland’s two national daily newspapers she called for the decree that puts King Mswati in power as an absolute monarch to be repealed. She also called for political parties to be allowed to contest elections.

In 2016, after reports that three of the King’s wives had taken an entourage of 100 people on a shopping trip to Toronto, Canada, Peterson warned Swaziland that the kingdom might not receive further food aid from her country because of the King’s ‘lavish spending’ on holidays.

News24 in South Africa reported at the time Peterson said the US had limited funds for drought relief. She said, ‘When we hear of the lavish spending by the Swazi royal family – especially while a third of their citizens need food aid – it becomes difficult to encourage our government to make more emergency aid available. You can’t expect international donors to give more money to the citizens of Swaziland than their own leaders give them.’

South African media reported that the queens, their bodyguards, protocol officials, family and other ‘support staff’ were on the trip that was expected to last eight days.

Lisa Peterson, US Ambassador to Swaziland (eSwatini)

Wednesday, 27 November 2019

Swaziland editor writes absolute monarch is ‘unhinged’ and ‘a narcissist’ and has assumed ‘godly status’

Bheki Makhubu, a magazine editor in Swaziland (eSwatini), has written that absolute monarch King Mswati III is ‘unhinged’. He also called the king ‘a first class narcissist who no longer identifies with his people’.

Makhubu made his comments in the November 2019 edition of the Nation, a magazine that supports democracy in the kingdom.

Makhubu gained international attention in 2014 when he and writer and human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko were sentenced to two years in jail after writing and publishing articles in the Nation that were critical of the Swazi judiciary.

They were released by the Swazi Supreme Court on 30 June 2015 after they had served 15 months of their sentences.

In his latest article, Makhubu criticised the king for taking delivery of a fleet of 15 Rolls-Royce cars for himself and his wives while public servants were being beaten by police on the streets as they marched for more pay. The cars were reported to have cost about US$6 million.

He wrote, ‘In truth, luxury does not even begin to describe those vehicles. Custom made to order, some of them even arrived in the most ridiculous of colours, such as pink.’

Makhubu’s article is significant because freedoms of the media, speech and information are severely restricted in the kingdom. State broadcasting is heavily censored by the Government whose members are not elected by the people, but chosen by King Mswati. Of the only two daily newspapers in Swaziland, one is in effect owned by the King.

Makhubu wrote, ‘After 33 years on the throne, wielding absolute power over a docile people who accept his every word as gospel, King Mswati has now assumed a godly status. He sees himself as the 14^th Apostle, after the 12 who followed Christ on earth and the 13^th who said he has seen the Almighty in His glory in heaven on the road to Damascus.’

Makhubu added, ‘It is difficult to shake away a sense that, as our government continues to moan about a depressed economy, with ordinary people continuing to sink deep into grinding poverty, King Mswati has himself detached from all this. He doesn’t believe he owes us anything.’

He concluded, ‘Our king is feeding alone at the trough. Our king has abandoned us.’

In 2015 a report from the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) concluded the arrest and detention, trial, conviction and sentencing of Makhubu and Maseko, ‘involved multiple violations of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Swaziland, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Fair Trial in Africa and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.’

Bheki Makhubu in chains during his 2014 trial: Picture source Facebook

Monday, 19 August 2019

Making media freedom in Swaziland is more than a dream

Words: Magnificent Mndebele Photo: Ihsaan Haffejee

New Frame

Magazine editor Bheki Makhubu, in spite of harassment from King Mswati III and his cronies, is undeterred in his bid to expose the regime’s wrongdoings.

Bheki Makhubu, editor of 'The Nation' magazine

The role of dissenting journalists in eSwatini (formerly Swaziland) is more crucial than ever before. But the grimy reality is that critical journalists left in Africa’s last absolute monarchy are rare to find. Bheki Makhubu, an editor of eSwatini’s monthly political magazine The Nation, is one of the few remaining in the landlocked country who isn’t scared to speak out.

“I’ve always understood that the media by its nature calls out authority and it protects the public interest,” he says. “I think by nature of human existence, people in authority need to be monitored and called to account, because otherwise, they tend to forget why they are there and sometimes they are not aware of what they are supposed to do; we need to remind them of their functions.”

To call authorities to account in eSwatini is, however, almost an impossible task because of the regime’s repressive laws towards dissidents. “This country is run by bullies,” Makhubu says at his magazine’s offices in the country’s capital, Mbabane. He frequently publishes critical stories against King Mswati III and his stooges. While working for the Times of Swaziland, the country’s oldest newspaper, Makhubu once wrote that the king is a “businessman”, a remark that forced him to issue an apology to the ruler after the paper was put under immense pressure.

On 17 March 2014, Makhubu and activist and human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko were jailed for 15 months for criticising eSwatini’s former chief justice Michael Ramodibedi. This was after a government vehicle inspector whose job it is to check whether government cars are authorised to be on the road requested authorisation from a chauffeur driving a judge in a government vehicle. Both the judge and chauffeur allegedly refused, resulting in the impounding of their car.

No one should be denied representation

“Ramodibedi had [the inspector] arrested and charged with contempt of court,” Makhubu says, adding that the inspector had requested legal representation at court which Ramodibedi allegedly denied. “I then wrote an article saying that whatever power Ramodibedi might have, he does not have the power to deny anybody the right to legal representation,” Makhubu explains. For this, he and Maseko were thrown into jail.

Makhubu says these are tactics employed to deter journalists from assuming a watchdog role. “When I walked out of that prison, almost to this day they don’t know what to do with me. I almost got complete freedom,” he says.

It’s not only journalists who interrogate officials’ actions who are deterred from pursuing what’s truly in the public interest. Makhubu says citizens of eSwatini are also barred from practising their sacrosanct rights – to debate issues directly affecting them.

“EmaSwati might say they are not oppressed because the king is there to take care of those he can take care of,” he says. “All we have to do is be on his downside. I find it utterly disgusting. As emaSwati we are not some kind of [ethnic group] lost somewhere in medieval times without any consciousness. People in this country are highly educated but they don’t like it to be known what they know, because they don’t know who they might offend.”

Grammar rules and fear of authority

Making an example of how an appetite for debate in eSwatini has been lost, Makhubu highlights how grammatically incorrect the word Eswatini is. It’s what appears on government letterheads, describing the country itself. He explains that the “s” should be capitalised regardless of any context as it represents a group of people. However, only the “e” in the word is capitalised, which ought to be so only in the beginning of a sentence.

“I’ve challenged a few experts on the isiSwati language as to why the ‘s’ is [lower case],” he says. “Nobody wants to answer. In a vibrant society, those people who know better would have stood up. But you might do that and question this guy in authority who does not know better than you, he might make your life miserable and victimise you. People are scared of that and I think that’s the saddest thing that has happened at eSwatini.”

Makhubu says the fear to speak out and to challenge the regime has escalated to the point that there’s a naturalised perception that the country only belongs to the king. “Politics over the years has tended to shift towards making everybody believe that [the country] is a real estate belonging to the king and we are simply squatters on somebody’s land. And in fact, even those who paddle that point do it for political reasons, because they know it’s not true. They say it because it’s good for the king’s ego. Unfortunately, this is done at the cost of others,” he says.

One particular case that demonstrates how far the king’s iron-fisted hand could go to compromise the rights of others is his “unthinkable act” almost two decades ago, which remains a “sore point to emaSwati.” In July 2000, the king forced two chiefs to surrender their chieftaincy status so that his older brother, Prince Maguga, could assume a chieftaincy role in both villages which are about 25km apart.

The king does what he likes

The chiefs did not cede to the order which led to the king issuing an order through the Ministry of Home Affairs to evict them along with their supporters. The chiefs and some of their supporters are still living in exile in South Africa. The king “exercised authority he did not have. Those who advised the king were trying to assert this untruth that he can do as he likes when he likes,” Makhubu says, adding, “The king’s powers are in the main constrained by Swazi laws and customs. He cannot act outside customary law on matters touching culture and tradition.”

The media has a role to challenge this perception and “to tell emaSwati that their rights are not dependent on anybody’s wishes.” However, since constructive debates are muzzled and those deemed dissidents are threatened with jail, the media is unable to effectively play its watchdog role. It’s only through Makhubu’s political magazine, with a circulation of about 5 000 copies, that he tries to push back the narratives of the establishment.

“As a [member of the] media, I don’t see myself as a political activist. I’m a journalist and I do what I do to expose the wrongs. I am not trying to lead any revolution. This freedom that I seem to have alone, sort of has made me say, ‘let me continue doing what I do. Perhaps people will be inspired by it,’” Makhubu says. But if the citizens are not inspired enough to take action, “I write to record it to history, to say to the people who will be living in Swaziland in 3019, that there were people who saw [the wrongs] and spoke about [them].”

This article was first published by New Frame.

https://www.newframe.com/making-media-freedom-in-eswatini-is-more-than-a-dream/

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