SWAZILAND KING MEETS HIS MATCH

Swaziland’s King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch may have his work cut out keeping up with the new High Commissioner from the United Kingdom.

Dr Nicola Brewer formally presented her credentials to the king this week.

Dr Brewer – her doctorate is real unlike the bogus doctorate that Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini claims – has a long history working for human rights and gender equality.

She was the first Chief Executive of the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, a job she quit to take up her appointment as UK High Commissioner to South Africa, which also has responsibility for Swaziland and Lesotho.

She is a career diplomat who has held senior public sector appointments both inside and outside the Diplomatic Service, including Director General for Regional Programmes at the UK Department for International Development (DFID), where she supervised all UK overseas bilateral aid programmes in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. She was also an executive member of DFID’s Management Board, chair of the Human Resources Committee and the Departmental diversity champion.

While she was doing this, King Mswati was taking Swaziland to the brink of starvation, decimating the economy until it is on the brink of ruin. Seven in ten of his subjects live in absolute poverty, six in ten need food aid from overseas to stay alive and the king’s crushing of human rights and civil liberties has been condemned across the globe

According to the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by the king himself, King Mswati accepted Dr Brewer’s letter of credence and thanked the United Kingdom for the assistance it had given to Swaziland in the past

He failed to mention the disgraceful way the previous UK Deputy High Commissioner Mark Norton was treated when he tried to visit political activist Mario Masuku who was in remand in jail on a trumped up terrorism charge. Lufto Dlamini, Swaziland’s Foreign Minister accused Norton of being in league with terrorists.

Nor did he mention how the previous UK High Commissioner Paul Boateng criticised the lack of democracy in Swaziland’s national elections last year (2008).

King Mswati asked that more investors from the UK come to Swaziland, although he didn’t reveal whether he wanted them to contribute to the many bogus developments that have been talked up in the kingdom recently.

Dr Brewer was diplomatic – it is her job after all – and said there might be a few educational scholarships on offer soon, but she made no promises.

DIPLOMAT DENIED ACCESS TO MASUKU

The British Deputy High Commissioner to Swaziland Mark Norton was yesterday denied permission to meet Mario Masuku, the President of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) at the Matsapha Maximum Security Prison.

Norton said he wanted to find out for himself the facts behind Masuku’s arrest and subsequent remand in custody awaiting trial.

He told the Times Sunday today (23 November 2008) he wanted to get Masuku’s side of the story after Swaziland Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini had given his side of the story at a luncheon he hosted for diplomats on Friday.

Masuku was arrested last Saturday and charged with making public statements in support of terrorism. This was one day after the Swazi Prime Minister branded four political entities (including PUDEMO) as ‘terrorist’ organisations under the Suppression of Terrorism Act 2008.

Norton wanted to find out whether or not the Swazi Government used the Suppression of Terrorism Act against Masuku reasonably.

Norton told the Times Sunday, ‘As a diplomat, my job is to inform myself of the facts and I wanted an account from PUDEMO; since PUDEMO has been prescribed, I cannot talk to them without breaking the Swazi laws. I, therefore, decided to talk to Mario Masuku to hear his side of the story.’

He added, ‘I went to Matsapha Maximum Prison this morning (Saturday), I introduced myself as the British Deputy High Commissioner and I asked to see Mario Masuku.

‘I was shown a notice which states that in the case of King versus Mario Masuku, the authorities would strictly enforce Section 16 (6) (b) of the 2005 Constitution, which suggests that only Mario’s next of kin, legal representatives and doctor have the right to see him.’

Norton said he believed that any other person could see him at the discretion of the Chief Prison Officer. He asked the Chief Prison Officer to exercise his discretion and allow him to see Masuku but he refused to do so.

Norton told the newspaper, ‘I need to establish the fact over Mario’s arrest in order to come to a view on whether the government is applying the new terrorist legislation reasonably. Since that legislation (prescription) was used against Mario within 24 hours of enactment and since I have been denied permission to talk to Mario, I have yet to form a view on whether the government acted reasonably or not.’

He said he was not pleased with the manner he was being treated because he was doing his job as a diplomat authorised to represent the UK’s interests.

Correctional Services Public Relations Officer Nomkhosi Maseko said in such sensitive matters that attracted global attention and lots of people in the kingdom, the prison officers exercised caution, strictly selective in requests for seeing Masuku.

She said their intention was not to harass the diplomat but wanted to ensure Masuku received maximum protection. Maseko said they were duty-bound to safeguard Masuku because they were too many people who wanted to see him.