STARVING SWAZI KIDS SCRAP FOR FOOD

Swazi children as young as eight years old are forced to scavenge for food in order to keep themselves and their families from starvation.

One eight-year-old girl who wakes up every morning at six to scavenge for old scrap metals and empty bottles to sell at recycling companies is one of many examples that have seen the city streets in Swaziland filled with children who should properly be at school.

Anyone who knows anything about Swaziland knows that seven out of ten people live in abject poverty, earning less than one US dollar (about E7) a day. About 65 percent of the population relied on international food aid last year.

These are statistics that should shame Swaziland’s ruling elites, but for most of us they remain just that: statistics.

The Times of Swaziland has put some human flesh on these bare-boned statistics. The newspaper tells the story of little Nomcebo (not her real name) who earned about E3 for a day’s work collecting scrap metal. She is one of hundreds of children (possibly even more than that) who are reduced to tramping the streets.

The Times met other children, aged between eight and fifteen, who did similar work. The children make money to give their parents who are struggling to get a day’s meal.

To read more, click here.

Last month (September 2008) Swaziland spent an estimated 10 million US dollars (E70 million) to celebrate the 40^th birthday of King Mswati III and the 40^th anniversary of Swaziland’s independence from Britain.

ARMED SWAZI POLICE AT STRIKE

Armed police stood by as 800 Swazi textile workers were fired from their jobs because they went on strike.

The total workforce at Juries Manufacturing Company in Nhlangano, Swaziland, were fired because they had been on strike for three days protesting that they wanted holiday pay due to them, pension provisions and their jobs to be made permanent. They also said that workers with the HIV virus were not allowed to take their ARV medicine while working.

The company has advertised all the jobs.

The workers’ trade union, the Swaziland Manufacturing and Allied Workers (SMAWU) say the company has not negotiated with them, even though they are required to do so by law.

For more click here and here.

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TEXTILES

SWAZILAND CIRCUMCISION - NEW LIE

I see that male circumcision is being peddled once again in Swaziland as a solution to the HIV crisis.

Swaziland’s Deputy Director of Health Services Dr Vusi Magagula has come out to say,‘The research evidence that MC [male circumcision] can reduce heterosexual transmission of HIV is overwhelming. The efficacy of reducing female to male transmission of HIV has been beyond reasonable doubt.’ [This is a direct quote from the Swazi Observer; I assume the newspaper left out the word ‘proved’ in error]

The Observer today (1 October 2008)reports that the Swaziland Ministry of Health and Social Welfare is currently preparing a male circumcision policy which will sensitise most men about circumcision and further guide medical experts on how to go about circumcising them.

It is alarming just how ignorant people can be about male circumcision and the fact that Swaziland’s deputy director of health services seems to be unaware that for every one expert who claims that male circumcision helps prevent HIV infection there is another who says the opposite, casts doubts on his suitability for the job.

There is extensive debate in the medical community about circumcision and HIV and it is simply not true as Magagula claims that its efficacy has been proved ‘beyond reasonable doubt’.

I wrote extensively in May 2008 and after about this debate so I won’t repeat the details here. Click on this link for more.

HIV AIDS is quite literally killing Swaziland which has the highest rate of HIV infection in the world and average life expectancy of about 31 years. It is vital that people are educated about HIV and its transmission. For someone of Magagula’s rank to make such an irresponsible statement about circumcision and for the Observer to report it under the headline The Cut That Can Save a Nation is totally irresponsible and sends Swaziland a little closer to the grave.

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CIRCUMCISION

PROBE INTO SWAZILAND POLL BRIBES

More evidence is emerging that last month’s Swaziland elections were not free and fair.

Even though official election observers including the African Union and the Pan-African Parliament were quick to declare the poll free and fair widespread bribery may have taken place.

The Swaziland Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) which oversees elections in the kingdom has announced it is so concerned about malpractice at the election that it is to investigate complaints of bribery.

Among claims are that newly-elected MPs offered voters alcoholic drinks, money, cabbages and bread amongst other things, to win the electorate’s support.

The chair of the EBC Chief Gija Dlamini is reported to have said Swaziland could not afford to have parliament made up of corrupt individuals.

The Times of Swaziland reported yesterday (1 October 2008) Dlamini saying, ‘As a Swazi I know that bribery is not the right thing to do and I guess every other Swazi knows that for a fact thus there is a need to bring it to a stop.’

As I reported yesterday some aspiring senators are accused of attempting to bribe newly-elected MPs into electing them. In Swaziland MPs choose 10 senators, while King Mswati III chooses the other twenty. In Swaziland senators are not elected by the general public.

The EBC is to investigate claims that aspiring senators are offering between E15 000 (about 2,200 US dollars) and E20 000 to the new MPs in a bid to have their names raised in the House of Assembly and be voted into Senate.

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SWAZILAND DEMOCRACY IN ACTION

ELECTIONS

SWAZILAND ELECTIONS 2008 BLOGSITE

SWAZILAND DEMOCRACY IN ACTION

Here’s what democracy means in Swaziland.

We are waiting for King Mswati III to tell us who he has chosen to be the kingdom’s next Prime Minister and who will sit in the Senate. He also gets to choose 10 MPs to go with the 55 who have just been elected.

It is his right to decide who take up these posts – nobody is elected.

Reports are that the King’s ‘advisors’, a rather secretive group called Liqoqo has drawn up a list of people they want to see governing Swaziland. We aren’t allowed to know who is on the list, and we can’t be told the reason why one person has been chosen rather than another.

The MPs who were elected to Parliament last month (September 2008) in Swaziland’s ‘unique democracy’ (political parties banned, no real powers for parliament and all important decisions taken by the King) get to choose 10 members of the Senate (the King chooses the other 20) and stories are circulating around Swaziland of people trying to bribe the new MPs for their favours.

We don’t yet know when the decisions will be announced. King Mswati is on (yet another) foreign trip and we’ll have to wait until he is ready. If the delay he made in announcing the date of the election while he was jet-setting around the globe is anything to go by we shouldn’t be holding our collective breath.

Meanwhile, more reports are emerging about bribery during the recent elections. The Times of Swaziland is so angry about the malpractice it has called many of the new MPs ‘cheats’.

In an editorial comment published yesterday (30 September 2008) the newspaper said, ‘We no longer have an election; we have a selection of those who were able to buy their way into power.’

The Times went on to say that the new MPs will be ripe for bribing. ‘From what we hear, corrupt MPs are there for the taking as they seek to recoup their ‘expenditure’ on the election campaign. None of the MPs we have spoken to wish to come on record for reasons we only see as putting themselves up for the financial rewards on offer. What a shame. Individuals have pledged their first salary, plots and other gains to the MPs. The whole process has simply gone rotten and can best be described as a sham.’

I think the Times is probably right, but I am disappointed that it is only now that it is telling people this. Before the election the Times was among the media outlets in Swaziland that spoke out against a proposed boycott of the elections. Many democrats (myself included) said that the elections were meaningless and we should recognise this and not give them credence by taking part. Media such as the Times did the people of Swaziland a great disservice by leading them to believe the elections were legitimate.

See also

ELECTIONS

SWAZILAND ELECTIONS 2008 BLOGSITE