More work needed in Swaziland to eliminate human trafficking, new report states

Swaziland (eSwatini) has a long way to go before it eliminates human trafficking, but it is making progress, according to a new global report.

The United States Department of State stated in its annual Trafficking in Persons Report that as with the past five years, human traffickers continue to exploit domestic and foreign victims in Swaziland, and traffickers exploit victims from Swaziland abroad. Trafficking victims come primarily from poor communities with high HIV/AIDS prevalence rates. 

Traffickers exploit Swazi girls, particularly orphans, in sex trafficking and domestic servitude, primarily in Swaziland and South Africa. Traffickers force Swazi boys and foreign children to labour in agriculture, including cattle herding, and market vending within the country. 

Mozambican boys migrate to Swaziland for work washing cars, herding livestock, and portering; traffickers exploit some in forced labour. Traffickers use Swaziland as a transit country to transport foreign victims to South Africa for forced labour. Traffickers reportedly force Mozambican women into commercial sex in Swaziland, or transport them through Swaziland to South Africa. 

Some traffickers force Swazis into commercial sex in South Africa after voluntarily migrating in search of work. Reports suggest labour brokers fraudulently recruit and charge excessive fees to Swazi nationals for work in South African mines, means often used to facilitate trafficking crimes. Swazi men in border communities are recruited for forced labour in South Africa’s timber industry.

The report stated there had been some progress. In the past year a trafficker in Swaziland was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for forced labour and the Swazi Government trained front-line responders on how to identify trafficked people. It also launched a five-year national action plan.

‘However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas. The government did not have shelter policies or guidelines to ensure quality of care for trafficking victims, and the primary shelter available was inadequate. While the government did take action against a government protection officer who assaulted and traumatized three foreign victims while they were in a government shelter, overall lack of protection efforts and oversight created the environment in which the assault took place,’ the report stated.

The report added, ‘While there were general reports of government corruption, including immigration officials seeking bribes to issue government documents such as visas, there were few reports of direct official complicity in trafficking. The government investigated a senior official for sex trafficking.’

The report listed a number of recommendations for improvement. These included increasing efforts to identify, investigate, and prosecute more trafficking crimes, including internal trafficking cases; implement the national anti-trafficking action plan; address leadership issues at the anti-trafficking secretariat and enable the taskforce to fulfil its statutory responsibilities; ensure all victims of trafficking are provided appropriate and comprehensive care.

See also

University lecturers ‘forced to weed fields of Swaziland absolute monarch’

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2020/01/university-lecturers-forced-to-weed.html

Swazi Govt misleads on child labour

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/01/swazi-govt-misleads-on-child-labour.html
 

Kids forced to weed King’s fields

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/01/kids-forced-to-weed-kings-fields.html

New report reveals widespread corruption across Swaziland, especially among govt officials

Corruption was widespread in Swaziland / eSwatini during 2018, a new report on human rights abuses in the kingdom reveals.

The United States Department of State reported, ‘there was a widespread public perception of corruption in the executive and legislative branches of government and a consensus that the government did little to combat it’. 

The annual report on human rights stated, ‘There were widespread reports of immigration and customs officials seeking bribes to issue government documents such as visas and resident permits. In March police raided the Department of Immigration, where they confiscated files and arrested and charged two senior immigration officers. The government filed charges against one of the senior officers based on allegations she had processed applications for travel documents for foreign nationals who were not present in, and had never visited, the country.’

It added, ‘Credible reports continued that a person’s relationship with government officials influenced the awarding of government contracts; the appointment, employment, and promotion of officials; recruitment into the security services; and school admissions. Authorities rarely took action on reported incidents of nepotism.’

This is not the first report on corruption in Swaziland issued this year. In January 2019 Transparency International scored the kingdom, ruled by King Mswati III as an absolute monarch, 38 out of a possible 100 in its Corruption Perceptions Index for 2018. In this scale zero is ‘highly corrupt’ and 100 is ‘very clean’.  The index ranks countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople.

In November 2018 national police Deputy Commissioner Mumcy Dlamini told an event for International Fraud Awareness Week Swaziland lost E30 million from the economy because of banking fraud alone during the previous year.

In June 2017, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) reported the kingdom, was riddled with corruption in both private and public places.

It said, ‘The results of grand corruption are there for all to see in the ever increasing wealth of high-level civil servants and officers of state.’ 

It added, ‘For a long time the police, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade as well as the Department of Customs and Excise have often been implicated in corrupt practices.’

It gave many examples including the case of the government propaganda organisation Swaziland Broadcasting and Information Service (SBIS) where E 1.6 million was paid to service providers for the maintenance of a machine that was neither broken nor in use.  The officer who authorised the bogus job cards has since been promoted and transferred to another government department. 

The report called The effectiveness of anti-corruption agencies in Southern Africa stated, ‘This type of behaviour is common albeit covert and therefore difficult to monitor as goods and services are undersupplied or rerouted for personal use. The results of grand corruption are there for all to see in the ever increasing wealth of high-level civil servants and officers of state.’

See also

Swaziland Auditor General fears fraud as govt pensions paid to the deceased

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/04/swaziland-auditor-general-fears-fraud.html

 

New drive against corruption in Swaziland leaves out King Mswati, the biggest drain on the public purse

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/11/new-drive-against-corruption-in.html

No appetite by Swaziland to investigate human rights abuses, corruption: U.S. report

There is no appetite to investigate human rights abuses or corruption in Swaziland /eSwatini, the latest report from the United States Department of State concluded.

Swaziland is controlled by King Mswati III  and ‘political power remained largely vested with the king and his traditional advisors,’ the report, which covered human rights issues during 2018, stated.

The 24-page report detailed ‘human rights issues’ across a wide range of areas which included, ‘restrictions on political participation, corruption, rape and violence against women linked in part to government inaction, criminalization of same-sex sexual conduct, although rarely enforced, and child labor’. 

The report stated, ‘The government often did not investigate, prosecute, or administratively punish officials who committed human rights abuses. With very few exceptions, the government did not identify officials who committed abuses. Impunity was widespread.’

The report added, ‘Although there were mechanisms to investigate and punish abuse and corruption, there were few prosecutions or disciplinary actions taken against security officers accused of abuses.’ It said the Royal eSwatini Police Service (REPS) itself investigated complaints of police abuse and corruption, but did not release findings to the public. 

‘In most cases the REPS transferred police officers found responsible for violations to other offices or departments within the police system.’

The Department of State report was not the first in 2019 to detail human rights abuses in Swaziland. In February, Freedom House concluded King Mswati  continued to hold a tight grip on power and all aspects of life in the kingdom.

Freedom House scored Swaziland 16 out of a possible 100 points in its Freedom in the World 2019 report. It concluded that Swaziland was ‘not free’.

Freedom House stated, ‘The king exercises ultimate authority over all branches of the national government and effectively controls local governance through his influence over traditional chiefs. Political dissent and civic and labor activism are subject to harsh punishment under sedition and other laws. Additional human rights problems include impunity for security forces and discrimination against women and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people.’

National elections took place in Swaziland in 2018. Freedom House scored Swaziland zero out of a possible 12 points for its ‘electoral process’. It stated, ‘The king, who remains the chief executive authority, is empowered to appoint and dismiss the prime minister and members of the cabinet. The prime minister is ostensibly the head of government, but has little power in practice. Ambrose Dlamini was appointed prime minister in October 2018, although he was not a member of Parliament at the time of his appointment, as required by the constitution.

Freedom House scored Swaziland one point out of a possible 16 for ‘political pluralism and participation’ stating, ‘The king has tight control over the political system in law and in practice, leaving no room for the emergence of an organized opposition with the potential to enter government. The vast majority of candidates who contested the 2018 general elections were supporters of the king.’

Swaziland scored zero out of a possible 12 points for ‘functioning of government.’ The king appoints the Prime Minister and government ministers. Freedom House stated, ‘The king and his government determine policy and legislation; members of Parliament hold no real power and effectively act as a rubber stamp in approving the king’s legislative priorities. Parliament cannot initiate legislation and has little oversight or influence on budgetary matters. The king is also constitutionally empowered to veto any legislation. The absolute authority of the king was demonstrated by his decision to rename the country in April 2018 [from Swaziland to eSwatini] without any constitutional process or parliamentary approval.

The full report from the State Department is available here

http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2018&dlid=289017

See also

Swaziland in economic freefall with human rights failings, report shows

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/04/swaziland-in-economic-freefall-with.html

King Mswati in complete control as another year of human rights struggle ends in Swaziland

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/01/king-mswati-in-complete-control-as.html

Police violence, undemocratic elections, hunger and disease: highlights of Swaziland’s human rights violations

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/10/police-violence-undemocratic-elections.html

Journalists in Swaziland endure year of harassment as they try to do their jobs

As World Press Freedom Day is celebrated across the globe, journalists in Swaziland / eSwatini face almost continual harassment as they go about their work.

A survey by Swazi Media Commentary shows that in the twelve months since May 2018 journalists have been beaten by state forces and teachers as they try to cover public events. Two were detained at the Qatar Embassy in Mbabane, the Swazi capital, when they went to question a diplomat. A government minister called for a journalist to be arrested for taking photographs of ministerial cars parked in a public place. A former newspaper editor was questioned by police about allegations he had interviewed members of banned political organisations back in 2011.

As recently as last Sunday (28 April 2019) it was reported that a journalist on the Swazi Observer needed hospital treatment after he was beaten by family members of a prominent bishop when he was investigating allegations of the bishop’s sexual relationship with a schoolgirl. He needed hospital treatment. Five people were later charged by police.

In July 2018, Health Minister Ndlela-Simelane called on police to arrest a Swazi Observer journalist who was photographing government ministers’ cars outside the Deputy Prime Minister’s office. She demanded that the photographs be deleted which the journalist did. The newspaper had previously published a report about government ministers’ BMW cars being in a bad state of repair. It was checking a government claim that the vehicles had been repaired and were back on the road.

In August 2018, police and prison warders beat up a Times of Swaziland journalist and demanded he delete photographs he took of them attacking and shooting at striking textile workers at Nhlangano. The reporter was treated in hospital. More than 200 paramilitary police and correctional facility warders with riot shields, helmets and batons had been at Nhlangano. It had been the third police attack on workers in a week. 

Human rights groups condemned the attack. The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zimbabawe chapter called on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to investigate Swaziland after a series of ‘state-sponsored violations against journalists’.

It called the police attack, ‘an increasingly worrying development involving state security agents’. It pointed out that in February 2018 a photojournalist with the Swazi Observer had also been attacked after he took pictures of a convoy of overcrowded vehicles transporting prison wardens.

MISA called the attacks, ‘a direct attack on the rights to free expression and press freedom as explicitly protected in Section 24 of Eswatini’s Constitution. Yet State security forces continue to attack journalists with impunity.’

It called on SADC to look into ‘these continued state-sponsored violations against journalists. It is high time the regional body condemned the continued use of state security agents to violate fundamental rights such as the right to free expression and the right to access information.’ 

MISA Swaziland chapter said it was concerned the attacks on journalists were taking place ahead of national elections which were held in September 2018. It stated, ‘The law enforcement agents ought to know that journalists play a public service of disseminating information that emaSwati [Swazi people] need desperately to make informed decisions and choices.’ 

It added, ‘Whosoever attacks journalists in line of duty, stands accused of violating emaSwati’s constitutional right to information.’

Separately, the Panos Institute Southern Africa said the state attacks on journalists were unconstitutional. In a statementit said, ‘Journalism is not a crime, but is a freedom that must be cherished and protected by all who are concerned about the region’s development. Any attack on press freedom is a blow on the implementation of poverty eradication interventions, as the media is a strategic ally in the roll-out of national development programmes.’

In September 2018, a photojournalist with the Swazi Observer was assaulted and had his camera taken while covering  protest march by schoolteachers.  He was hit with open hands and fists and he sustained injuries on the face and body. His camera was taken but later recovered. It happened near the United States Embassy in Mbabane while teachers marched to deliver a petition seeking support in their campaign for higher salaries. 

In October 2018, the Qatar embassy in Swaziland detained two journalists from the Times of Swaziland for more than an hour in the kingdom’s capital, Mbabane. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported a senior diplomat tried to make them sign a statement barring them from publishing a report about his alleged involvement in an assault.

The journalists refused to sign, saying the story was in the public interest. They were released and later went to local police to lay a charge of kidnapping. 

Times of Swaziland editor Martin Dlamini told CPJ, ‘We are shocked that our journalists could be subjected to such treatment by an ambassador. This is not just a serious attack on the local media but displays disrespect toward the country.’

In November 2018, Musa Ndlangamandla, a former editor-in-chief of the Swazi Observer and a writer for South Africa’s Mail & Guardian newspaper, was questioned by police for talking to banned political parties for articles he had written in 2011. 

He wrote on his Facebook page, ‘They told me they are building a case against me for interacting (they actually called it advertising) PUDEMO, Umbane and other entities they described as proscribed.’ 

Political parties are banned in Swaziland and the kingdom is ruled by King Mswati III as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

Meanwhile, the United States State Department annual report on human rights in Swaziland covering 2018 stated, ‘The constitution and law provide for freedom of expression, including for the press, but the government restricted this right, particularly with respect to press freedom and matters concerning the monarchy. Although no law bans criticism of the monarchy, the prime minister used threats and intimidation to restrict such criticism.

‘The law empowers the government to ban publications if it deems them “prejudicial or potentially prejudicial to the interests of defense, public safety, public order, public morality, or public health.” Many journalists practiced self-censorship. Journalists expressed fear of reporting on matters involving the monarchy.

‘Daily newspapers criticized government corruption and inefficiency but generally avoided criticizing the royal family.’

The report added, ‘Broadcast media remained firmly under state control. Most persons obtained their news from radio broadcasts. Access to speak on national radio is generally restricted to government officials, although a leader of the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland received an opportunity in September to share trade union frustrations and demands. Despite invitations issued by the media regulatory authority for parties to apply for licenses, no licenses were awarded. Stations practiced self-censorship and hesitated to broadcast anything perceived as critical of the government or the monarchy.’

See also

Censorship total at Swazi state media

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/05/censorship-total-at-swazi-state-media.html 

Journalists say they are under threat

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/journalists-say-they-are-under-threat.html

Editor wants media freedom inquiry

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/04/editor-wants-media-freedom-inquiry.html

Swaziland Former Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini Dies. Known as Serial Abuser of Human Rights

Swaziland’s former Prime Minister and serial human rights abuser Barnabas Dlamini has died aged 76.

Dlamini was appointed Prime Minister four times by King Mswati III who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

He held office for seven-and-a-half years until 2003. He was reappointed in 2008 and was in office until the national elections of September 2018. He died at the Mkhiwa Clinic, a private hospital in Manzini, after a long illness.

Political parties are banned from taking part in elections in Swaziland (recently renamed Eswatini by King Mswati). The King appoints the Prime Minister and government ministers. 

When introducing Dlamini as the new PM in 2008, King Mwsati told him publicly to attack prodemocracy campaigners and all who supported them. 

Dlamini set about his task with zeal. He immediately banned four organisations, branding them terrorists. 

His Attorney General Majahenkhaba Dlamini told Swazis affiliated with the political formations to resign with immediate effect or feel the full force of the law. Under the Suppression of Terrorism Act (STA), enacted in 2008, the same year Dlamini resumed power, members and supporters faced up to 25 years in jail. 

Under the draconian provisions of the STA, which is still in force, anyone who disagreed with the ruling elite faced being branded a terrorist supporter. This happened at a time when the call for democracy in Swaziland was being heard loudly both inside the kingdom and in the international community. 

Immediately, the Dlamini-led Government clamped down on dissent. In 2011, Amnesty International reported the ill-treatment, house searches and surveillance of communications and meetings of civil society and political activists. Armed police conducted raids and prolonged searches in the homes of dozens of high profile human rights defenders, trade unionists and political activists while investigating a spate of petrol bombings. Some of the searches, particularly of political activists, were done without search warrants.

Amnesty reported that authorities continued to use the STA to detain and charge political activists. The STA was also used as a basis for search warrants and other measures to intimidate human rights defenders, trade unionists and media workers.

In 2010, Dlamini publicly threatened to use torture against dissidents and foreigners who campaigned for democracy in his kingdom. He said the use of ‘bastinado’, the flogging of the bare soles of the feet, was his preferred method.

Dlamini told the Times of Swaziland newspaper he wanted ‘to punish dissidents and foreigners who come to the country and disturb the peace’.

But Dlamini’s abuse of human rights did not start with his appointment in 2008. He was a former PM and held office for seven and a half years until 2003. While in office he gained a reputation as someone who ignored the rule of law. 

In 2003, he refused to recognise two court judgements that challenged the King’s right to rule by decree. This led to the resignation of all six judges in the Appeal Court. The court had ruled that the King had no constitutional mandate to override parliament by issuing his own decrees.

In a report running for more than 50,000 words, Amnesty International looked back to the years 2002 and 2003 and identified activities of Dlamini that ‘included the repeated ignoring of court rulings, interference in court proceedings, intimidating judicial officers, manipulating terms and conditions of employment to undermine the independence of the judiciary, the effective replacement of the Judicial Services Commission with an unaccountable and secretive body (officially known as the Special Committee on Justice but popularly called the Thursday Committee), and the harassment of individuals whose rights had been upheld by the courts.’  

In recent years he was at loggerheads with members of the House of Assembly and Senate for his dictatorial attitude.

The US State Department in a review of human rights in Swaziland in 2017 stated that in August, ‘the prime minister’s office forced a member of parliament (MP) to withdraw a statement made in the House of Assembly expressing his displeasure that the public had no role in the method used in appointing the country’s prime minister. The Prime Minister’s Office stated that the MP’s criticism constituted an attack on the constitution and the King. The MP was obliged to apologize and to donate cattle to the King as a token of contrition.’

The Swazi people did not want Dlamini to lead the kingdom. In October 2012 the Swazi House of Assembly passed a vote of no-confidence in him and his government. According to the constitution, King Mswati was obliged to sack him. But the King defied the constitution and Dlamini remained in office.

The House vote of no-confidence was not isolated. In August 2012 the Sibaya (where ordinary people gather at a cattle byre to air their views on matters of importance to them) told Dlamini and his government to quit. The people said they were corrupt and destroying the kingdom.

King Mswati claims Sibaya is the supreme policy-making body in the land because it demonstrates the peoples’ will. But, again, he ignored the voice of the people and stuck by Dlamini.

Richard Rooney

 Barnabas Dlamini, who has died, aged 76

                     

One of his last public appearances was on 4 September 2018, his last day in office as PM

He had a long hstory as a human rights abuser

                                     

He published his autobiography in early 2018

                                               

See also 

‘PM INCOMPETENT, UNTRUSTWORTHY, VAIN’

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/pm-incompetent-untrustworthy-vain.html
 

SWAZI PM IN ANOTHER NEPOTISM ROW

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/swazi-pm-in-another-nepotism-row.html

ILLEGAL SWAZILAND PM CRACKS DOWN

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/illegal-swaziland-pm-cracks-down.html
 

TRUE LIFE OF SWAZI PRIME MINISTER

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/true-life-of-swazi-prime-minister.html