FIND NEWS AND VIEWS ON SWAZILAND

Last week I received a private email from a media freedom activist asking me which blogsites on Swaziland he should be following to keep abreast of the continuing fight for democracy.

There is an increasing number of blogsites about the kingdom, but most of them are not about public affairs. Instead they are written by people who are travelling through Swaziland or who are in the kingdom with a volunteer organisation such as the US Peace Corps or churches.

These sites are not written for a general audience and are mostly aimed at the writer’s friends and families. They have little concern for the general reader. You can read examples here and here.

The most visited site on freedom in Swaziland is the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) forum. At the last count it had 684 members and the forum is updated several times a day.

The SSN also has a site based in Canada that has been operating for more than three years that holds a collection of articles and reports on Swaziland.

The banned political party, People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) has started its own website. It hasn’t been operating for long and is still being built. The Swazi Government wanted to close it down, so it must be worth reading.

Libambe Lingashoni describes itself as a journal with a vision ‘One world, one people.’ It says, ‘We see a new Swaziland where all human beings shall be equal before the law.’ It says it is a monthly journal, but the site hasn’t been updated since October 2008.

Caroline in Swaziland is a Canadian videographer who was working in Swaziland to produce videos for several non-profit organizations, including the Swaziland Action Group against Abuse, an organization that is trying to fight abuse through counselling, education and women's empowerment programs.

Among the blogsites available on Swaziland is my own Swaziland Elections 2008, which as the name suggests, has a collection of information and comment about the elections in Swaziland held last September.

Among recently-created blogsites (which don’t always get updated that often) are:

Phansi Mswati Phansi, which takes a satirical swipe at King Mswati III and purports to be written by the king, ‘I am a king and don't care for my subjects.’

S1ka Media is written by Sikelela Dlamini, and ‘carefully identifies, reflects on, explores, interrogates, and unpacks some uncomfortable socio-political topics/issues confronting contemporary Swaziland’.

Stanley Talks was set up by Stanley Mkhwanazi, a Journalism and Mass Communication graduate from the University of Swaziland, as ‘a commentary on a variety of issues such as media, business, tourism, social , personal development, observations and experiences’.

Tinchapheli ‘is dedicated to the people, young and old, who fight oppression in Swaziland and the world over’.

The Young People’s Division is to help ‘youth overcome all challenges they might be exposed to’.

Apologies to anyone I have left out. If you know of other sites that should be on the list please let me know.

ABUSED LIFE OF THE SWAZI CHILD

Who would want to be a child in Swaziland?

Hardly a week goes by without some news of another atrocity committed against children. The latest reveals that teachers are having sex with their pupils. Last year 100 teachers were investigated on charges of having sex with pupils. That hundred only represents the cases that were reported and dealt with, there is every reason to suspect that many more children are being abused than this number suggests.

According to Muziwethu Mhlanga, Secretary General Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), one of the reasons teachers get away with child abuse is that parents, especially in rural areas, ‘sold’ their daughters in return for groceries from male teachers.

He told African Eye, ‘We have incidents where parents send their daughters to go and clean for a male teacher or tell him to bring his washing so that their daughter can wash for him, or even go to the extent of cleaning his house.’

He said poverty exacerbates the problem.

Mhlanga added, ‘There are a lot of things wrong in this country and we can't only accuse teachers of abusing school children. There are a lot of people in the country who grab young girls against their will to make them wives, while some take advantage of the fact that they are poor and promise to do everything for them (in return for sex).’

Mhlanga is quite right when he says that it is not only teachers who abuse children (sexually and physically).

I have written many times about the plight of Swazi children. They live appalling lives of deprivation and abuse. Here are some of the articles I have written. When you put them altogether they make a depressing picture of the life of the Swazi child.

One in three children is sexually abused. Click.

Four in ten children are so malnourished that their growth is stunted. Click.

Hunger and lack of medicine kill up to one Swazi child in seven before they reach the age of five. Click.

About 3 000 Swazi households are headed by children. Click.

Eight year olds scrap for food on streets of Mbabane. Click.

Two children have been jailed in Swaziland for being vagrants Click.

Police fire live bullets at schoolchildren protesting against their deputy principal. Click.

Twenty teachers lined up to thrash children in a sadistic corporal punishment ritual. Click.

Eighteen primary school children were whipped because they were eating their lunch from buckets. Click.

Children are subjected to whipping as punishment by Swazi law courts. Click.

A representative of an international aid agency working in Swaziland called for some Swazi children to be sterilised to stop them having children of their own. Click

Children get a raw deal in the Swazi Press, where in some cases the reporting of children does not uphold the rights of vulnerable children and the reporting of victimised children further victimises those children. Click

POLICE BAN SWAZI YOUTH PROTEST

Swaziland police have threatened a youth rally due to protest against the imprisonment of Swazi democrat Mario Masuku.

The Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO) wants to rally on Saturday at Msunduza in the kingdom’s capital Mbabane, but, according to the Times of Swaziland today (25 February 2009), Swaziland’s acting police commissioner Isaac Magagula has said, ‘Should they dare to stage that rally I can assure you that the full extent and weight of the law will take its course.’

In Swaziland when the police talk about the full weight of the ‘law’ they don’t actually mean ‘the law’ they mean the state. This means SWAYOCO supporters can expect police to fire bullets, rubber bullets and tear gas and to use whips and water cannon against them.

When SWAYOCO tried to rally last December for a similar protest supporters were beaten up by police.

The police chief is angry because SWAYOCO is a banned organisation in Swaziland. Last November, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini declared SWAYOCO to be a ‘terrorist’ organisation. This means its members and supporters could be jailed for up to 20 years.

SWAYOCO wants to rally to protest against the jailing of Masuku, the President of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), who was arrested last November and charged with terrorism offences. He has been in jail awaiting trial since then.

Police Commissioner Magagula dismissed SWAYOCO’s concern. According to the Swazi Observer he said Masuku was ‘enjoying his stay in jail’. As a point of principle Masuku has refused to apply for bail and despite ill health has opted to stay in jail pending his eventual appearance in court.

SWAYOCO supporters have been distributing pamphlets advertising the rally. According to the Observer, a newspaper that is in effect owned by King Mswati III, ‘pamphlets contain sensitive demands which cannot be reproduced because they are derogatory to the leadership of the country’.