TOP KING’S AIDE PRINCE LOGCOGCO DIES

Prince Mangaliso Logcogco, one of King Mswati III’s most trusted lieutenants, who was at the centre of a child-sex scandal, has died aged 67.

Prince Logcogco, described in Swaziland as a ‘senior prince’, was chair of the shady King’s Advisory Council, also known as Liqoqo, that operates on behalf of King Mswati, who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. He was also chair of Tibiyo TakaNgwane, the conglomerate that is in effect owned by the King.

Prince Logcogco had a long history as an anti-democrat. In 2012, he supported King Mswati when he overturned the Swazi Constitution and refused to sack his Prime Minister and Government after the House of Assembly had legitimately passed a vote of no confidence. According to the constitution, the King was obliged to dismiss the government, but he refused to do so.

In 2011, Prince Logcogco called for a state of emergency to be declared to tackle the on-going economic crisis in the kingdom. This would have been an act against the Swazi constitution and among other things would have allowed the state to impose wage cuts on public servants without consultation with trade unions. 

To justify taking power, he claimed, incorrectly, that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had advised the government to declare the state of emergency.

In 2010, Prince Logcogco made international headlines when it was revealed he had fathered a child with a girl when she was aged 13 or 14. Calls from child protection agencies and other NGOs for him to be investigated fell on deaf ears. 

At the time the Swaziland Democracy Campaign (SDC) asked the Swazi Police to investigate the prince over allegations that he committed statutory rape. 

The SDC said the girl was legally a minor (under the age of 16) ‘who was in no position to legally consent to sex with a man old enough to be her grandfather’.

He also faced allegations that he sexually abused the four-year girl he had fathered.

In 2010, the Swaziland Solidarity Network reported, ‘Logcogco is a polygamist whose number of wives is unknown. He also has numerous children out of wedlock, many of whom he has no personal relationship with. Like his cousin, King Mswati, he still holds on to backward views of expressing his manhood through his virility. The existence of such attitudes amongst people who are role models to the country’s youth is disturbing and goes a long way towards explaining why the country currently has the highest [HIV] infection rate in the whole world.’ 

On Monday (2 June 2014), Tibiyo TakaNgwane Managing Director Themba Dlamini told the Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by the King, Swaziland had ‘lost a gallant prince who had left remarkable deeds behind’. 

Prince Logcogco reportedly died at a hospital in South Africa. 

See also

'INVESTIGATE PRINCE FOR CHILD SEX'

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2010/08/investigate-prince-for-child-sex.html

  

CHILD SEX PRINCE NOT SCARED OF HIV

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2010/08/child-sex-prince-not-scared-of-hiv.html

 

EVEN KING MSWATI ATTACKS LOGCOGCO 

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2010/08/even-king-mswati-attacks-logogco.html

KING'S MAN AND STATE OF EMERGENCY

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/07/kings-man-and-state-of-emergency.html

‘COUP D’ÉTAT TAKEN PLACE’ - KING’S MAN

The temperature in the dispute between traditional authorities in Swaziland and the official government has been raised by the Chairman of the King’s Advisory body Liqoqo who said a ‘coup d’état’ had taken place against the monarch.

Prince Logcogco said that state-controlled radio and television in Swaziland had refused to broadcast a press conference hosted by the ‘traditional’ Prime Minister Timothy Velabo Mtetwa.

During the conference Mtetwa lambasted the government for not obeying King Mswati III’s instructions on ending a five-week-long teachers strike in the kingdom. The king ordered all teachers to return to work and told the government to enter into discussions to settle the dispute. The teachers went back to work, but the government refused to reinstate teachers who had been sacked for striking, thereby seeming to defy the king.

In Swaziland, where King Mswati is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, the king’s word is law and nobody is allowed to disagree with him. Mtetwa said as much in his press conference.

Now, Prince Logcogco has told the Swazi News, one of the few media outlets in the kingdom not under government control, that SBIS radio and STVA television were ordered not to broadcast Mtetwa’s criticism of the government.

Mtetwa has the official title of Ludzidzini Acting Governor, but he is commonly known as the ‘traditional Prime Minister’. He is said to speak for the king and is considered to be more powerful than the nominal Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini.

Prince Logcogco told the Swazi News a ‘government official’ who he chose not to name ordered the radio and TV not to broadcast Mtetwa’s comments. He is reported saying, ‘They were merely ordered by a known person under some threat of harm. To me it is the culprit who must face trial for a case of treason. These institutions belong to the state. What was done is a coup. He must be punished. It will set a wrong example to let such an act go unpunished.’

He said that Mtetwa was conveying a message from the monarch at the press conference. ‘Consider further that SBIS and STVA are state institutions. If the blocking of the broadcasts is not a criminal act punishable as treason, then Swaziland has had a successful coup,’ the newspaper reported him saying.

Later, Chief Executive of the Swaziland Television Authority (STVA) Bongani ‘S’gcokosiyancinca’ Dlamini said all enquiries regarding the gagging of Mtetwa should be directed to the Ministry of Information Communication and Technology, which controls broadcasting in the kingdom.

See also

WE MUST OBEY THE KING – SWAZI PM

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2012/08/we-must-obey-king-swazi-pm.html

‘THE SWAZILAND KING’S WORD IS LAW’

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-swaziland-kings-word-is-law.html

PRAISE FROM SDC FOR SOUTH AFRICA

Swaziland Democracy Campaign

11 October 2011

SOURCE

SDC thanks SA government for heeding democratic reforms before bailouts!

The Swaziland Democratic Campaign would like to thank the South African government for their principled stance against Mswati’s loan request. We are encouraged by reports in the media that the government of South Africa has heeded our call for democratic reforms before bail outs.

It has already been revealed that King Mswati appears to be reluctant to agree to SA’s tough loan conditions and has instead opted to stall the process as he scouts for conditions for free bail outs.

Already, South African Treasury spokesperson Bulelwa Boqwana has confirmed that Swaziland has still not signed the required paper work for the first tranche of the loan which was supposed to have been given to Swaziland as early as August. This is hardly surprising news to us because immediately after the King’s trusted advisor, Prince Mahlaba, declared that they would not surrender their fiefdom to ‘foreigners’ for E2.4 Billion, we knew that the monarch was not prepared to negotiate democratic reforms.

This should send a loud message to the government of South Africa about the cavalier attitude which this dictatorship exhibits against anyone who even dares to suggest democratic reforms. In a recent interview with Aljazeera, Chairman of the king’s advisory council, Prince Logcogco, unashamedly told the world that Swaziland does not need to be ‘enslaved’ by democracy. His penchant hate and misunderstanding of democracy was exposed as moronic in its insipid form. And this is the same people who advise the monarch on the economic and political path the country should take? What a shame!

There is enough reason for South Africa to lose patience with Swaziland. As the monarch continues to stall processes that would see the country avoid an economic disaster of massive proportions, South Africa will continue to urge closer to the very consequence it hoped to avoid by bailing the country out—total collapse and flow of exiles into the Republic.

We in the SDC continue to ask the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU) and the South African government what exactly should the people of Swaziland do to show their displeasure at the current despotic regime?

This year alone there have been more than 30 strikes and pickets from different organisations calling for democratic reforms. The people of Swaziland have done everything to highlight their suffering in the world to a total silent SADC and AU. These are the same institutions that blame ‘imperialism’ whenever this monster lurks its ugly head yet they equally fail to act against recalcitrant states hiding behind the opportunistic veil of diplomacy.

Should the Swazi people start killing each other before the world wakes up to this time bomb that Swaziland is or it should slide into a Zimbabwe style kind of banana state?

We are encouraged though that despite the silence of almost all the African leaders, there is heightened momentum for change inside the country. The SDC, together with genuine friends of the Swazi people, will continue to fight the Swazi despotic monarchy side by side until final victory.

We know that the struggle in Swaziland is correct, just, and one day will succeed. Martin Luther king was right, evil thrives only when good men do nothing.

REPORTER SNEAKS INTO SWAZILAND

Al Jazeera blog

10 October 2011

By Tania Page

SOURCE

Frustrations fizzle in Swaziland

We were in Swaziland unofficially because we had been warned by other journalists and our contacts in the country that the government can be unfriendly to foreign journalists.

This put the team a little on-edge. We hoped nobody would ask too many questions.

We met Mario Masuku, a prominent opposition leader whose party has been banned by the country’s absolute ruler, King Mswati, at a secret location. Afterwards, cameraman Chris and producer Gladys left me at our hotel while they drove him to another safe location.

We were all nervous after encountering several police roadblocks during the day, so when a sharp knock came on the door and Chris urgently told me to pack my bags as we had to leave immediately, my head (and heart) went into overdrive. Then came Gladys’ unmistakable giggle - the best pranks are always the most believable.

We were not laughing quite so hard two days later when we met one of the king’s advisors. He rules with emergency powers the opposition leader we had met vehemently opposes.

But Prince Mangaliso Logcogco was sceptical about protests this year calling for the king to relinquish some of his powers, suggesting they were fuelled by social media and exaggerated in the outside world.

The king had effectively turned Swaziland into a welfare state, he said. “What are you going to eat?” if there is democracy he wondered. “You’ll be a hungry slave”.

While protests in Swaziland have been large, they have hardly been on the scale of those seen during the Arab Spring.

Masuku, who spent four years in prison accused of sedition and terrorism believes that is only because nearly a whole generation under the age of 40 has been depoliticised, believing they have no say in the political process.

Still, he remains convinced change in Swaziland is possible in his lifetime.

But while monarchies elsewhere in the world have changed with the times, it does not appear as if King Mswati is prepared to take a back seat just yet.

Tania Page is a producer and reporter for Al Jazeera English, based in London.

See also

POOR SWAZI ANGRY WITH THEIR KING

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/10/poor-swazi-angry-with-their-king.html

PM ‘WANTED TO SHUT DOWN OBSERVER’

Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister, tried to get the Swazi Observer group closed down after the newspapers ran reports critical of him and called for him to resign or be sacked.

Dlamini went to Tibiyo, the company that owns the Observer group on behalf of King Mswati III, but was told to go away.

This has emerged after Musa Ndlangamandla, the Observer group editor-in-chief, revealed on his Facebook site that Dlamini had convinced the king he was a ‘security risk’.

As I reported yesterday (25 July 2011) Ndlangamandla says now the King believes this to be true he has been blacklisted and is not allowed anywhere near the King, who is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

Previously, Ndlangamandla had been a key member of the King’s team, accompanying the monarch on overseas’ trips and wrote speeches for him.

Since Ndlangamandla wrote on Facebook his friends have been filling in some of the background.

They say Barnabas Dlamini had become angry because the Swazi Observer had written articles critical of him. These included a series of articles about business deals the PM had been involved in, and his part in a long-running land scam deal, involving senior politicians and members of the Swazi Royal Family.

The Observer newspapers also ran reports from trade unionists and civil society groups calling for Dlamini to resign as Prime Minister.

In a column in his own newspaper Thulani Thwala, the editor of the Observer, called on Dlamini to quit.

Later, Alec Lushaba, the Weekend Observer editor, also said Dlamini must go.

Dlamini was so incensed by the reports he went to Tibiyo which is chaired by Prince Logcogco, who is also chair of Liqoqo the king’s advisory council, demanding Ndlangamandla be fired.

One account also has it that Dlamini demanded the newspapers be closed down.

Logcogco backed Ndlangamandla. At this point, sources say, Dlamini threatened to resign as Prime Minister because he believed Logcogco and Ndlangamandla were out against him.

In March 2011, a report circulated the world that Dlamini had threatened to resign (no specific reason was given). He later denied it. But he did tell the Times Sunday, ‘there were people who were out to ruin him’.

See also

PM SAYS EDITOR IS ‘SECURITY RISK’

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/07/pm-says-editor-is-security-risk.html

DID SWAZI EDITOR OFFER TO RESIGN?

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/03/did-swazi-pm-offer-to-resign.html