Swaziland King appoints another eight of his family to influential posts as nepotism rages

King Mswati III, the absolute monarch of Swaziland (eSwatini), has appointed another eight members of his family to influential groups in the latest round of nepotistic appointments.

They are among 19 people appointed to serve.

Attorney General Sifiso Mafelenkhosini M. Khumalo, himself appointed by the King, announced the changes on Wednesday (14 October 2020).

The eSwatini Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, reported Prince Matatazela, Prince Masuku, Prince Sibhimbi Tandlatiyagezana and Prince Mandlenkhosi Rowland Dlamini had been appointed to the King’s Advisory Committee, also known as Liqoqo.

It added, ‘Prince Mandlenkhosi currently serves as a Board member of the eSwatini Observer and the eSwatini Investment Promotion Authority (EIPA).’

Prince Mguqiso has been appointed to chair the Land Management Board to replace the late Prince Phinda. The King also appointed four members to serve on the Civil Service Commission, including Prince Ngangabani and Princess Nkosingumenzi.

The King also appointed Princess Msindvose to the new Citizenship Board.

The Swaziland News, an online newspaper, reported the newly-appointed members of the various councils would collectively take more than E12 million annually as salaries. In Swaziland seven in ten of the 1.2 million population have incomes of less than E35 or US$2.

Prime Minister Ambrose Dlamini, himself appointed by the King, had previously announced that hiring was frozen by government because of the present economic crisis in the kingdom.

The News added appointments to the Citizenship Board also included the King’s father-in law Chief Ngangaza and the Queen Mother Ntombi Tfwala’s relative, Vusi Tfwala.

Earlier this week King Mswati appointed his first-born son Prince Sicalo to become principal secretary, the top civil servant, at the Ministry of Defence. Recently, Prince Lindani was appointed director of economic affairs at the King’s Office.

After the most recent national election in 2018, the King appointed eight members of his family to the Senate and six to the House of Assembly. He also appointed 17 members of his own family to the kingdom’s two most influential advisory committees; Liqoqo and the Ludzidzini Council, a group of senior traditionalists centred around the King’s Ludzidzini Palace.  

The King also appointed a further 11 princes and princesses to five other committees. 

See also

Swaziland absolute monarch appoints more family members to top positions as nepotism grows https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2020/10/swaziland-absolute-monarch-appoints.html

 

Swaziland’s king appoints 28 members of his family to kingdom’s committees and board

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/04/swazilands-absolute-monarch-appoints-28.html

STILL NO NEW SWAZILAND UNIVERSITY

Maybe it’s a coincidence, or maybe it’s a campaign, but the Times of Swaziland published two letters from readers on the same day praising Limkokwing University and pleading for it to open up a campus in Swaziland.

Limkokwing is a private university based in Malaysia that is expanding rapidly across the world.

The university has an on-off, on-off relationship with Swaziland and has been promising to set up in the kingdom for a couple of years now. But every time it sets a deadline the date comes and goes, but no university appears.

The latest deadline (missed again) was next month (February 2010).

But now the Swaziland Minister of Education and Training Wilson Ntshangase has confirmed Limkokwing will not be opening in Swaziland any time soon

‘There are a lot of issues that we still have to iron out before they can open. Furthermore, these guys are now making ridiculous demands which they did not make when they first came here. For instance, they now want us to pay scholarships for 1000 students for ten years! They also want to be exempted from paying tax and not be required to pay rentals for the premises they want to occupy,’ he told the Weekend Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III.

Limkokwing has a controversial history of global expansion. When it went into Botswana in 2007 it was beset with complaints about the poor quality of teaching and concerns over whether it was good enough to be called a ‘university’.

It originally promised to set up in Swaziland if the Swazi Government put forward E3million (about 430,000 US dollars) to pay the scholarship of students.

That money has not been paid, so – unsurprisingly since Limkokwing is a business and not a charity (as many private universities are) – no campus has yet opened. When the Weekend Observer visited the site of the proposed campus in Mbabane, Swaziland’s capital, it found, ‘The entire premises are so terribly bushy and resemble an abandoned zoo’.

Swaziland has only one university, the state-run University of Swaziland which has King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, as Chancellor. One of his (many) half-brothers Prince Phinda is chair of the governing council.

For many years there have been doubts about whether the kingdom which has a population of one million people, 70 percent of whom live in abject poverty, earning less than one US dollar a day, can afford a university.

Personally, I don’t think it can so there’s no chance that the Swazi Government can come up with scholarships for Limkokwing. Only this month the Swazi Government forced budget cuts of 14 percent on all departments in an effort to stave off a financial meltdown in the kingdom.

Even if the money was available, I don’t think Limkokwing is the answer to Swaziland’s need for highly educated people as its credentials as an institution of high learning are in doubt.

Recently the university advertised for lecturing staff to teach at the 30 universities it says it will set up across the world ‘over the next few years’. Potential staff were required to have at least a bachelor degree and some teaching experience. Hardly the qualifications usually expected of a university lecturer.

WHAT IS SWAZILAND UNIVERSITY FOR?

Swaziland’s only independent daily newspaper has called for a probe and audit of the kingdom’s only university.

The Times of Swaziland in an editorial says the University of Swaziland (UNISWA) spends millions of emalengeni a year, and asks whether Swazis are getting ‘value for money’.

The Times goes on to ask, ‘Are some of the unemployed graduates unemployed because they are no longer relevant for the job market or are they victims of a government that is failing to provide employment despite knowing very well what it needs to do to lure investment our way?’

Memories are short in Swaziland. A Commission of Inquiry into UNISWA reported in 2006 (it was widely covered by the Swaziland media at the time). The Commission set up by the Swaziland Minister of Education (Constance Simelane at the time) investigated a wide range of issues, including the relationship between the university administration and students, the qualifications held by teaching staff, the transparency of decision making in the university and the accountability of the university’s governing council.

UNISWA’s administration refused for three years to take part in the inquiry because it said the Commission would support students in their grievances against the university.

Eventually (but reluctantly) the administration took part.

In its report, the Commission said the university administration tended to believe that its students were militants and therefore needed a firm hand, which fuelled conflict between the two (Swazi Observer, 7 March 2006). The Commission called on the university administration to improve channels of communication and to open dialogue with the students.

Anyone who has been following events at UNISWA since that report was published will know that nothing changed. Throughout 2007 and 2008 the students were in dispute with the university’s administration over the implication of a semesterisation programme at UNISWA. After class boycotts and violence, the Swaziland High Court ruled that the university administration was wrong to implement semesterisation and instructed it to consult with students.

Only yesterday (18 January 2009), the Times Sunday reported that students accused the Vice Chancellor of going ahead with an inquiry into circumstances that led to vandalism of property during a boycott by the students last year — and the students are opposed to the inquiry.

So, the Times can have its probe if it must, but we shouldn’t expect anything to come from it. In Swaziland the best way to ignore a problem is to have an inquiry into it. This takes time (years in the UNISWA case) and takes the heat away from those under investigation. When the report is eventually published it gets publicity for a day or so and then gets hidden in a cupboard.

There are some real questions that need to be asked about UNISWA. It is a government-run institution with King Mswati III as its Chancellor and the King’s brother Prince Phinda is the unelected chair of the university council. With such a set up it is unsurprising that the university is often criticised for its lack of academic freedom. If you are an academic at the university and you upset the powers that be you are finished.

The Times of Swaziland thinks that UNISWA may be a waste of money. The newspaper may have a point. In October 2008 the King in his address to graduating students told them they should go abroad to find jobs because there were none available for them in Swaziland. That was a damning (unspoken) admission that UNISWA is not operating in the interests of Swaziland. What is the point of educating people at university level when there is nothing for them to do once they graduate?

In the past year we hear news that two independent universities may be opening in Swaziland. According to reports both should be operating by now, but neither is. I have my doubts that either of them (one a ‘Christian medical’ university and the other a ‘business’ university) will contribute much to the needs of Swaziland.

That said, I think this does give us an excellent opportunity to debate what a university in Swaziland ought to be doing and how best to achieve it.

See also

UNIVERSITY OF SWAZILAND