Swaziland
Newsletter No. 756 – 9 December 2022
News from and about Swaziland, compiled by
Global Aktion, Denmark (www.globalaktion.dk)
in collaboration with Swazi Media Commentary (www.swazimedia.blogspot.com),
and sent to all with an interest in Swaziland - free of charge.
Poverty in eSwatini has bred unapologetic freedom
fighters
By Ntombenhle Khathwane, Mail & Guardian
(South Africa), 5 December 2022
At what point is a civil war
declared? Anyone watching from the outside would be hard-pressed to believe that
there is a civil war in small, peaceful eSwatini, especially as King Mswati III
and his large entourage are gallivanting around the world, sweet talking investors
to invest in his fiefdom.
Yet, every day, even the main
state-owned and controlled media report on the increasing incidents of
politically motivated killings and
bombings. There are
reports that members of the Swaziland Royal Police and the army are under
attack by pro-democracy activists, and that many police officers are attempting
to resign, but their resignations are being denied by the king’s government.
Unorganised Swazis are acting to remove the absolute monarch in the hopes that
democracy will free them from poverty.
Organic change, uprisings and
revolutions are ignited uniquely in each country. In 2010, when the Arab Spring saw a change of governments in Tunisia and
Egypt, there was hope that the same spirit of democratic change would make its
way across sub-Saharan Africa, but this did not happen. The time was not ripe.
Is it now ripe in eSwatini, ruled by the last absolute monarch in Africa?
And while the Southern African Development Community
(SADC), the African
Union and most of the world have seemingly not paid much mind to the daily
political bombings, violence and deaths in eSwatini, and have continued to give
support to the absolute monarchy, the country is a good case study on how sustained poverty and oppression eventually breed generations who
feel they have everything to gain by fighting for change.
It can be argued that most of
Africa is not governed by the will of the people, but the will of the people
will eventually define itself; the people will find their voice and their
power.
Nobody could have predicted
the ignition of what now seems clearly to be an unstoppable call for change in
the Kingdom of eSwatini. The calls for democracy have been rumbling since the 1970s, and have
gained momentum since the early 2000s as King Mswati III took over more of the
economy, hoarding riches while sinking more of the population into unbearable
poverty.
Since mid-2021, when mass
protests calling for democracy broke out in the small country of 1.2 million
people, Mswati has not had a night of peace. The protests of 2021 surprised all in eSwatini in
the midst of Covid-related lockdowns and restrictions. They caught the royal
regime, its government and political parties unawares.
For years, those calling for
democracy in and outside eSwatini
have been hoping for such a response. For decades, the call for democracy was
more robust outside the country; for the first time this has changed. It is
clear that the protests will continue, even without outside assistance and
support. When the time for an idea has come, it is unstoppable.
I remember speaking to my
grandmother in the late 1990s. I would ask her why Swazis were not pushing for
democracy, did they not want it? I was in my late teens, naïve in my
belief that true democracy is easy to attain. At the time, I was hopeful
that democracy would end poverty and inequality in South Africa; the euphoria
of Thabo Mbeki’s “African Renaissance” truly had me in its thrall.
My grandmother would say
to me that democracy brings war and instability. This is a view that
state-owned media — the only kind of media permitted in eSwatini — has drilled
into the consciousness of the people, such that the majority has rejected
democracy. Mswati and his propaganda machine did a good job of making people
believe that the high rates of crime and violence in South Africa are the
result of democracy. Mswati and his regime did not foresee that
generations born into abject poverty would differ from the
generations before; generations that bought into the narrative of elevating false
peace over total freedom.
From colonial times, Queen
Gwamile and thereafter King Sobhuza II navigated the hostile political terrain,
avoiding costly wars, and maintaining as peaceful a state as they could and
preventing eSwatini from being usurped into apartheid South Africa. eSwatini
fancied itself as the “Switzerland of Africa”, but there has always been a
false peace here.
King Mswati III knows that the
only way to keep people subdued in the long term is to do so by using the
military. He has used culture, religion and the economy as tools of oppression,
and they have worked well on generations past, but clearly, no longer.
He has used the military from
time to time to quell protests, but he cannot use the military outright now,
because to the rest of the world, he still pretends that eSwatini is a
democracy. eSwatini is far from being a democracy. So there is a war raging in
eSwatini, while the rest of the world pretends it is not so, and because Mswati
continues to deny this fact. And yet even his state-controlled media has to
report the daily violence.
For the first time Mswati’s
police and soldiers fear the people, because the people are bombing the homes
and assets of any police and army person, regardless of whether that police
officer or soldier has participated in stopping pro-democracy protests.
Over the past two decades,
Mswati has been bold in his taking over the entire economy of eSwatini. It has
one of the harshest tax regimes on its subjects, supposed to be its citizens.
Mswati taxes Swazi businesses before they even break even, and yet he offers
huge tax breaks to foreign companies, in which he is always a
shareholder.
The number of foreign-owned
businesses has increased tenfold in the past two decades, but they do not
benefit the people — they ill-treat and underpay workers, and are protected by
the government. It is a despicable situation, meant to keep Swazis
out of economic activity, clearly with the thinking that economic suppression
maintains Mswati’s greedy grip on power. And yet this has been the ignition for
the change that is coming.
eSwatini has been classified
as a middle-income country, yet the high levels of lived poverty experienced by
the majority of the population contradict this. Most of the income goes into
the coffers of the monarch, while public purse and public services receive none of that income, resulting in the
current situation where public healthcare, social services and education are struggling.
Hospitals have gone for years
without adequate funding, even for basic medicines like paracetamol. Social and
public services such as health and welfare rely heavily on donor funding, and
Mswati pockets huge amounts he does not have to account for.
Younger generations, whose
psyche is shaped differently from older generations, who are not going to
tolerate designed poverty, increasing inequality and lack of access to basic
public goods and services, will become violent in their fight for freedom,
equality and equal access.
Perhaps this is what will move
multinational organisations, including the SADC and the AU, to act more
decisively in advancing democracy and prosperity for all, by at least denying
membership to countries and regimes that are corrupt and
undemocratic.
Calls for the SADC and the AU
to act against Mswati have come from all corners of the world, and have gone
unheeded. Mswati has been aided in his corruption, oppression and absolutism.
The views
expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or
position of the Mail & Guardian.
Ntombenhle
Khathwane is an entrepreneur and social justice activist.
King Mswati
tricks SADC again, promises to engage in a dialogue after Incwala
By Zweli
Martin Dlamini, Swaziland News, 6 December, 2022
MBABANE: King Mswati has tricked the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) again by promising to engage in a political dialogue after his
Incwala ritual ceremony.
It is alleged that the King made this commitment to calm the situation
so that he could perform rituals without any disturbances.
The King made the same commitment in November 2021 during a meeting with
SADC and subsequently unleashed his soldiers and the police to shoot more
civilians. He later told the police to meet “eye for an eye” when dealing
with what he described as insurgents seeking to disturb peace.
Speaking during the SADC Ministerial Committee Summit held in Windhoek last
week, the Chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC)MCO, Netumbo
Nandi-Ndaitwah, said the people of Eswatini and the Government had agreed on
the importance of a dialogue.
“The people of eSwatini and the government have agreed on the importance
of a national dialogue. What remains now is to work out the modalities and the
process of that on how the national dialogue would be conducted,” said the
Chairperson of the SADC Ministerial Committee.
Foreign Affairs Minister Thulie Dladla was representing eSwatini
Government during the meeting, she then made a commitment that the dialogue
would be held.
Reached for comments, human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko, the
Chairperson of the pro-democracy Multi-Stakeholder Forum said the King hasn’t
made any commitments with the pro-democracy movement to participate in a
dialogue.
“The same thing happened when President Ramaphosa was here, Ramaphosa
used a strong saying it has been “resolved” that a political dialogue
would take place after Incwala last year. We appreciate SADC’s commitment and
for its consistent call for a dialogue, but we accept that the dialogue might
be held in February with a huge doubt, considering the fact that no one is
corresponding with the pro-democracy movement on this issue,” said the MSF
Chairperson.
Cultural barriers are preventing women in eSwatini from
accessing HIV care
By Colleta Dewa, The Body, 5 December 2022
Eswatini (formerly Swaziland),
a tiny country of just over a million people in Southern Africa, has one of the
highest HIV prevalence rates in the world. As of 2021, UNAIDS reported
that 27.9% of people aged 15-49 within the
country are living with the virus.
According to the Global
Fund―an international financing partnership that works to eliminate HIV,
tuberculosis, and malaria―63% of the people living with HIV
(PLWH) in the country are women,
who continue to be disproportionately affected by the virus. For example, the
fund reported that in 2020, women and girls accounted for 63% of all new HIV diagnoses.
The Normalization of Violating
Women in Eswatini
While the epidemic is generalized,
it is women who bear the brunt of infections and socioeconomic consequences.
Individuals who live in rural areas or who have had less access to formal
schooling are at highest risk.
“Things were hard at home,”
Nosiziba Kunene told TheBody. “We could not afford to have a decent meal every
day. My parents had no land to farm. One of our neighbors offered to sell us a
piece of his land. Unfortunately, my father had no money to pay for it. They
made an agreement to give me as a wife to the 52-year-old [landowner]. I was
only 14 years old then. The arrangement was made without my consent.”
Kunene, who is now 26 years
old, is one of many girls and women in the landlocked kingdom who are entrapped
within the social confines of culture norms, which can directly and indirectly
expose them to acquiring HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases (STIs).
Most of these outdated practices promote child marriages, wife inheritance, and
polygamy, which in turn reduces the possibility for safer sex.
Led by King Mswati III, the
last absolute monarch in Africa, Eswatini also prides itself on cultural
festivals and traditional ceremonies that are celebrated religiously.
From a distance, these events
may look glamorous to some. Especially the renowned Umhlanga Reed Dance
festival―which celebrates chastity as well as virginity―wherein the king, a
polygamist with 15 wives and 36 children, is traditionally expected to pick a
new fiancé from among the thousands of girls that grace the occasion.
“By the time my father forced
me to marry our neighbor in exchange for land, I was already deflowered,”
Kunene explained while discussing the festival. “I had attended the reed dance
the previous year, and I was raped while in camp preparing to participate. The
man who raped me was one of the security guys who were supposed to be taking
care of us.
“Being forced to marry the
52-year-old man only added salt to a wound that had not and will never heal
[the rape],” she continued. “I dropped out of school to be his fourth wife. My dreams
of becoming a lawyer were shuttered. Seven years into the marriage, I already
had three children. That’s when I made up my mind and ran away. By that time, I
was already diagnosed with HIV and my husband was denying me consistent access
to medical attention.”
Eswatini Has a Deeply
Male-Dominated Society, and Violence Against Women Is Widespread
In Swazi culture,
decision-making has traditionally been a male prerogative. Women suffer
discrimination, are treated as inferior, and are denied rights. Because
family-planning decisions are made by men, women are subjected to continuous
childbirth by their husbands and in-laws, against their will.
According to a report published by UNICEF in 2009, one
in three girls in Eswatini have experienced sexual violence before the age of
18. About 14% of girls experienced rape or coerced sex (for example, through
intimidation or threats) before age 18. One in six girls ages 13 to 17 had
experienced sexual violence in the past year. TheBody was unable to locate any
substantial follow-ups on this study since it was first conducted.
“It is a mess,” Nonhlanhla
Dlamini explained to TheBody. “Older emaSwati males purposefully deflower
little girls, which results in teenage pregnancies and exposes young girls to
the risks of contracting sexually transmitted infections and the HIV virus.
When the girls fall pregnant, they are forced into early marriages, dumped,
their dreams are shattered and futures destroyed as they drop out of school.”
Dlamini is an activist and the
director of the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA), a women-led,
women’s rights organization that coordinates violence-prevention activities,
provides comprehensive care and support services, and advocates for legal and
policy reform. It also works to influence social norms and facilitate
survivors’ access to justice by fostering safe environments and developing agency
among women and girls.
According to Dlamini,
objectifying young women and subjecting them to the tribal fetishes of old men
does not conform to the sacred and common principles of dignity and human
rights that society should promote and protect.
To read more of
this article, click here
https://www.thebody.com/article/cultural-barriers-women-eswatini-hiv-care
Stop
the violence, find peaceful resolution – women indaba
By
Andile Dlamini, eSwatini Observer, 8 December 2022
The African Women's Peace and Development Foundation
(AWPDF) has expressed concerns that if the political situation remained
unaddressed, the country would see a resurgence of the violence and further
deterioration of living standards.
The AWPDF held a two-day women’s peace
building indaba in collaboration with CANGO. The peace-building indaba
was the first of a series of consultative forums that will be held with women
at different levels and from different constituencies.
It is the beginning of a process, which is
anticipated to generate strategic key points for more focused and sustainable
women's participation in peace-building, development and governance.
The indaba unanimously agreed that there
could be no development without peace, and no peace without development, hence
the urgency of stopping the violence and finding a peaceful resolution to the
current conflict.
The organisation’s chairperson, Tizie
Maphalala, said there was identification of a diversity of local, national,
regional and international stakeholders who were relevant and should be engaged
for this process.
According to Maphalala, the indaba
provided a unique opportunity for women in Eswatini to reflect on and engage
each other’s perspectives on the current socio-economic and political
situation, current initiatives they were implementing and the role they could
play in ending the violence and building sustainable peace.
“Over the course of the two days, women
shared experiences of the challenges they face in their daily realities and how
these have been exacerbated by both COVID-l9 and the unprecedented violence
witnessed in June, 2021 and its aftermath,” Maphalala stated.
She said they expressed their common pain
as grandmothers, mothers, wives/ partners, sisters, aunts and nieces at the
bloodshed witnessed since June last year, at having to bury family members and
at the continuing trauma of the maimed and their families.
She stated that participants emphasised on
the importance of women's inclusion in all aspects of development.
Maphalala further said the women agreed on
the need to be proactive and strengthen local level engagement, to promote
women working together, and to support one another at community level to
overcome the challenges they face.
“In this regard, the indaba was also an
opportunity for women to network and gain knowledge about each other’s sectors
and mandates. During the indaba, a number of potential development projects on
which women can partner across sectors were identified,” she said.
Intensified efforts to maintain a polio free Eswatini
World Health
Organization, 7 December 2022
Eswatini has joined countries
like Botswana, Mozambique, and Malawi in intensifying efforts to protect more
people from polio. Following the finalisation of the National Polio
Preparedness and Response Plan, the country went on to conduct a Polio Outbreak
Simulation Exercise (POSE). This was through a two-day Tabletop Exercise (TTX)
conducted from 29 to 30 November 2022 after several weeks of intense planning.
The purpose of the POSE was to
test Eswatini’s operational readiness to respond to a polio outbreak. The
activity also acted as a refresher on what to expect in the event of a polio
outbreak, and what must be done to enable a coordinated and efficient response
by the country team. A team of experts from WHO/AFRO consisting of Dr Diakite
Epse Manouan Dr Samuel Bawa, Dr Landoh Essoya, Dr Emmanuel Kayiira and Dr
John Ogange facilitated the activity which was well attended by national
stakeholders in line with the one health, the whole of government and society
approach.
The POSE was commissioned by
the honourable Minister of Health, Senator Lizzie Nkosi who emphasised the need
to strengthen Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR) as revealed during the
COVID-19 response. “The need for resilient health systems with the
capacity to prevent, detect, respond to health threats and maintain continuity
of essential health services can never be over-emphasised,” she said.
The Acting WHO Representative
in the Kingdom, Dr Geoffrey Bisoborwa sent gratitude on behalf of the
organisation to His Excellency Prime Minister Mr Cleopas Dlamini and the entire
Government for the particular interest given to the Polio Eradication
Initiative. This includes having robust Polio outbreak preparedness and
response plan and organizing a Polio Outbreak Simulation exercise. “We have all
it takes to keep polio off our Kingdom, and in an unfortunate event of
happening, to detect and contain it swiftly,” Dr Bisoborwa said.
The country scored 56.7% as an
overall performance. Some of the gaps noted included procedures for submitting
outbreak notification to WHO in line with IHR, unclear role definitions in the
plans, as well as surveillance SOPs. Nonetheless, there were positives, in that
a structure is in place to respond to emergencies under National Disaster
Management Agency (NDMA). The team also found that the structure of the Risk
Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) was adequate and strategies to
communicate demonstrated.
The Kingdom of Eswatini last
recorded a polio case in 1989 and has successfully maintained a polio-free
status ever since leading to it being declared polio-free in 2005. The African
region was subsequently declared polio-free in 2020. However, with the
re-emergence of the circulation of the Wild polio Virus in Africa, the risk of
reintroduction of the virus remains very high. Eswatini remains at risk of
importing the wild poliovirus.
Since the inception of the
Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) programme in 1980, the country has
maintained an active surveillance system for the detection of poliomyelitis
where all suspected cases of Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) are reported and
investigated immediately and tested for the poliovirus. As soon as a case of
WPV is isolated, an immediate investigation is done commencing within 72 hours
to identify the scope of the response activities based on such factors as the
known extent of transmission AFP surveillance quality, major transit routes,
international borders and origin of the WPV case. However, the country still
needs to establish environmental surveillance to ensure that the detection of
cases is improved.
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