MYSTERY OVER QATAR ‘LOAN’

South Africa Press Association

13 October 2011

SOURCE

‘Swazis may have turned to Qatar’

Swaziland has not yet signed an agreement for a R2.4 billion loan from South Africa, but it is not clear if it has instead turned to Qatar for aid, the National Treasury said today (13 October 2011).

“All I know is that the document has not been signed. We don't know what the delay is,” Treasury spokeswoman Bulelwa Boqwana said.

“They never came back to sign.”

She was responding to a Daily Sun report that Swazi King Mswati had turned down the loan offer from South Africa and instead struck a deal with Qatar for R10bn in aid.

“An agreement has been reached and it is just a matter of signing,” the newspaper quoted Swaziland Solidarity Network spokesman Lucky Lukhele as saying on Wednesday.

South Africa made the loan offer at the beginning of August. The first tranche was due to be paid on August 31. However, no payment was made because Swaziland has not signed the document.

Various Swazi newspapers had reported that the country had appealed to Qatar for financial help without the conditions South Africa had attached to its loan.

South Africa's loan would have been paid out in three stages, each conditional on fiscal reforms required by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

As part of the agreement Swaziland had to: align its fiscal policy to IMF standards, allow South African experts unhindered access to improve the country's fiscal and budgetary plans, create platforms to attract foreign direct investment, and institute reforms to stabilise Swaziland's economy.

The kingdom was desperate for financial support after losing about 60 percent of its revenue from the Southern African Customs Union, which had slumped due to slowing trade. - Sapa

ARRESTS AT SWAZI STUDENT PROTEST

AFP / SAPA

25 August 2011

SOURCE

Students protest during Swazi festival

Mbabane - Students in Swaziland protesting against the closure of their university threatened to derail a traditional festival on Wednesday, leading to seven arrests.

The demonstrators tried to breach a police cordon in Ezulwini at the start of the annual Umhlanga or Reed Dance, when thousands of women gather to perform before King Mswati III, a journalist witnessed.

“Why is there no money for education when there is money to hold the Umhlanga?” demanded protesters who were quickly surrounded by dozens of anti-riot police.

Police briefly detained seven protesters to stop them getting close to the area where the women were gathering, said Sibusiso Nhlabatsi, vice president of the University of Swaziland's Student Representative Council.

The university was shut earlier this month amid the country's financial crisis and students fear they will not be prepared for exams in November unless classes resume in the new academic year.

The Umhlanga, the most important event on the Swazi traditional calendar, sees 60 000 unmarried Swazi women make their way through the Ezulwini Valley during a week of ceremonial activities culminating with a mass dance in front of the king.

The girls are fed and housed by the monarch in the five days leading up to the spectacle, after which he traditionally selects a bride.

Mswati is often blamed for Swaziland's economic woes, spending money on luxury cars and palaces for his 13 wives.

The small, landlocked kingdom has been hard hit by cuts in revenues from a regional customs union, the government's main source of income. - Sapa-AFP

See also

POLICE ATTACK SWAZI STUDENTS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/08/police-attack-swazi-students.html

OUTCRY OVER JUDGE’S SECRET HEARING

South African Press Association

22 August 2011

SOURCE

Outcry over secretive hearing on Swazi judge

National and international law bodies on Monday (22 August 2011) strongly criticised the closed-door hearings conducted by Swaziland's Judicial Service Commission (JSC) against Judge Thomas Masuku.

The Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) called on the commission to "deliberate carefully" on the matter.

"The LSSA is concerned that the hearing by the JSC in Swaziland against Swazi High Court Judge Thomas Masuku went ahead behind closed doors earlier this month.

"This was despite calls from the Law Society of Swaziland, the SADC Lawyers Association (SADC LA) and civil society organisations ... to hold the hearing -- which dealt with alleged misconduct on the part of Judge Masuku -- in public," it said in a statement.

The SADC LA had also made funding available for outside observers to attend the hearing.

"The LSSA urges the JSC in Swaziland to deliberate carefully on the matter against Judge Masuku as the outcome of the matter will have serious ramifications for the independence of the judiciary and the profession in a country [with] which South Africa has such close ties.

"The LSSA joins other regional legal bodies in expressing grave concern about the turbulence and uncertainty in the judiciary in Swaziland, and what appears to be a breakdown in the rule of law and good governance," it said.

According to reports, among the more serious charges brought against Masuku at the JSC hearing which ended on August 11, was that he had associated with elements seeking unlawful "regime change" in Swaziland, and that he had sought to destabilise high court judges and staff.

It was further alleged, among other things, that he had engaged in an illicit love affair with a judicial colleague.

In June this year, Judge Masuku was suspended for allegedly insulting Swaziland's King Mswati III.

Swaziland Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi told the BBC at the time that Masuku was accused of using the expression "forked-tongued" in a ruling referring to the king.

In a separate statement on Monday, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), the SADC LA and the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) described the charges that were levelled against Masuku as "obviously misdirected and unsubstantiated".

They noted that the Swaziland JSC had met last Friday, a full week after the hearing of the charges against Masuku.

"Yet no decision has been communicated, nor have reasons been provided by the JSC, for the rulings made during the JSC's hearing of August 11.

"The ICJ, SADC LA and SALC believe that the failure on the part of the JSC to expeditiously resolve the Judge Masuku matter, when his hearing involved such obviously misdirected and unsubstantiated charges, only further underlines the judicial crisis existing in Swaziland."

The three organisations said in the statement that they were "dismayed at the unfairness and irregularity of the initial charges put to Judge Masuku and of the subsequent hearing and attendant process". -- Sapa

See also

SWAZI POLICE STOP LAWYER’S PROTEST

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/08/swazi-police-stop-lawyers-protest.html

ZUMA ‘DEFENDS’ LOAN TO SWAZI KING

AFP / SAPA

13 August 2011

SOURCE

Zuma defends loan to Swaziland

President Jacob Zuma has defended the R2.4-billion loan government has granted Swaziland, the SABC reported on Saturday morning.

"If a country is your neighbour, should you allow your neighbour to collapse because you hold certain political views? Will that not impact on you?" Zuma was quoted as saying.

Zuma was responding to criticism from Swaziland's democracy activists, who cited King Mswati III 's lavish lifestyle.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan on Thursday defended bail-out for Swaziland and said he hoped it would encourage democratic shifts in Africa's last absolute monarchy.

South Africa has come in for criticism over the loan from Swazi activists, who had lobbied Pretoria to withhold the bail-out until Swaziland's King Mswati III agreed to democratic reforms.

"Will this loan encourage genuine change? We hope so," Gordhan told journalists.

"I think it's in the interests of Swaziland that there are changes in that country which are compatible with what the Swazi population want, which allows for free and open political activity and ... respect for the position of his majesty on the one hand and democratic institutions on the other hand.

"But that's for the Swazi people to actually develop for themselves."

The South African government is acting as guarantor to the R2.4-billion loan from the Reserve Bank to the central bank of Swaziland, backed by payments from a regional customs union.

Gordhan said the loan would be paid out in three stages, each conditional on fiscal reforms agreed by Swaziland and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"All of those things will have to be delivered as each tranche requires," he said, adding that political changes were also part of the deal.

The loan also requires Mswati to open dialogue on political reforms in the tiny landlocked kingdom, which shares a border with South Africa.

"We must reiterate that it's not in South Africa's interest to have a collapsing Swaziland economy," said Gordhan.

Swaziland has been battling to stay solvent after losing 60% of its revenues from a regional customs union, the government's main source of income, last year.

Dissidents want Mswati to legalise political parties, which were banned in 1973, and commit to a transitional government and elections within four years. -- Sapa, AFP

See also

WHEN MSWATI COMES BEGGING AGAIN

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/08/when-mswati-comes-begging-again.html