SWAZI SENATE MEDIA FREEDOM FIGHT

Not for the first time Swaziland senators are threatening journalists with contempt of parliament because they are writing reports that they don’t like.

The latest attempt to curtail the freedom of the press comes after Swazi media reported about a verbal fight between the Senate President Gelane Zwane and Senator Ndileka Dlamini that took place in a hotel.

The spate between the two women was over allegations made by Dlamini that Zwane had undermined her in Parliament.

News reports said that the two women had to be dragged apart to stop violence taking place.

After reports appeared, the Senate President raised the issue in Parliament and accused the media of having embarrassed her.

Of course, the fight was public and she was indeed involved in it, so if there was any embarrassment caused it was caused by Dlamini and Zwane. I wasn’t there so I can’t say who tried to throw the first punch, so let’s say they were both equally to blame and both showed themselves up (and senators generally, because we don’t expect parliamentarians to behave like this).

But Swazi politicians being the arrogant lot they are, these two childish senators couldn’t see they were at fault: instead they want to blame the media, yet no one denies the fight took place.

Now, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) reports that a senate select committee has been set up to investigate the media with a view to punishing journalists. The senate has warned the media against publishing further reports on the matter.

It is a typical tactic in Swaziland. Senators would do well to remember that the Swazi Constitution allows for freedom of speech and freedom of the media.

The last time senators tried to bully the media by launching a senate select committee was when the Times Sunday editor Mbongeni Mbingo was accused of bringing parliament into disrepute by publishing critical articles. In a groundbreaking decision the committee found Mbingo not guilty and confirmed his constitutional right to free speech.

But then in a contradictory move, the committee said it wanted to accredit all journalists who reported on parliament (in effect choosing who could and who could not be a parliamentary reporter). If such a move went ahead journalists who cover Parliament would be intimidated against reporting critical stories for fear of losing accreditation and maybe their jobs as a result.

Presently in Swaziland there are many attempts to muzzle the media. Among them is the continuing saga of Swazi dissident Mfomfo Nkhambule, a weekly columnist with the Times of Swaziland, who has received threats for criticising King Mswati III.

In February 2009, the government threatened to charge with sedition anyone who criticized the state of the nation address delivered by the king. This followed a number of statements by media commentators that the king’s speech was stale and lacked substance.

MISA reported last month (March 2009) that it had issued a record number of alerts about media freedom violations in Swaziland, mainly around harassment of journalists, censorship, intimidation and assault of media persons.

SWAZILAND’S JOBS FANTASY

Does Swaziland suffer from a collective self-delusion? Or is it only King Mswati III who lives in a world of his own?

I ask following the announcement from the king that a multi-billion emalangeni Swazi City, financed by international money and comprising a 25 000 sq m shopping, entertainment and ‘wellness’ centre ‘to rival the world’; a Science and Technology Park; a hi-technology industrial Site and an expansion of Matsapha Industrial Site are to be built over the next three years, creating 15,000 new jobs.

According to the Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, the king told crowds during his birthday celebrations at the weekend, “I have been assured by the experts who are working on the projects that they will deliver them within the next three years.

‘I have told them that I have taken their word for it and that the nation expects that the three years will be adhered to.’

I especially like the bit about ‘I have taken their word for it’. What possible evidence is there that any international company would want to set up in Swaziland, where seven in ten people are so poor they earn less than one dollar a day and have no money to buy anything at the new shops or leisure centres. In Swaziland, people are generally under educated (think about the present row over free primary schooling) so they are unlikely to be able to work at any ‘hi tech’ plant.

The Swazi City is a delusion and we should say so now.

The sad truth is that foreign investors by and large don’t want to be in Swaziland. Only last week the Swaziland Investment Promotion Authority (SIPA), an organisation tasked with bringing investment into the kingdom, admitted in its performance report for 2006 to 2008 that it had only managed to attract five foreign investments into the country in three years, with a total of 720 jobs.

The businesses that were set up were not exactly ‘hi tech’. One was involved in producing starch from cassava and another makes plastic bags. Two are involved in manufacturing mining drills and hand held tools and the fifth is yet another Taiwanese textile company.

If that’s the best that Swaziland has been able to achieve in the past three years we shouldn’t expect a sudden flood of top flight international companies at the border any time soon.

This isn’t the first time we’ve had announcements about foreign investors bringing lots of jobs to Swaziland: who remembers all the stories about call centres clamouring to get into Swaziland bringing thousands of jobs with them? Nothing happened and nothing is going to happen.

Just about every time King Mswati goes off on a foreign trip there are reports in the media that he has secured this or that agreement and jobs are on the way. It is a sad fantasy.

This is what the king says Swazi City is going to contain: a shopping mall with more than 250 shops, ‘which offer a variety of fashions from around the world’; four floors of luxurious shopping experience; Royal Villas which will offer up to 6-Star accommodation facilities suitable for all type of guests; a 28-Floor Hotel which will have 350 guest suites, world-class restaurants, three swimming areas and in-door sporting facilities, a health spa and a casino.

Now tell me, can you believe it?

Still in the land of fantasy, the new Sikhuphe International airport will receive its first plane in 2010. This is according to Millennium Project Unit (MPU) manager Lloyd Dlamini, who told a team of ambassadors from the Gulf and Arab States who are in the kingdom to explore avenues of cooperation and development between their countries and Swaziland.

Again, according to the king’s newspaper, Dlamini wants them to help get international airlines to use Sikhuphe International Airport and also to fund some of the project.

For those who had forgotten, Sikhuphe is being built in one of Swaziland’s many wilderness areas in the Lubombo region. Building started at the behest of King Mswati and Sikhuphe was billed as an airport that would be a hub for travellers coming into the continent of Africa. The idea was they’d fly into Sikhuphe and then change planes and fly on to their intended destinations.

I have never seen any analysis that supports this objective. In 2003, the Swazi Government ignored advice from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) about participation in unviable projects, and went ahead anyway with building the airport.

Why would anyone want to fly to this new airport when hardly anyone uses Swaziland’s existing airport at Matspaha? Business is so bad at Matsapha that last year the Swazi Express airline went out of business because it couldn’t attract passengers.

But at least Matspha is close to Swaziland’s main urban centres and is relatively easy to get to; Sikhuphe by contrast doesn’t even have an access road.

And let’s not forget that major international airports at Johannesburg and Cape Town are both a short flying time away.

According to the Observer, Minister of Economic Planning and Development Prince Hlangusemphi, said ‘The team of ambassadors have airlines in their countries and these are the countries we are targeting because they have big airlines which also operate in Africa.’

That may be, but if they wanted to fly to Swaziland they could use the existing airport. The truth is they don’t want to and, well, why would they?

HYPOCRISY OF SWAZI ROYAL FAMILY

The hypocrisy of Swaziland’s Royal Family has been exposed with news that one of King Mswati III’s many wives is off on a jaunt to the United States to discuss African women’s poverty with a group of other First Ladies from Africa.

Starting today (20 April 2009) in Los Angeles, California, is a two-day ‘summit’ for 15 ‘First Ladies’ (the wives of the leaders of countries) of Africa to discuss matters of women’s health, HIV AIDS, poverty, clean water and other burning issues. The summit ends with a gala ball.

This all presents a bit of a social etiquette problem for Swaziland, because King Mswati III has at least 13 wives (we can’t be sure of the exact number he has because this is information that the Swazi people are not allowed to know) so is he allowed to send them all?

It would seem not, since I hear Inkhosikati LaMbikiza has been nominated to go. By my reckoning, she’s the king’s third wife, so doesn’t that make her Swaziland’s Third Lady, and perhaps not eligible to attend?

But why send 15 African wives all the way to Los Angeles to talk about Africa? One of the organisers, Jean Stephane Biatcha, let the cat out of the bag. ‘These first ladies already know Washington and New York. We thought that by coming to Los Angeles, some of the inspiration that inspires movie makers could also inspire them in their objectives.’

Some movie stars are expected to show their faces at the summit, but it seems to me like a jolly jaunt and an opportunity for LaMbikiza to get in some more shopping.

Swaziland’s Times Sunday reported yesterday (19 April 2009) that LaMbikiza would be meeting the US First Lady Michelle Obama. They are both attorneys, the newspaper gushed, so ‘for the two first ladies it is a meeting of legal eagles’.

In Swaziland, the newspapers can gush all they want about one of the king’s wives going off on a jaunt to America, but in the world at large, questions are being raised.

It has been noted that a careful look at the guest list reveals that some of the attendees are married to some of Africa’s ‘most notorious dictators’.

The ‘dictator of Swaziland, King Mswati III’ and his unusual domestic circumstances gets a special mention.

I was interested to read that LaMbikiza (an attorney) would have a meeting of minds with Michelle Obama: perhaps LaMbikiza could fill in the US First Lady on how the Swazi Government has been implementing the new Swaziland Constitution, particularly in reference to women’s rights, primary education for girls and the gender composition of parliament.

They could discuss the US State Department’s annual review of Swaziland which details how rape was regarded by many men as a minor offense, despite being against the law; domestic violence against women, particularly wife beating, was common; and traditional courts were unsympathetic to ‘unruly’ or ‘disobedient’ women.

The report concluded, ‘Women occupied a subordinate role in society.’

Alas, the chance is lost: Michelle is not going. Her office in a terse statement says, ‘She is not attending.’ And who could blame her with the wives of so many despots on show? I am reminded of what her husband US President Barak Obama said in his inaugural address in January, ‘To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history’.

Meanwhile, readers of the US News and World Report have been giving their verdicts on the First Ladies’ summit.

One says, ‘These crooks are just out for a “ladies night out” in the name of Africa...They should spend the millions of dollars that will be wasted on actually helping Africa...which by the way, the only help Africa needs is for these tyrants to step down and let democracy reign in Africa.’

Another says, ‘If these first ladies are serious about fighting for women issues then they start from their home countries where women are suffering and a lot of prostitution has been in the rise due to the economic situations that their husbands have put the populations into. The monies spent to attend these events are monies that should be directed to the poor women in villages in the respective countries.’

I look forward to hearing from LaMbikiza upon her return to Swaziland about how the lives of Swazi women will change as a result of the summit.

WHO PAID FOR SWAZI KING’S CARS?

Six of the 20 armoured cars, capable of withstanding an attack by a grenade have been delivered to King Mswati III of Swaziland.

But mystery surrounds who actually has paid for the vehicles, costing E2.5 million (about 250,000 US dollars each).

The cars are reported to have been purchased for the king’s wives. King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch is thought to have 13 wives, but we cannot be sure since this is information that the Swazi people are not allowed to have. It is speculated that he may have more wives than this. His father King Sobhuza II was said to have hundreds of wives.

Swaziland’s independent newspaper, the Times Sunday, today (19 April 2009) reports that the cars were delivered at Ludzidzini Royal residence from South Africa yesterday in time for the king’s 41^st birthday today.

The cars, ‘military style’ Mercedes Benz S600 Pullman Guards can resist an attack with small arms projectiles, a grenade or other explosive.

They also include high-end audio, an intercom, 19-inch flat screen display, DVD player, refrigerator and wood trim as standard.

One cars’ website described the Pullman Guard as ‘The car of choice for up-and-coming dictators.’

According to the Times Sunday, the Swazi Government, through General Manager of the Central Transport Administration Polycarp Dlamini, declined any involvement in the purchase.

The king’s Private Secretary Sam Mkhombe referred all questions to the King’s Office Chief Officer, Bheki Dlamini.

However, Dlamini said the cars were not purchased through the King’s Office. He could not, however, explain to the newspaper why they were delivered at the royal residence.

The newspaper said at first he did not want to comment on the issue, but eventually said that the King’s Office was not responsible for the cars. However, his subsequent comments fell short of confirming that the vehicles could have been purchased by the king.

‘The king has various accounts that are not run through this office (King’s Office),’ he said.

Unfortunately, he did not elaborate on what kind of ‘accounts’ the king had. It is widely known that King Mswati has wealth estimated at 200 million US dollars (E2 billion), but it is less clear where this money comes from.

The king is world renowned for his lavish lifestyle; his taste for expensive cars and the opulence of his palaces. and has a long history of extravagant personal spending for himself and his family. Last year, he sent a group of his wives to Dubai on an E28 million spending spree ahead of a party to mark his 40^th birthday.

While he has fabulous wealth, seven in ten Swazis live in abject poverty, earning less than one US dollar a day; the kingdom has the highest HIV infection rate in the world (42 percent) and this month the Swazi Government said it would not comply with its constitutional obligation to introduce free primary schooling because it could not afford to.

The new cars have been delivered just seven months after the royal family, through the King’s Office, bought a fleet of BMW X5s that were unveiled during the 40/40 national celebrations. An additional E20 million was spent by government last year on another fleet of BMW 5 Series that were used to chauffeur leaders who were invited to the event, which some estimates say cost at least 10 million US dollars.