The government of South Africa financed Swaziland’s
then King Sobhuza II through a secret fund during the apartheid years.
After the king died it continued to make secret payments
to his successor and present king, Mswati III. When the apartheid government
fell, the South African government under President Nelson Mandela thought it
worth its while to continue making the payments.
The payments to Sobhuza and Mswati came from a secret
fund set up specifically to promote the policies of ‘white’ South Africa and to
fund operations directed against the opponents of apartheid.
The existence of the fund and the payments to the
Swazi monarchs was revealed by South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC). The information was published in October 1998 but
has gone largely unnoticed in the years since.
The mandate
of the TRC was set up in 1996 after the apartheid era ended to bear
witness to, record and in some cases grant amnesty to the perpetrators of
crimes relating to human rights violations, reparation and rehabilitation.
The TRC reported it had not received information on
the specific nature of the activities undertaken by those like the Swaziland
monarchs who received ‘covert funding’, nor did it investigate the actual use
made of the funding. But, it added, it was clear there were funds in ‘secret
bank accounts’.
The
TRC said it received information about the secret funds from the reports by the
Advisory Committee
on Special Secret Projects, chaired by Professor Ellison Kahn (known as the
Khan Committee) and the Secret Services Evaluation Committee.
The
TRC reported, ‘The Auditor-General reported that a total of more than R2.75
billion was expended through the Secret Services Account between 1978 and 1994.
This does not, however, constitute the full amount spent by state departments
on secret and other sensitive projects.’
The
TRC reported, ‘Most projects appear to be related to the establishment of front
organisations or actions aimed at counteracting the activities of the African
National Congress (ANC) and its allies, primarily in the sphere of information,
communication, disinformation, propaganda and counter-propaganda.
It
said one of the key goals of the secret projects was ‘sanctions busting’.
Separately from the TRC investigation it
has been revealed that in 1978 King Sobhuza’s government lobbied the
United States and the United Kingdom not to impose economic sanctions on South
Africa.
The
TRC highlighted what was called ‘Project Swaziland.’ The entry in the TRC’s
report (Vol 2,
Chapter 6, page 529) on
Project Swaziland was based on information from South Africa’s Department of
Foreign Affairs. The full entry in the TRC report on Project Swaziland is as
follows, ‘Young King Mswati III took it for granted that, like his father, he
would be furnished with the part-time services of an attorney at the expense of
the South African government. Pretoria lawyer Mr Ernst Penzhorn was employed at
an annual fee of around R50,000 to advise the King generally, accompany him to
conferences, draft speeches for him, persuade him not to act in undesirable
ways, and protect him from the machinations of undesirable characters.’
No
further mention is made in the TRC report of Project Swaziland. However, the
Khan Committee had previously been tasked with going through the secret funds
to recommend which should be allowed to continue post-apartheid. Khan
reported on Project Swaziland, on 19 November 1991. It called it, ‘A
line function par excellence. Activity endorsed.’ This recommendation that King
Mswati should continue to receive secret funding was later accepted.
Minutes
of the South Africa Secret Services Evaluation Committee
of 8 April 1993 show the enthusiasm of South Africa’s Department of Foreign
Affairs for continuing Project Swaziland. The minute reads, ‘The Department
would like to fund this from the open budget, but there are problems with the
need for secrecy for the two involved.’ It added department officials would
‘consider other ways of providing this assistance henceforth’.
According
to a profile published in the Mail &
Guardian (South Africa) in February 1998, the
Pretoria lawyer Ernst Penzhorn who was employed to serve King Mswati was closely
associated with one-time President of South Africa, PW Botha.
The newspaper said Penzhorn’s speciality was, ‘the art of smoke and mirrors,
and the negotiation of the shifting sands of international realpolitik where
countries have no friends, but only interests’.
It added he was, ‘a sort of legal agent-cum-fixer extraordinaire’.
A separate
report in the Mail & Guardian in
March 1995 said, ‘Penzhorn’s speciality appears to be acting for South
African agents captured in foreign countries while on clandestine missions.’
The payments were made to King Sobhuza until his death
in 1982. The payments continued when King Mswati III succeeded him to the
throne. It is not known if the payments continue to the present day.
Sobhuza is still widely revered within Swaziland, 37
years after his death. He was chosen to be king
of Swaziland when he was only four months old and became the monarch after he had
reached the age of 21. He died aged 83. He was said to have had 70 wives, 210
children and at least 1,000 grandchildren at the time of his death.
In 1973, five years after Swaziland’s independence
from Great Britain, King
Sobhuza tore up the kingdom’s constitution and ruled as an absolute
monarch. He was succeeded to the throne by King Mswati III in 1986 who
continues to rule as an absolute monarch to the present day.
During the height of the apartheid years in South
Africa King Sobhuza’s Swaziland
government lobbied
the US and UK Governments not to support economic
sanctions on South Africa, according to a confidential communication from
1978.
The then Swazi Prime Minister Maphevu Harry Dlamini said the sanctions would be
‘disastrous’ for the Swaziland economy.
The information challenges 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.’
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.
Richard
Rooney
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| King Sobhuza II |
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| King Mswati III wearing a suit beaded with diamonds at his 50th birthday celebration |
See also
Swaziland King tore up Constitution in fear educated
people might challenge his power, CIA report suggests
https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/10/swaziland-king-tore-up-constitution-in.html
