Swaziland King investigates possible purchase of military arms while at Russian summit

The Swazi delegation are impressed with the Kalashnikovs. Picture: Quartz

King Mswati III, the absolute monarch of Swaziland (eSwatini), and members of his delegation attended a trade fair in Russia to investigate the latest military hardware offered for sale to African countries.

It happened at the Black Sea city of Sochi on the opening day of the inaugural Russia-Africa Summit.

Russian president Vladimir Putin gave an introductory address that positioned its renewed push in the continent in the Soviet tradition of fighting colonialism.

The Quartz website reported, ‘Russian officials argued deals with the modern Russia offered African states their “independence” presumably implying deals with former colonial powers like France and the UK or global powers like the United States or China come with strings attached one way or another.’

Although deals in nuclear energy, oil, gas, agriculture, and diamonds took a prominent place, two of the main attractions for African heads of state were military cooperation and military hardware, Quartz reported.

It added, ‘Russia, which is the second largest supplier of arms in the world, is already a major supplier of arms to African countries.’

Swaziland is a desperately poor kingdom where seven in ten of the estimated 1.3 million population have incomes less than the equivalent of US$2 per day. Military spending by Swaziland, according to estimates published by the  Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), for the current year is expected to reach US$87.8 million (E1.3bn in local currency). For 2017, spending was estimated at US$88.7 million and for 2016, US$86.3 million.

The figures amount to about 1.5 percent of Swaziland’s total gross domestic product (GDP).

SIPRI states military expenditure data is based on open sources only, meaning on publicly available data. The true figure might be higher.

The high military spending comes at a time when Swaziland is broke. In the 2018 national budget all government job recruiting was frozen. It was announced Value Added Tax would go up by 1 percent to 15 percent and there was a plan to try to impose VAT on electricity tariffs for the first time. Pensions for people aged 60 and over were frozen.

Swaziland which is not a democracy has been criticised for many years for the way state forces oppress the people. Political parties are banned from taking part in elections and groups that advocate for democracy are outlawed under the Suppression of Terrorism Act. Swaziland is a landlocked country and has no disputes with neighbours.

The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) at the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) meeting in The Gambia in 2013 said the King was turning Swaziland into a ‘military state’.

In a report OSISA said, ‘There are also reliable reports of a general militarization of the country through the deployment of the Swazi army, police and correctional services to clamp down on any peaceful protest action by labour or civil society organisations ahead of the country’s undemocratic elections.’

In 2009, the Swazi Government was revealed to be engaged in arms dealing by the United States. A diplomatic cable written by Maurice Parker, the then US Ambassador to Swaziland, and later published by WikiLeaks, revealed that the UK Government had blocked an arms deal between a UK company Unionlet and the Swaziland Government because it feared their ‘possible use for internal repression’. 

The Swazi Government wanted to buy equipment worth US$60 million.

Among items listed for purchase were, ‘3 Bell Model UH-1H helicopters, FN Herstal 7.6251mm Minimi light machine guns, blank and tracer ammunition, armored personnel carriers, command and control vehicles including one fitted with a 12.7x99mm M2 Browning heavy machine gun and others fitted with the FN Herstal light machine guns, military ambulances, armored repair and recovery vehicles, weapon sights, military image intensifier equipment, optical target surveillance equipment, 620 Heckler & Koch G36E assault rifles, 240 Heckler & Koch G36K assault rifles, 65 Heckler & Koch G36E rifles, 75 Heckler & Koch UMP submachine guns 9x19mm, and 35 Heckler & Koch USP semi-automatic pistols’.

The Swaziland Government said it wanted the items to fulfil its United Nations ‘peacekeeping’ obligations in Africa.

The UK Government did not believe it and thought either the weapons would be used against the Swazi civilian population, or they were being bought in order to sell on to another country, possibly Iran. The UK Government blocked the deal.

In his diplomatic cable, Parker said, ‘The array of weapons requested would not be needed for the first phases of peacekeeping, although it is possible someone tried to convince the Swazi government they were required. The GKOS [Government of the Kingdom of Swaziland] may have been attempting to build up domestic capability to deal with unrest, or was possibly acting as an intermediary for a third party such as Zimbabwe or a Middle Eastern country that had cash, diamonds or goods to trade.’

See also

Swaziland’s massive military spending

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/06/swazilands-massive-military-spending.html

 

Swazi ‘secret arms deal for Iran’

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/02/swazi-secret-arms-deal-for-iran.html

 

Swaziland ‘becoming military state’

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/swaziland-becoming-military-state.html

‘Swazi Observer’ story on deaths caused by circumcision as part of plan to wipe out African race found to be false

The Swazi Observer newspaper published a bogus news story on Friday (24 August 2018) saying that men who had been circumcised to minimise HIV infection would likely die after 10 years.

The Observer said that an NGO in the United States called Deltas Clare (the Observer also called it Delta Clare in its story) conducted research and found that the medication used for circumcised men reacts after 10 years. Deltas Clare did not publish the report but it ended up on the WikiLeaks website, it said.

The Observer also reported, ‘WikiLeaks says apart from the HIV/AIDS pandemic, circumcision of men is part of the Western’s plan to wipe out the African race.’

It took less than a minute searching on Google to discover the story was bogus. The Observer clearly had not bothered to check it out.

Thankfully the proper journalists at Malawi24 did. It reported, ‘Firstly, there is no organisation in the public domain that is based in the US by the name. This raised the first alarm in story.

‘Secondly, there is no study that has recently been published recently by WikiLeaks on circumcision.

‘Not only that, WikiLeaks database does not have any research report by Deltas Clare or an organisation that goes by that name.

‘Lastly, a study of this great magnitude would have been published in high ranking journals and media outlets across the world.

‘In the contrary, a simple google search tracks the story to on-line and social media outlets in Zambia which are of questionable repute.

‘The sites include Zambian Watch and The Zambian Observer. A quick scan through these publications hints at the sites striving on either Fake News or unfounded gossip. A time stamp of the stories shows that the story was first published in Zambia on the two sites on 18 August 2018 around 14:30.’

It concluded, ‘VERDICT: FALSE. While medical effectiveness of circumcision in the first against HIV is yet to be established with conclusive evidence, our verdict drawn from the above evidence is that the story and all its claims are wholly false.’

See also

‘Observer’ Misreports Police On LGBTI

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/06/observer-misreports-police-on-lgbti.html

‘Observer’ Names Another Rape Victim

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2017/10/observer-names-another-rape-victim.html

During Apartheid Era Swaziland Lobbied US and UK Not to Support Sanctions on South Africa

During the height of the Apartheid era, Swaziland lobbied the US and UK Governments not to support economic sanctions on South Africa, a confidential communication from 1978 has revealed.

The then Swazi Prime Minister Maphevu Harry Dlamini said the sanctions would be ‘disastrous’ for the Swaziland economy.

At about the same time Swaziland under King Sobhuza II supported the white-ruled Apartheid government in South Africa because he was afraid that change there would encourage people to press for political reform in his own kingdom, a separate secret CIA document from 1978 revealed. 

The information contradicts the present-day belief that King Sobhuza II and his Swazi Governments were stanch supporters of the struggle for freedom in South Africa during the Apartheid era.

Dlamini was said to have ‘pleaded strongly’ with the US and UK not to support sanctions. This was revealed in a confidential electronic telegram sent from the United States State Department on 7 November 1978. It was distributed to the UK, Zambia, Mozambique and France.

The electronic telegram said, ‘During 30-minute meeting in his office November 2, Prime Minister pleaded strongly with UK and US reps to urge our governments to prevent adoption of UN sanctions against South Africa, especially on oil, on ground that sanctions would be not only suicidal for Swaziland but also extremely detrimental to blacks.’

The writer of the cable, who was not named, but was likely to be the US Ambassador to Swaziland said the US and UK representatives at the meeting agreed to seek clarification of positions from their governments ‘soonest’.

The confidential message added, ‘In unprecedented move, Prime Minister Maphevu summoned British High Commissioner and me jointly to his office November 2 for urgent approach on issue of UN sanctions against South Africa. 

‘Prime Minister said that from series of telexes and telecons from Swazi UN representative Malinga, he understood that United Nations was on brink of voting on sanctions issue and that Western powers, possibly reflecting disenchantment with South Africa’s posture on Namibian election question, were leaving impression in New York that they might not repeat not veto a sanctions resolution. 

‘Although worried about effect that any kind of sanctions would have on Swaziland’s economy, Prime Minister was principally concerned about oil sanctions. 

‘Prime Minister said he did not have to remind UK and US reps in Mbabane, who saw situation first-hand, how dependent Swaziland economy is on South African economy. 

‘Oil sanctions would be “disastrous” for Swaziland. 

‘He added that one could be sure that not only Swaziland’s population, but also blacks in South Africa itself, would be the first to feel the pinch if sanctions were imposed; he gave the example of black entrepreneurs in South Africa, who he said would certainly be treated far less favorably by South African authorities when rationing began. 

‘Several times in his forceful half-hour presentation the Prime Minister talked as spokesman for blacks in all of Southern Africa and not merely for Swazis. 

‘He said sanctions would be “indirect killing of black people in Southern Africa”.

‘For Swaziland to vote for sanctions would be “suicidal.”

‘Prime Minister asked rhetorically which black leaders in South Africa itself would support sanctions. He hoped that Western policy-makers were not taking advice from “blacks who left South Africa ten to twenty years ago and who are now living comfortably in Europe and America.”

‘He downplayed any hard-line advice that might be given by front-line leaders, who continue their own economic dealings with South Africa (as Swaziland does) because there is no alternative to such cooperation; he cited Zambian railroad move as one recent example.’

Maphevu Harry Dlamini was Prime Minister of Swaziland from 31 March 1976 until his death on 25 October 1979.

The telegram was classified confidential when it was written in 1978, and has since been declassified. It is now publicly available through the Wikileaks’ Public Library of US Diplomacy. 

A separate secret CIA document (also since declassified) from 1978 called Africa Review, dated 1 December 1978 said South Africa had ‘equipped the Swazi Army with light infantry weapons’.

The report said the ‘traditionalist’ Swaziland government, ‘believes it is threatened in the same way white South Africans are, namely by a host of outside forces seeking the destruction of a social and political order that has served to protect the interests of the ruling elite.

‘Since independence [10 years earlier in 1968] the Swazi Government has sought to suppress any signs of change that could lead to pressure for reforming the country’s political and social institutions. Consequently, close relations with South Africa are probably viewed as protection against Communist and radical change.’

See also

Secret CIA Report Reveals Swaziland King Sobhuza’s Support For Apartheid South Africa

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/08/secret-cia-report-reveals-swaziland.html

SWAZILAND: MASSIVE ‘SECURITY’ SPENDING

If Swaziland’s contested budget is allowed to go through, the kingdom, ruled by King Mswati III, as an absolute monarch, will increase its spending on security this year and extra money will go to the police to improve ‘crowd management services’.

The government hand-picked by the King has allocated nearly E2.7 billion (US$216 million) for the kingdom’s security forces that comprise the Umbutfo Swaziland Defence Force (USDF), Royal Swaziland Police Service (RSPS) and His Majesty’s Correctional Services (HMCS). 

This is more than the E2.2bn allocated to health in the coming financial year and E585 million more than allocated to security in 2016-2017.

Security will take up 12.4 percent of Swaziland’s total budget of E21.7bn ($US1.66 bn), up 11 percent last year.

Martin Dlamini, Minister of Finance, told the Swazi Parliament on 24 February 2017, ‘An additional budget has been allocated to the Royal Swaziland Police to enhance the delivery of services in rural and periurban areas and improve emergency response and crowd management services.’

Swaziland has a poor human rights record and police and security forces routinely break-up labour and political demonstrations. Only three days after the budget announcement, police halted a march by the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) that wanted to deliver a petition to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. 

According to the government book of estimates for the 2017-2018 financial year, a total of E1,191,650,000 ($US91 million) has been allocated to the Ministry of Defence, E995,695,000 to the police and E505,896,000 to the Correctional Services. 

Swaziland’s spending on military and security has been growing over the past few years. Meanwhile, seven in ten of the 1.3 million population live in abject poverty with incomes less than US$2 per day.

Swaziland spent US$259.8 million on its military in the years 2011 to 2014. In 2014 military spending amounted to 5.9 percent of all government spending in Swaziland, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in its Military Expenditure Database for 2015.

The military spending amounted to 2.2 percent of Swaziland’s entire gross domestic product (GDP).

In the calendar year 2014, Swaziland’s military spending was estimated to be US$80.6 million; about the equivalent of US$62 for every person in the kingdom.

In 2011, the Swazi Government set aside more than US$100 million for spending on the army and police force and the then Finance Minister Majozi Sithole admitted that the army was prepared for an uprising by the population in Swaziland.

This followed a series of prodemocracy uprisings in North Africa, leading to what became known as the ‘Arab Spring’. King Mswati was fearful something similar could happen in his kingdom.  A Facebook group calling itself the April 12 Uprising had already called for an overthrow of the King.

In February 2011, Sithole told an open stakeholder dialogue on the 2011-2012 budget and Fiscal Adjustment Roadmap, ‘Yes, we are spending a lot on the army but we are not anticipating what is happening in North Africa to come here,’ he said.

He added, ‘However, the army is there to avoid such situations.’ 

In 2009, the Swazi Government was revealed to be engaged in arms dealing by the United States. A diplomatic cable written by Maurice Parker, the then US Ambassador to Swaziland, and later published by WikiLeaks revealed that the UK Government had blocked an arms deal between a UK company Unionlet and the Swaziland Government because it feared their ‘possible use for internal repression’. 

The Swazi Government wanted to buy equipment worth US$60 million.

Among items listed for purchase were, ‘3 Bell Model UH-1H helicopters, FN Herstal 7.6251mm Minimi light machine guns, blank and tracer ammunition, armored personnel carriers, command and control vehicles including one fitted with a 12.7x99mm M2 Browning heavy machine gun and others fitted with the FN Herstal light machine guns, military ambulances, armored repair and recovery vehicles, weapon sights, military image intensifier equipment, optical target surveillance equipment, 620 Heckler & Koch G36E assault rifles, 240 Heckler & Koch G36K assault rifles, 65 Heckler & Koch G36E rifles, 75 Heckler & Koch UMP submachine guns 9x19mm, and 35 Heckler & Koch USP semi-automatic pistols’.

The Swaziland Government said it wanted the items to fulfil its United Nations ‘peacekeeping’ obligations in Africa.

The UK Government did not believe it and thought either the weapons would be used against the Swazi civilian population, or they were being bought in order to sell on to another country, possibly Iran. The UK Government blocked the deal.

In his diplomatic cable, Parker said, ‘The array of weapons requested would not be needed for the first phases of peacekeeping, although it is possible someone tried to convince the Swazi government they were required. The GKOS [Government of the Kingdom of Swaziland] may have been attempting to build up domestic capability to deal with unrest, or was possibly acting as an intermediary for a third party such as Zimbabwe or a Middle Eastern country that had cash, diamonds or goods to trade.’

Once the cable became public in 2011, John Kunene, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, who signed the original deal in 2008, said the kingdom had never given up trying to buy the weapons.

The Swazi News, an independent newspaper in Swaziland, reported (26 February 2011) that Kunene was still trying to broker a deal. 

In March 2011 Kunene was sacked from his job after a disclosure that the army had run out of food to feed its soldiers. 

See also

SWAZI MPs REJECT NATIONAL BUDGET

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2017/03/swazi-mps-reject-national-budget.html

 

SWAZI SECRET ARMS DEAL FOR IRAN

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/02/swazi-secret-arms-deal-for-iran.html

 

SWAZILAND AND SECRET ARMS DEAL

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/03/swaziland-and-secret-arms-deal.html

PETTINESS OF THE KING’S RED CARPET

News that spread internationally that in Swaziland only King Mswati III should be afforded the honour of a red carpet at special events reminds us of another time the King wanted to assert his superiority over his subjects.

That time, according to a cable from the US Embassy in Swaziland, the King made his advisors sweat in 40-degree heat in a basement to demonstrate his power over them.

The issue of the red carpet emerged when it was reported that the red carpet at the Business Woman of the Year Awards ceremony this year (2015) was rolled away. The same happened at the Swaziland Inter Municipal Games Association (SIGA). The Times of Swaziland, the only independent newspaper in the kingdom, reported that the Swazi Police had ordered SIGA to remove the red carpet. Barnabas Dlamini, the Swazi Prime Minister, was at the event to give a speech.

The Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN), a prodemocracy group banned in the kingdom, then reported the police ordered the ban on the instructions of King Mswati.

Later, the Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, reported the Swazi Police spokesperson Superintendent Khulani Mamba saying no police action was ordered. However, he said the red carpet might have been removed as is might be, ‘misconstrued in other quarters as equating himself to the Head of State [King]’.

He added, ‘A well-intended gesture may have unintended consequences and be read totally out of context.’

The Observer reported Mamba saying, ‘[N]o specific individual instructed the cops to remove the red carpet but was feeling of those who were waiting to welcome him that such good gesture may be lost in interpretation, hence the decision to remove it. 

“The Prime Minister had not ordered it, nor ordered its removal, but given his stature it was felt that such a gesture may be seen as setting him up against authorities.’

It is not surprising that the Prime Minister or any other of the King’s subjects would not want to upset him.

A cable from the US Embassy in Swaziland, made public by Wikileaks, gave a startling example of how the King behaves.

The US Embassy said King Mswati III was ‘not intellectually well developed’ and ‘is not a reader’. It also called him ‘imbalanced’.

The comments about the Swazi King came from Earl Irvine, the then US Ambassador to Swaziland, in February 2010. 

In a confidential cable to Washington released by Wikileaks, Irvine said King Mswati had a ‘lack of wisdom’.

Quoting an informant, Irvine wrote the king was ‘not a reader, and will not review documents left for him’.  [The informant] called the king ‘not intellectually well-developed,’ and contrasted the current sovereign’s scant educational background with Sobhuza II, who was educated at Lovedale College in South Africa alongside future leaders of South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC).  

‘Essentially a bastard outsider to the royal family, King Mswati III was plucked from relative obscurity when members of the royal family could not come to an agreement on a successor to King Sobhuza II,’ the cable said.

‘After Mswati III was selected to be the next king, a posthumous marriage of Sobhuza II to Ntombi [the Queen Mother] was quickly arranged, according to our interlocutor.’

Irvine wrote, ‘Unlike in his early years, the King now identifies and pushes specific projects, and will look to replace ministers or employees who are unable to provide progress on those projects.’

Irvine quoted his informant calling King Mswati ‘imbalanced’. He gave an anecdote to illustrate this.   ‘The King, [the informant] said, invited about forty officials and advisors to a basement in one of his palaces, where they all sat on the floor to attend to him.  King Mswati III turned up the heater, which warmed the floor first, until the temperature in the room reached about 40 degrees Celsius, and told inconsequential stories to those gathered while they sweated, merely to show them he was in power.’

See also 

US FRANK ASSESSMENT OF SWAZI KING

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/09/us-frank-assessment-of-swazi-king.html

US CABLE SAYS SWAZI KING ‘IMBALANCED’

The US Embassy in Swaziland said King Mswati III was ‘not intellectually well developed’ and ‘is not a reader’. It also called him ‘imbalanced’. 
 

The comments about the Swazi King came from Earl Irvine in February 2010, when he was the US Ambassador to Swaziland.

In a confidential cable to Washington released by Wikileaks, Irvine said King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, had a ‘lack of wisdom’.

Quoting an informant, Irvine wrote the king was ‘not a reader, and would not review documents left for him. [The informant] called the king ‘not intellectually well-developed,’ and contrasted his poor educational background with his father Sobhuza II, who was educated at Lovedale College in South Africa alongside future leaders of South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC). 

Irvine wrote, ‘Essentially a bastard outsider to the royal family, King Mswati III was plucked from relative obscurity when members of the royal family could not come to an agreement on a successor to King Sobhuza II. 

‘After Mswati III was selected to be the next king, a posthumous marriage of Sobhuza II to Ntombi [the Queen Mother] was quickly arranged, according to our interlocutor.’

Irvine wrote, ‘Unlike in his early years, the king now identifies and pushes specific projects, and will look to replace ministers or employees who are unable to provide progress on those projects.’

Irvine quoted his informant calling King Mswati ‘imbalanced’. He gave an anecdote to illustrate this. ‘The king, [the informant] said, invited about 40 officials and advisors to a basement in one of his palaces, where they all sat on the floor to attend to him. King Mswati III turned up the heater, which warmed the floor first, until the temperature in the room reached about 40 degrees Celsius, and told inconsequential stories to those gathered while they sweated, merely to show them he was in power.’

Irvine also reported that the king’s mother had a sexual affair with Lutfo Dlamini, Swaziland’s former Foreign Minister. 

And the Queen Mother Ntombi’s ‘associations with men’ had undermined the power she had to influence King Mswati’s decision-making.

Irvine called the cable he wrote to Washington ‘Witchcraft and More: A Portrait of Influences on King Mswati III’.

In the cable Irvine said, ‘traditional leaders, superstition, and members of the royal family’ were the major influences on the king. His ministers, however, ‘remain his servants’.

Irvine wrote, ‘The king’s wives’ opinions matter to the king, especially his third wife, LaMbikisa, who has an advanced degree and is the only wife to whom the king proposed.’

Irvine goes on, ‘King Mswati III believes in muti (traditional medicine used to cast spells or curses), and attempts to use muti to attack the king are taken seriously’.

He wrote, ‘In 1989 Prince Mfana Sibili was accused of high treason when he allegedly used muti to try to take away the king’s powers. When a foreign judge, brought in to hear the case, dismissed it after hearing the charges, a traditional court was installed to convict the prince.’ 

He said that ‘muti people’ hold great sway within the royal family, and that the king must eat and drink whatever they give him during traditional ceremonies, particularly when in seclusion. ‘If they are unhappy with the direction the king is taking the country, then the king has cause to worry.’ 

Irvine went on ‘Although Queen Mother Ntombi is considered by many observers to be a powerful figure within the royal family, [name of informant] indicated that her authority has been undermined by her “associations with men,” including the then Foreign Minister Lutfo Dlamini.

Irvine wrote, ‘Mswati III uses the investment company African Alliance to move his money around internationally.’

The informant indicated that ‘the king has become more decisive during his years in office, especially where his interests are at issue, and he views ministers and officials who tell him he cannot do something as cowards’.

Swazi Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini is the king’s loyal ‘hangman,’ Irvine wrote, an assertion that suggests that the king placed absolute trust in Barnabas. 

‘Instead of looking to influence the king, the Prime Minister acts as the king's steadfast servant, a relationship that dates back to a suicide attempt by Barnabas in 1990 or 1991. 

‘According to [informants] in an unsuccessful attempt kept secret from the public, Barnabas tried to commit suicide after his involvement in a corruption scandal during his tenure as Minister of Finance became known. 

‘As part of making amends to the king, Barnabas reportedly prostrated himself before the king, giving himself over as the king’s servant.’

SWAZILAND’S MASSIVE MILITARY SPENDING

A new report shows Swaziland spent US$259.8 million on its military in the past three years. 

In 2014 military spending amounted to 5.9 percent of all government, spending in Swaziland, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in its Military Expenditure Database for 2015.

The military spending amounted to 2.2 percent of Swaziland’s entire gross domestic product (GDP).

Swaziland has a population of nearly 1.3 million people. Seven in ten of them live in abject poverty, with incomes of less than US$2 per day.

In the calendar year 2014, Swaziland’s military spending was estimated to be US$80.6 million; about the equivalent of US$62 for every person in the kingdom.

King Mswati III, who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, and the government he handpicks, refuse to publicly discuss military spending citing ‘national security’ issues as an excuse.

Swaziland is a tiny landlocked kingdom and is not at war and there are no potential enemies at the borders ready to invade. Swaziland’s international obligations in the military arena are few, and Swazi troops are not expected to be deployed abroad anytime soon.

Despite the reluctance of the King and Government to discuss military spending it is possible to piece together a picture of what might be behind the large spending.

In 2011, the Swazi Government set aside more than E1 billion (US$100 million) for spending on the army and police force and the then Finance Minister Majozi Sithole admitted that the army was prepared for an uprising by the population in Swaziland.

This followed a series of prodemocracy uprisings in North Africa, leading to what became known as the ‘Arab Spring’. King Mswati was fearful something similar could happen in his kingdom.  A Facebook group calling itself the April 12 Uprising had already called for an overthrow of the King.

In February 2011, Sithole told an open stakeholder dialogue on the 2011-2012 budget and Fiscal Adjustment Roadmap, ‘Yes, we are spending a lot on the army but we are not anticipating what is happening in North Africa to come here,’ he said.

He added, ‘However, the army is there to avoid such situations.’ 

In 2009, the Swazi Government was revealed to be engaged in arms dealing by the United States. A diplomatic cable written by Maurice Parker, the then US Ambassador to Swaziland, and later published by WikiLeaks revealed that the UK Government had blocked an arms deal between a UK company Unionlet and the Swaziland Government because it feared their ‘possible use for internal repression’. 

The Swazi Government wanted to buy equipment worth US$60 million.

Among items listed for purchase were, ‘3 Bell Model UH-1H helicopters, FN Herstal 7.6251mm Minimi light machine guns, blank and tracer ammunition, armored personnel carriers, command and control vehicles including one fitted with a 12.7x99mm M2 Browning heavy machine gun and others fitted with the FN Herstal light machine guns, military ambulances, armored repair and recovery vehicles, weapon sights, military image intensifier equipment, optical target surveillance equipment, 620 Heckler & Koch G36E assault rifles, 240 Heckler & Koch G36K assault rifles, 65 Heckler & Koch G36E rifles, 75 Heckler & Koch UMP submachine guns 9x19mm, and 35 Heckler & Koch USP semi-automatic pistols’.

The Swaziland Government said it wanted the items to fulfil its United Nations ‘peacekeeping’ obligations in Africa.

The UK Government did not believe it and thought either the weapons would be used against the Swazi civilian population, or they were being bought in order to sell on to another country, possibly Iran. The UK Government blocked the deal.

In his diplomatic cable, Parker said, ‘The array of weapons requested would not be needed for the first phases of peacekeeping, although it is possible someone tried to convince the Swazi government they were required. The GKOS [Government of the Kingdom of Swaziland] may have been attempting to build up domestic capability to deal with unrest, or was possibly acting as an intermediary for a third party such as Zimbabwe or a Middle Eastern country that had cash, diamonds or goods to trade.’

The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom, which first broke the story, reported at the time, Swaziland had a poor human rights record which was criticised by the US state department in its 2009 report (the year the deal was to have taken place).

‘Government agents continued to commit or condone serious abuses, and the human rights situation in the country deteriorated. Human rights problems included inability of citizens to change their government; extrajudicial killings by security forces; mob killings; police use of torture, beatings, and excessive force on detainees,’ the report said.

In the months before the attempted arms sale, Swaziland’s government declared the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) the main opposition political party a terrorist organisation and arrested its leader, Mario Masuku.

Once the cable became public in 2011, John Kunene, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, who signed the original deal in 2008, said the kingdom had never given up trying to buy the weapons.

The Swazi News, an independent newspaper in Swaziland, reported (26 February 2011) that Kunene was still trying to broker a deal. 

In March 2011 Lutfo Dlamini, who was then Minister of Defence, denied the Wikileaks report and, according to a report in the Times of Swaziland, told the Swazi Senate there was at no stage where the country spoke of purchasing guns.  

The Swazi Observer reported him saying, ‘We never bought any guns anywhere and never spent E429 million. The information leaked was misleading, it was written by someone who had his own agendas.’

Clearly, Lutfo Dlamini was not telling the truth since Kunene had already confirmed that he was still trying to broker the deal.

In March 2011 Kunene was sacked from his job after a disclosure that the Umbutfu Swaziland Defence Force (the army) had run out of food to feed its soldiers. 

A month after the Wikleaks revelation about possible arms sales to the Middle East, the AFP news agency reported Swaziland was importing two containers of firearms through a Mozambican port. 

AFP quoted Mozambican state daily newspaper Noticias as its source. It reported the arms arrived in Maputo, the Mozambican capital, on a Panamanian vessel on 28 February 2011 from an unspecified country.

Swaziland is in effect broke and has been struggling for the past four years to come up with a recovery package that could revive the economy. It has ignored advice from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to cut its public service wage bill and to increase the amount of money it collects in taxation. The IMF wants moneys to be transferred from capital expenditure projects to help poor and disadvantaged people.

In March 2013 it was revealed that the Swazi government had sold US$3 million worth of maize donated by Japan as humanitarian aid to feed malnourished people, including children. It put the money raised in a special account at the Central Bank of Swaziland.  

See also

SECRET ARMS DEAL FOR IRAN

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/02/swazi-secret-arms-deal-for-iran.html      

  

SWAZILAND AND SECRET ARMS DEAL

http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/swaziland-and-secret-arms-deal.html

SUPPORT FOR BLOCK ON SWAZI ARMS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/support-for-block-on-swazi-arms.html

 

ARMS SHIPMENT HEADS TO SWAZILAND

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/03/arms-shipment-heads-to-swaziland.html

 

SWAZILAND APARTHEID SHAME REVEALED

During the height of the Apartheid era, Swaziland lobbied the US and UK Governments not to support economic sanctions on South Africa, a confidential communication from 1978 has revealed.

The then Swazi Prime Minister Maphevu Harry Dlamini said the sanctions would be ‘disastrous’ for the Swaziland economy.

The information contradicts the present-day belief that King Sobuza II and his Swazi Governments were stanch supporters of the struggle for freedom in South Africa during the Apartheid era.

Dlamini was said to have ‘pleaded strongly’ with the US and UK not to support sanctions.

This was revealed in a confidential electronic telegram sent from the United States State Department on 7 November 1978. It was distributed to the UK, Zambia, Mozambique and France.

The electronic telegram said, ‘During 30-minute meeting in his office November 2, Prime Minister pleaded strongly with UK and US reps to urge our governments to prevent adoption of UN sanctions against South Africa, especially on oil, on ground that sanctions would be not only suicidal for Swaziland but also extremely detrimental to blacks.’

The writer of the cable, who was not named, but was likely to be the US Ambassador to Swaziland said the US and UK representatives at the meeting agreed to seek clarification of positions from their governments ‘soonest’.

The confidential message added, ‘In unprecedented move, Prime Minister Maphevu summoned British High Commissioner and me jointly to his office November 2 for urgent approach on issue of UN sanctions against South Africa. 

‘Prime Minister said that from series of telexes and telecons from Swazi UN representative Malinga, he understood that United Nations was on brink of voting on sanctions issue and that Western powers, possibly reflecting disenchantment with South Africa’s posture on Namibian election question, were leaving impression in New York that they might not repeat not veto a sanctions resolution. 

‘Although worried about effect that any kind of sanctions would have on Swaziland’s economy, Prime Minister was principally concerned about oil sanctions. 

‘Prime Minister said he did not have to remind UK and US reps in Mbabane, who saw situation first-hand, how dependent Swaziland economy is on South African economy. 

‘Oil sanctions would be “disastrous” for Swaziland. 

‘He added that one could be sure that not only Swaziland’s population, but also blacks in South Africa itself, would be the first to feel the pinch if sanctions were imposed; he gave the example of black entrepreneurs in South Africa, who he said would certainly be treated far less favorably by South African authorities when rationing began. 

‘Several times in his forceful half-hour presentation the Prime Minister talked as spokesman for blacks in all of Southern Africa and not merely for Swazis. 

‘He said sanctions would be “indirect killing of black people in Southern Africa”.

‘For Swaziland to vote for sanctions would be “suicidal.”

‘Prime Minister asked rhetorically which black leaders in South Africa itself would support sanctions. He hoped that Western policy-makers were not taking advice from “blacks who left South Africa ten to twenty years ago and who are now living comfortably in Europe and America.”

‘He downplayed any hard-line advice that might be given by front-line leaders, who continue their own economic dealings with South Africa (as Swaziland does) because there is no alternative to such cooperation; he cited Zambian railroad move as one recent example.’

Maphevu Harry Dlamini was Prime Minister of Swaziland from 31 March 1976 until his death on 25 October 1979.

The telegram was classified confidential when it was written in 1978, and was declassified in 2014. It is now publicly available through the Wikileaks’ Public Library of US Diplomacy.