Swazi Media Commentary: defence

Showing posts with label defence. Show all posts

Wednesday, 9 March 2016

SWAZI SECURITY BUDGET SOARS

Swaziland is to spend US$150 million on security in the coming year, the kingdom’s annual budget reveals.

It amounts to 11 percent of the tiny kingdom’s total budget.

The money will be spent on the army (USDF), police and correctional services. It continues a trend of massive military spending by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

The security budget of E2.3bn is more than the E2.0bn set aside for health. The total budget is E20.6bn.

In his budget speech Finance Minister Martin Dlamini, said, ‘Government has, over the past years, actively enhanced the capacity of the USDF and the Police in order to safeguard peace and security of Swazis and their property.’

He added, ‘Government will therefore ensure that the USDF and Police continue to have what they need to ensure Swazis are secure.’

He said, ‘These resources will be utilized to further strengthen the USDF, Correctional Services and the Police. Specific emphasis will be placed on strengthening intelligence capability, training and welfare.’

Swaziland is a tiny landlocked kingdom with a population of about 1.4 million people. Seven in ten live in abject poverty, with incomes of less than US$2 per day.

Political parties are banned from taking part in elections and groups advocating multi-party democracy are banned under the Suppression of Terrorism Act.

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.

Sunday, 28 June 2015

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.

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

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

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

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.

Friday, 15 March 2013

DEFENCE EQUIPMENT SPENDING UP 50 FOLD

Secrecy surrounds Swaziland Government plans to increase its spending on defence equipment more than 50 fold to E63.19 million (US6.8 million) this year from E1.26 million last year.

And, there are plans to spend another E66.35 million on defence equipment in 2014/15 and a further E69.67 million in 2015 / 16.

The Swaziland Government, ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, will not reveal what the money will be spent on, citing national security as an excuse.

On top of the spending on equipment, the government intends to spend a further E61.97 million on consumerable materials and supplies in the Ministry of Defence in 2013 / 14. The spending in 2014 / 15 will be E65.07 million, with a further E68.33 million in 2015 / 16. Last year spending on defence consumables was E61.41 million.

Since the Swazi Government is not telling us what it intends to buy with the budget, Swazi people are left to speculate on what it could be. The budget for ‘durable materials and equipment’ could be spent on anything from paper clips to tanks, but it is safe to assume that office supplies are not high on the list of King Mswati’s priorities.

We know from activities in the past that the Swaziland Government can get a lot of bang for its bucks. In 2008, it was revealed that King Mswati had authorised the spending of E25 million to purchase ‘hundreds of guns and millions of ammunition’, as well as ‘security gadgets’.

The Swazi News reported in May 2008, that assault rifles worth E1 million, pistols worth E500,000, bullets worth E14 million and E5 million of ‘security gadgets’ such as mine detectors had been bought to protect the eight heads of state and other overseas’ dignities who were due to attend Swaziland’s 40/40 celebrations in September 2008, to mark both the 40th birthday of King Mswati III and the 40th anniversary of independence from Great Britain.

Of course, nobody believed such equipment was needed to protect a small number of visitors. In the event, the celebration went off without trouble, so we can assume that the equipment is still stored in an arsenal somewhere in Swaziland.

Swaziland has been criticised for many years for the high level of its defence spending, which accounts for about 6 percent of the kingdom’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Last week, the Times Sunday newspaper in Swaziland reported the Ministry of Defence was to be allocated a total of E867.29 million for the 2013/14 financial year.

It said overall the government would spend E1.9 billion on the three security forces: army, police and correctional services from a total budget of about E12.6 billion. It said this was just over 15 percent of the kingdom’s annual budget.

Mtiti Fakudze, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, told the newspaper the budget allocation to the Ministry of Defence was too small.

The Times reported, ‘He said the department needed the money to beef up security of the country.’

It added, ‘He could not disclose which areas needed to be strengthened and how they would be fortified, because issues of national security were top secret.’

The Times reported, ‘The minister was quick to add that Swaziland was being menaced by cattle rustlers who forcefully took stock from owners. He said among other things more funds were required to deal with the issue of stock theft because it was becoming a threat to the nation’s peace.

‘The minister said cattle thieves were on the rampage along the country’s borders, where livestock is stolen and taken to countries like Mozambique. He said the army, among other things is presently dealing with this problem and it needed more resources to deal with this “war.”’.

Swaziland is in effect broke and has been struggling for the past three 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.

This week 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.

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