S AFRICA ‘LITTLE TO GAIN FROM LOAN’

Times, South Africa

4 August 2011

SOURCE

Comment

SA has little to gain from bailing out Swazi autocrat

After denying it was talking to King Mswati III's government in June, the central bank has now stepped in after other countries and international organisations refused to bail out Swaziland.

In an interview with the Times of Swaziland yesterday (3 August 2011), Mswati said he was grateful to President Jacob Zuma, his government and the entire South African nation for their assistance.

According to the absolute monarch - who has repeatedly resisted calls for reforms - it shows just what a good neighbour South Africa is.

It is indeed an act of great neighbourliness that the government has agreed to help out the only remaining absolute dictator on the continent, whose excessive lifestyle has been widely criticised.

This is also a neighbour that has violently repressed its citizens when they have agitated for a more inclusive, democratic system of governance.

This neighbour had to seek foreign loans in order to pay its civil servants' salaries while the state lost more than $10-million a month to corruption.

After the announcement of the loan - made in the Swazi media - the South African government explained that there were conditions attached, chief among them being the need for talks about reform.

This, of course, will help the government silence some of the vociferous criticism that it is helping to maintain Swaziland's autocratic regime.

But there remains concern about whether Mswati will direct the money where it is needed, and what Swaziland itself will be doing to stimulate economic recovery and growth.

South Africa, with its vast inequalities, can hardly afford the luxury of acting as benevolent banker. And, certainly, it would be difficult to justify sending a further loan across the border.

See also

S AFRICA SETS OUT LOAN CONDITIONS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/08/s-africa-sets-out-loan-conditions.html

ZUMA ROASTED OVER SWAZI LOAN

Times, South Africa

4 August 2011

SOURCE

Zuma roasted over Mswati bailout

South Africa is using its R2.4-billion loan to Swaziland to force its ruler, King Mswati III, to introduce political reforms.

Pretoria yesterday agreed to lend the cash-strapped country the money on condition that it:

Co-operate in "multilateral engagements";

Introduce fiscal and related reforms required by the International Monetary Fund, and table its Public Finance Management Bill in parliament by October;

Come up with confidence-building measures; and

Allow Pretoria to assist it in building [economic] capacity.

Mswati turned to the South African government after the African Development Bank and the IMF turned down his pleas for a bail-out. The loan applications were refused on the grounds that Swaziland had failed to implement fiscal reforms specified in the lending conditions.

It remains to be seen whether the cash from South Africa will put pressure on Mswati - Africa's last absolute monarch - to introduce political, social and economic reforms.

Swaziland trade unions and opposition parties have long accused Mswati of leading an extravagant and opulent lifestyle while his people are being ravaged by HIV and many survive on less than a dollar a day.

Announcing the loan in Pretoria yesterday, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said Mswati would be expected to promote democracy, human rights and good governance and [build] credible and effective leadership, develop a strong civil society, and respect universal human rights and the rule of law.

Gordhan expressed confidence that the loan would be used for economic and infrastructural development.

Frustration with Mswati's refusal to yield to popular demands for democratic reform reached boiling point in April when trade unions, pro-democracy activists and opposition parties took to the streets in protest against the king's autocratic rule.

Mzamo Sikhondze, treasurer-general of Swaziland's banned People's United Democratic Movement, accused South Africa of again "baby-sitting a dictator".

South African trade unions and political parties said the loan should be granted strictly on the basis that Mswati would unban all political parties and start talks leading to a democratic Swaziland.

Lucky Lukhele, of the Swaziland Solidarity Network, criticised President Jacob Zuma for agreeing to the loan.

"Zuma has decided to behave like a sugar-daddy of the king. South Africa has many service-delivery issues and he must tell us what informed his decision to [lend Mswati] money".

The ANC Youth League said it was "totally opposed" to the loan.

It said the ANC government could not give the Swaziland government a loan because the ruling party's national general council in September expressed concern about the lack of transformation, and of democracy and human rights, in Swaziland.

The DA's spokesman on international relations, Stevens Mokgalapa, said: "We should use our economic power to influence democratic reforms. [The loan] should not be a freebie. We can't be seen to be sustaining the autocratic government of King Mswati."

SA Communist Party central committee member Solly Mapaila said: "The loan must come with very strict commitments towards a constituent assembly, which will work towards a transitional government that will work towards democratic elections."

SWAZI KING IN LAP OF LUXURY AGAIN

Times Live, South Africa

13 June 2011

SOURCE

African leaders live it up at ultra-expensive Joburg hotel

Swaziland's embattled King Mswati III was enjoying the high life in the up-market Saxon boutique hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg, at the weekend while attending two meetings of the Southern African Development Community.

The absolute monarch of impoverished Swaziland has been criticised widely for his lavish lifestyle.

Popular resentment led to an unsuccessful uprising against his regime this year. [April 2011].

Mswati and his delegation, which included princes, took over the newest section of the hotel, which was completed in time for last year's soccer World Cup.

Their nightly accommodation bill - for three villas at R7600 each and four presidential suites, at R16000 each - totalled R86800, excluding additional services, and food and drink.

Main courses in the hotel restaurant average R190.

Desserts, such as chocolate sorbets, tiramisu and apple tatin, start at R95 each.

A single 50ml serving of brandy costs up to R200. There are two 50ml measures of cognac on the menu costing R4000 each.

Mswati, who was attending both a SADC meeting on Zimbabwe at the weekend and a summit to discuss establishing the continent's biggest free-trade bloc, was not the only head of state to stay at the plush hotel.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki was also a guest at the Saxon.

Kibaki stayed in a presidential suite in the original hotel building, at a cost of R16000 a night.

Guests in this section are served a complimentary bottle of champagne - replenished every night by the hotel - as well as port and sherry.

They also have a 24-hour butler and service.

The exclusive hotel is behind high walls and a high wooden sliding gate in a garden oasis.

The hotel has previously hosted former US talkshow host Oprah Winfrey, former US president Bill Clinton, rock star Mick Jagger and actors Kevin Spacey and Morgan Freeman.

Nelson Mandela wrote parts of his biography at the hotel and his portraits adorn many of its walls.

It is not known who paid for accommodating the African heads of state attending the summit.

However, political analyst Stephen Friedman said that the SADC secretariat funded the work of SADC delegates.

The SADC receives annual contributions of about R175-million from the governments of its member states.

DEMOCRACY IN SWAZILAND IS INEVITABLE

The end of King Mswati III’s absolute monarchy is inevitable. The voices of democracy in Swaziland will win, this editorial from the Times, South Africa, says.

SOURCE

Repression merely delays inevitable end of Swazi regime

13 April 2011

The Times (South Africa) Editorial: The sooner the Swaziland government realises that the country cannot silence the voices of democracy and perpetually be an island of absolute monarchy the better.

Even the brutal regime of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe allows for opposition parties to operate, albeit under repressive conditions.

It seems that King Mswati's regime believes that it can eternally suppress its people's yearning for democracy despite evidence to the contrary, especially the recent fall of other, much mightier, autocratic regimes in North Africa and the Middle East.

The arrogance of Swaziland's rulers was well demonstrated yesterday when, a day after cracking down on pro-democracy protesters, the foreign affairs minister, Lutfo Dlamini, convened a press conference to boast about how his government had succeeded in silencing its critics.

Despite evidence to the contrary, Dlamini painted the kingdom as a peaceful place where political activity is unrestricted. He blamed Tuesday's (12 April 2011) protests on "outside agitators" with evil intentions.

As South Africans, we have heard this kind of propaganda before. Not least from our very own apartheid-era rulers, who used violence against pro-democracy groups while blaming it all on outside agitators.

That strategy didn't work for South Africa's apartheid-era rulers and it will certainly not work for King Mswati and his cohorts.

His army and police might have succeeded in putting down the rebellion this week, but the conditions of abject poverty under which many Swazis live, as well as ever-rising unemployment, mean that it is only a matter of time before his country is hit by a massive revolt that the state will not be able to stop.

If King Mswati is to prevent such an uprising, he should immediately enter into talks with all the key stakeholders in the country with a view to establishing a democratic order.