Swazi Media Commentary: SPTC

Showing posts with label SPTC. Show all posts

Sunday, 7 January 2018

‘EDITOR FLEES AFTER DEATH THREAT’

Swazi King’s henchmen threaten to kill editor

Kenworthy News Media, 6 January 2018

Swazi editor Zweli Martin Dlamini has fled to neighbouring South Africa after he received death threats. He had written a story about absolute monarch King Mswati III’s shady dealings in the telecommunications industry, writes Kenworthy News Media.

Last June, editor of independent business newspaper Swaziland Shopping Zweli Martin Dlamini wrote and published a story about new telecommunications company Swazi Mobile, owned by King Mswati III and run by local businessman Victor Gamedze.

The punchline of the story was that the pair had forced Swaziland’s government to side-line rival government parastatal company SPTC from competing with Swazi Mobile – a new company that they and other high ranking officials, including the Prime Minister, owns shares in.

In 2012, SPTC had been ordered to switch of its fixed phones (landlines) and data components to make way for South African phone company MTC, which Mswati and the Prime Minister also had shares in.

Death threats
“Shortly after publishing the story, I received a threatening call from Gamedze that lasted for twenty minutes where he vowed to ‘deal with me’. Later Communications Minister Dumsani Ndlangamandla summoned me to a meeting and told me that the King was not happy with the story and had ordered that the newspaper should be closed,” Dlamini says.

After Swaziland Shopping was closed, Dlamini says he learnt that the police had a warrant for his arrest and that he would be poisoned in prison. A close ally of Victor Gamedze also told Dlamini that the businessman wanted him dead because he had revealed secrets about Swazi Mobile.

Dlamini says he subsequently fled to South Africa because he feared for his life.

And Swaziland’s police forces certainly do have a record of torturing – and occasionally murdering – those who challenge the King’s rule, as documented by Amnesty International and other human rights organisations.

No media freedom
The Swazi government have claimed that Swaziland Shopping was closed because it was not properly registered under the colonial-era Books and Newspapers Act of 1963, even though the newspaper has been published since 2014. The police also refuted that Dlamini was on the police “wanted list.”

Swaziland is however renowned for its government fabricating stories and its lack of media freedom, especially in regard to stories about King Mswati and his family and friends.

Swaziland is ranked 152th in Reporters Without Borders’ 2017 World Press Freedom Index. There is “no media freedom,” the NGO says. According to a 2014 report by African Media Barometer, journalists in Swaziland “face routine intimidation by the state.”

In 2007, King Mswati ordered the Times Sunday to print an apology and sack those responsible for a critical story about him, or he would close down the paper. In 2009, the editor of the Swazi Observer, owned by the king, nearly lost his job for writing about the King’s luxury cars. And in 2014 the Times on Sunday editor was summoned by the King and told that stories relating to his property did not belong in the newspaper.

Victor Gamedze has also been known to threaten journalists who publish critical stories about his business dealings. In 2016, he allegedly assaulted a journalist from the Swazi Observer and ordered another fired because they wrote unfavourable stories about him and his football team.

International community must act
“In Swaziland, the media is being held hostage and been turned into spies for the state,” Zweli Martin Dlamini says. “For the calls for democracy to intensify, the media must be liberated so that the international community can know what is happening in Swaziland.”

Secretary General of the Media Workers Union of Swaziland, Sicelo Vilane, insists that the charges against Dlamini are fabricated and should be dropped, and that the international community must act against the lack of freedom of speech in Swaziland.

“No-one is allowed to report freely and Swaziland is one of the major violators of media workers’ rights, freedom of speech and -expression. Why are they not questioning the action of Mswati’s government?,” Vilane says.

Wednesday, 4 February 2015

MTN ‘KEEPS SWAZI KING IN ITS POCKET’

News circulating in Swaziland that a second mobile phone operator might soon operate in the kingdom is fanciful.

The present monopoly provider MTN has the kingdom’s absolute monarch King Mswati III in its pocket and the Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini has substantial financial interests in the company and it is not in his personal interest to see competition in the market.

The Times Sunday, an independent newspaper in Swaziland, reported that a company called Swavitel with connections to Vietnam-based mobile operator Viettel Telecomm was awaiting a decision of the Regulator of the Swaziland Communications Commission (SCCOM) on its application to register.

The newspaper gave no further information about what services Swavitel hoped to provide.

MTN has been the monopoly mobile provider in Swaziland since 1998 and services are provided in a joint venture between MTN, the Swazi Government and the Royal Family.

MTN pays dividends directly to the King who holds 10 percent of the shares in MTN in Swaziland and is referred to by the company as an ‘esteemed shareholder’. It is reported that MTN paid E114 million (US$11.4 million) to the King over the past five years.

In 2009, Earl Irvine, then US Ambassador to Swaziland, wrote a confidential cable (later published by Wikileaks) in which he said the King operated in his own financial interest. Part of the cable said, ‘Royal politics and King Mswati’s business interests appear to have caused the ouster of Mobile Telephone Network (MTN) CEO Tebogo Mogapi and halted parastatal Swaziland Post and Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC) from selling the MTN shares it owns to raise money

for a Next Generation Networks (NGN) cell phone project.

‘Industry and press observers privately indicated that the King, who already owns many MTN shares, had wanted to purchase the MTN shares himself at a cheaper price than the buyer, MTN, was offering SPTC.

‘Government officials later prevented the sale, and recently did not renew the work permit for CEO Mogapi, a South African citizen, apparently in retaliation for his role in the transaction, as well as the CEO’s reported decision to oppose government efforts to use the MTN network for electronic surveillance on political dissidents.’

The cable went on, ‘The government’s halt of parastatal SPTC’s sale of MTN shares demonstrates the impact the King’s and other influential individuals’ private business interests can have on business transactions in Swaziland.

‘Government officials would likely prefer a more malleable Swazi CEO at MTN who would cooperate more fully with royal and government wishes.’

In 2011 it was reported that Prime Minister Dlamini owned E392,000 worth of shares in Swazi Empowerment (Pty) Limited (SEL), a company that in turn had a 19 percent shareholding with MTN Swaziland.

Dlamini is the man in charge of the government-controlled parastatal, SPTC and is therefore a key decision maker in the affairs of Swaziland’s national posts and telecommunication.

This raised questions about Dlamini’s impartiality when making decisions about SPTC.

In September 2011, Musa Holphe, of the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Organisations, wrote ‘Since SEL’s main, if not its only, investment is MTN Swaziland it is important to understand that the value of the SEL shares will be slashed if anything happens that affects MTN’s profitability.’

He added, ‘It is shocking to see how much money is generated by MTN and that, in spite of the grinding poverty of the majority of us; vast riches are still secretly flowing into the pockets of the elite.’

A research article written by Ewan Sutherland of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, and published in December 2014 in the Communicatio academic journal, explored telecommunications in Swaziland and concluded there was no competition for mobile phones in the kingdom and ‘the monarch and his cronies are financially tied to Swazi MTN, seeking to neuter the state-owned SPTC. The government has no concern for consumers, service delivery or economic growth, with the King and his prime minister looking after their personal financial interests.’

In the article, written before the news about Swavitel emerged, Sutherland wrote , [I]t is difficult to see how any investor could have confidence, unless it had the sovereign on their side and, more likely, in their pocket.

‘The monarch has a significant and lucrative investment in the principal operator, with the effect of confusing and confounding an already feeble system of governance. The opaque profit-seeking of the King conflicts with the purported aspiration to good governance of telecommunications markets and the interests of his subjects. In a constitutional monarchy, arrangements can be made to keep the investments of a monarch separate from politics, allowing for transparency, accountability to parliament and the avoidance of interference with governance (e.g., Japan and the Netherlands).

‘A feudal monarchy knows no such distinction, there are no conflicts of interest for ministers, regulators and directors – they obey their king. It echoes the problems of Morocco, where its king has private interests in telecommunications, has ministers sit on the supervisory board of the stateowned operator, and he appoints the regulator and is head of the judiciary.

Ordinarily the MTN Group would be expected to favour competition and market entry. However, in the Kingdom of Swaziland it has violently opposed competition, going to considerable lengths to block a second mobile operator and even a fixed wireless service. This record removes any presumption in other jurisdictions that its actions are pro-competitive. Equally, it has been happy to work with Mswati III, one of the exotic collection of autocrats with whom it does business, with no fear of reputational risk.’

Tuesday, 9 October 2012

BUSINESS TURNS AGAINST GOVERNMENT

Leaders of Swaziland’s business community have demanded the government abide by a no-confidence vote and quit office.

‘This cabinet has no mandate to govern, is not fit for purpose, and it must do the honourable thing and go immediately before it damages Swaziland any further,’ the Federation of Swazi Business Community (FSBC), said in a statement.

The Government, led by Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini, suffered a vote of no-confidence in the Swazi House of Assembly last Wednesday (3 October 2012) and according to the Constitution the government should have resigned within three days or be sacked by King Mswati III.

Dlamini made it clear that he would not go and the King has not sacked him.

The no-confidence vote came after a long-running saga involving the Swazi parastatal Swaziland Post and Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC) and MTN, the only cellphone company in the kingdom. The government closed down some SPTC services after complaints from MTN.

In a joint statement made with the Constituent Assembly and the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations, FSBC said, ‘As leaders of the local business community we must express our utmost concern at the Swazi Government’s poor handling of the issue of SPTC’s Next Generation Network of cellular phones called “ONE” as well as the fixed phone service.

‘The introduction of these new services, at last, brought real competition into the telecommunications sector. This enabled ordinary people to begin to afford to communicate more and the business community to access new markets, and improve their services, competitiveness and profitability. As one of the poorest countries in the SADC region we long suffered from monopoly pricing and were charged the highest rates for ICT services.

‘The government’s actions which saw the whole SPTC Board sacked, a Minister of Information Communications and Technology removed from office, and the accusations by the Prime Minister of a “Mafia” at work, show the highly politicised environment in which SPTC was expected to work.

‘It is well known that the current cabinet reversed SPTC and the previous government’s decision to sell most of its shares in MTN at a fair market price to finance the ONE project.’

The statement added, ‘ Swazis must realise that the PM has a clear conflict of interest in this matter in that he has shares in Swaziland Empowerment Limited which holds 19 percent of value of Swazi MTN.’

FSBC said, ‘The Prime Minister must know that to ignore a vote of no-confidence from Parliament sends a message to the world that Swaziland is not a country governed by laws but by an arrogant, unaccountable clique who are happy to abuse their powers and use political patronage for personal gain.’

GOVT MUST GO: SWAZI BUSINESS

Joint Press Statement Federation of Swazi Business Community, Constituent Assembly and Swazi Coalition.

9 October 2012

As leaders of the local business community we must express our utmost concern at the Swazi Government’s poor handling of the issue of SPTC’s Next Generation Network of cellular phones called “ONE” as well as the fixed phone service.

The introduction of these new services, at last, brought real competition into the telecommunications sector. This enabled ordinary people to begin to afford to communicate more and the business community to access new markets, and improve their services, competitiveness and profitability. As one of the poorest countries in the SADC region we long suffered from monopoly pricing and were charged the highest rates for ICT services.

The government’s actions which saw the whole SPTC Board sacked, a Minister of Information Communications and Technology removed from office, and the accusations by the Prime Minister of a “Mafia” at work, show the highly politicised environment in which SPTC was expected to work. It is well known that the current cabinet reversed SPTC and the previous government’s decision to sell most of its shares in MTN at a fair market price to finance the ONE project. For the Prime Minister to suddenly claim the sanctity of the courts as a defence for what are highly controversial decisions is to mislead the nation. Swazis must realise that the PM has a clear conflict of interest in this matter in that he has shares in Swaziland Empowerment Limited which holds 19% of value of Swazi MTN. At no time has he been heard to recuse himself from discussions in which he has a direct financial interest.

The SPTC saga is one of a long line of self-serving decisions taken by this cabinet, which seriously undermine the business reputation of the country. From giving itself handsome pay rises through Circular No 1 when the country is in cash crisis, to awarding its members massive discounts on shady land deals. From attempting to arbitrarily evict the tenants at Jozini Big Six to mismanaging the economy so that our members are owed Millions of Emalangeni and viable businesses and ordinary people’s jobs are at risk because of their incompetence. They have undermined the Anti Corruption Commission and the Human Rights Commission and, probably worst of all, were putting the very basis of all business – legal contracts – in jeopardy through their dreadful mismanaging of the recent Judicial Crisis.

The Prime Minister must know that to ignore a vote of no confidence from Parliament sends a message to the world that Swaziland is not a country governed by laws but by an arrogant, unaccountable clique who are happy to abuse their powers and use political patronage for personal gain. His behaviour completely undermines his Majesty’s vision of Swaziland being a first world country by 2022.

We have heard the voices of the people at many public meetings including Sibaya and our MPs’ vote of no confidence who have all said it was time for this cabinet to be relieved of their duties. We now formally add the voices of the business community to this call. This cabinet has no mandate to govern, is not fit for purpose, and it must do the honourable thing and go immediately before it damages Swaziland any further. We further call upon the new government to find a way of reinstating the SPTC services that served the nation so well.

For More Information please contact Tum Du Pont +268 76020676

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