Schools crisis in Swaziland as broke Govt. stops recruiting teachers

More than six in ten schools in Swaziland / eSwatini do not have enough teachers because of government financial cutbacks, the Eswatini Principals Association (EPA) President Welcome Mhlanga said.

Hiring of teachers has been frozen and if the problems is not solved soon, some schools will ‘collapse’ he said.

Schools are also suffering because government has not paid the Free Primary Education (FPE) grant, something it is required to do under the kingdom’s constitution. It also has not paid special grants for orphaned and vulnerable (OVC) children.

The Swazi Observer reported, ‘He said the freezing of recruitments is one of the thorny issues that are troubling schools. He stated that over 60 percent of schools in the country do not have enough teachers. 

‘The shortage of teachers compromises the completion of the syllabus, as well as the quality of results that the country will produce.

‘“If these challenges are not solved on time, schools will collapse,” he said.’

The Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) plans to march on government on Thursday (18 July 2019) to deliver a petition calling for more teachers to be hired. SNAT says that examinations are due to start in less than two months but many children have not been taught because of the shortage.

Public services across Swaziland are grinding to a halt because the government is broke. The government is not elected by the people but handpicked by King Mswati III who rules as an absolute monarch.

At the end of June 2019 public service unions said they would only work three days a week unless a long-running claim for cost-of-living wage increases was agreed.

Government needs to find E151.9 million (US$11 million) for the primary schools across the kingdom to fund FPE. There are about 650 primary schools in Swaziland. The Swazi Constitution requires that all children in the kingdom receive free primary education. For eight years until last year the European Union had paid about E140 million a year toward the cost of FPE. 

Initially, the EU said it would fund FPE for all primary school pupils until 2016. After the initial period elapsed the financial support was extended until the end of 2018.

There are about 330,000 pupils at school in Swaziland, including about 240,000 at primary schools. The government pays a minimum of E560 per pupil for primary pupils.

At the end of 2018 the Ministry of Education and Training had to pay more than E40 million to cover the cost of sending police and prison wardens into schools to invigilate examinations while teachers were in dispute. 

See also

Chaos and confusion across Swaziland as new school year starts

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/01/chaos-and-confusion-across-swaziland-as.html

Armed Police Deployed in Schools Across Swaziland to Ensure Exams Take Place During Teacher Pay Dispute

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/10/armed-police-deployed-in-schools-across.html

 

Swaziland teachers want U.S. to tell absolute monarch to stop wasting public money on himself

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/09/swaziland-teachers-want-us-to-tell.html

Nearly one in four in Swaziland believe Prime Minister is corrupt, Transparency International reports

Nearly one in four people (24 percent) surveyed in Swaziland / eSwatini believe their Prime Minister is corrupt, according to a report from Transparency International.

Nearly one in three (32 percent) think government officials are corrupt. Just over half (51 percent) think corruption increased in the previous 12 months. 

Although the results show corruption is high in Swaziland the survey suggests that people think the situation has improved since 2015. Of those surveyed, 58 percent said the government was doing a ‘good’ job fighting corruption. 

Nearly one in five (17 percent) users of public services reported they had paid a bribe in the past 12 months: 21 percent said they had paid a bribe to get an ID card; 10 percent said they had bribed the police.

The results were published on Thursday (11 July 2019) in the Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) – Africa survey, a collaboration between Afrobarometer and Transparency International. It followed a report in January 2019 in which Transparency International scored Swaziland 38 out of a possible 100 in its Corruption Perceptions Index for 2018. In this scale zero was ‘highly corrupt’ and 100 ‘very clean’.  The index ranks countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople.

In May 2019, the US State Department in its annual review of human rights in Swaziland found there was a widespread public perception of corruption in the executive and legislative branches of government and a consensus that the government ‘did little to combat it’. 

It added, ‘There were widespread reports of immigration and customs officials seeking bribes to issue government documents such as visas and resident permits. In March police raided the Department of Immigration, where they confiscated files and arrested and charged two senior immigration officers. The government filed charges against one of the senior officers based on allegations she had processed applications for travel documents for foreign nationals who were not present in, and had never visited, the country.’

It added, ‘Credible reports continued that a person’s relationship with government officials influenced the awarding of government contracts; the appointment, employment, and promotion of officials; recruitment into the security services; and school admissions. Authorities rarely took action on reported incidents of nepotism.’

In June 2017, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) reported the kingdom, was riddled with corruption in both private and public places.

It said, ‘The results of grand corruption are there for all to see in the ever increasing wealth of high-level civil servants and officers of state.’ 

Swaziland is ruled by King Mswati III as an absolute monarch. Political parties are banned from taking part in elections and the King appoints the Prime Minister and government ministers, as well as senior judges and civil servants.

See also

Swaziland Auditor General fears fraud as govt pensions paid to the deceased

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/04/swaziland-auditor-general-fears-fraud.html
 

New drive against corruption in Swaziland leaves out King Mswati, the biggest drain on the public purse

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/11/new-drive-against-corruption-in.html

Swaziland public services in meltdown and corruption goes unchecked: new report surveys the kingdom

Public services throughout Swaziland / eSwatini are close to meltdown as the government, handpicked by absolute monarch King Mswati III, fails to get a grip on the economy. Health services have been especially hit over the past three months with reports that people have died as medicines run out because the government did not paid suppliers. Drugs for HIV are in short supply, even though the kingdom has the highest rate of infection in the world. Patients in public hospitals have also gone unfed.

These are some of the reports that have appeared on the Swazi Media Commentary website in the second quarter of 2019 and are contained in a new compilation, Swaziland: Striving for Freedom Vol 34 April to June 2019 that can be downloaded free-of-charge from Scribd. Also included: the International Trade Union Confederation placed Swaziland near the bottom of countries across the world for workers’ rights. It said in the past year ‘police brutality reached unprecedented levels’ and ‘security forces fired live ammunition at protesting workers’. Elsewhere, public service unions marched on the government demanding cost-of-living salary increases.

The absolute monarch King Mswati maintained his grip on power by appointing 28 members of his family to the kingdom’s committees and boards, including 10 princes and princesses to the 23-member Liqoqo, a supreme traditional advisory body which is also known as the Swazi National Council Standing Committee. This was in addition to the eight members of his Royal Family he appointed to the Senate and six to the House of Assembly last year. 

Meanwhile, the United States in its annual report on human rights in Swaziland found there was no appetite to investigate human rights abuses or corruption. Swaziland was controlled by the King and ‘political power remained largely vested with the king and his traditional advisors,’ the report, stated.

Swazi Media Commentary is published online, updated most weekdays. It is operated entirely by volunteers and receives no financial backing from any organisation. It is devoted to providing information and commentary in support of human rights in Swaziland.

See also

Swaziland in economic freefall with human rights failings, report shows

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/04/swaziland-in-economic-freefall-with.html

King Mswati in complete control as another year of human rights struggle ends in Swaziland

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/01/king-mswati-in-complete-control-as.html

Police violence, undemocratic elections, hunger and disease: highlights of Swaziland’s human rights violations

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/10/police-violence-undemocratic-elections.html

Swaziland: Striving for freedom

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/04/swaziland-striving-for-freedom.html

Swaziland Striving for Free... by on Scribd

Police in Swaziland walk to crime scenes because Govt. can’t afford to buy cars

Some police officers in Swaziland / eSwatini are forced to walk to crime scenes because the government has not paid for cars.

A police spokesperson said the shortage of cars and other equipment was because of the kingdom’s continuing economic crisis.

A police post was opened at Ngudzeni about a year ago but it still does not have a vehicle, the Times of Swaziland reported. It said, ‘Officers stationed at the police post are forced to either walk to crime scenes or to wait for a day or so in order to get the lone vehicle that was allocated to the nearby Dumako Police Post.’

The Times reported a source, ‘made the example of a recent murder incident where the area’s community police were asked to keep watch over a corpse for the whole night because the police had no vehicle to attend to the crime scene.’

It added, ‘Even the suspect in the gruesome murder was conveyed to the police post by a local motorist, using his own vehicle.’

Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati told the newspaper the police force faced challenges, ‘which she attributed to government’s obtaining economic crisis’.

Ngudzeni is not the only area in Swaziland, where King Mswati III rules as an absolute monarch, where police are without vehicles. In August 2018 it was reported police in the Siteki area were forced to walk or hitch-hike to crime and accident scenes because the government had not paid for fuel or vehicle repairs. Traffic officers used their personal vehicles to mount road blocks.

In May 2018 it was reported that Swaziland was so short of resources that police were unable to secure voter registration centres in the runup to national elections and do their routine work at the same time. Police officers were said to have been left stranded at registration centres in the evenings because there were no vehicles available to take them home.

Police were unable to respond when a five-year-old was abducted and raped because they were on election duty, according to the Swazi Observer at the time. It said a toddler was with her mother at Mahlalini, an area in the outskirts of Nhlangano, when a man grabbed her and disappeared into a thicket where he raped her.

Swaziland is broke and seven in ten of Swaziland’s estimated 1.3 million population live in abject poverty with incomes less than the equivalent of US$2 per day. King Mswati has 13 palaces, two private jets and fleets of top-of-the-range BMW and Mercedes cars.

The King wore a watch worth US$1.6 million and a suit beaded with diamonds weighing 6 kg, at his 50^th birthday party in April 2018. Days earlier he took delivery of his second private jet, a A340 Airbus, that after VIP upgrades reportedly cost US$30 million. He received E15 million (US$1.2 million) in cheques, a gold dining room suite and a gold lounge suite among his birthday gifts.

See also

Food collection points set up in Swaziland as hospital patients unfed after Govt fails to pay suppliers

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/07/food-collection-points-set-up-in.html

 

Gap between rich and poor in Swaziland continues to grow, Finance Minister reports

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/02/gap-between-rich-and-poor-in-swaziland.html 

Swaziland cancer patients refused treatment because Govt. has not paid hospital bills

Seriously ill people, including cancer patients, in Swaziland / eSwatini are being denied life-saving treatment because the government had not paid its bills to hospitals.

At least E66 million (US$4.6 million) is owed through the government-funded Phalala Fund that pays for Swazi people to travel to neighbouring South Africa for treatment. Some of the unpaid bills date back to 2013.

The objective of the Phalala Fund is to assist deserving Swazi citizens who would otherwise not have access to specialist medical care to get it either, within Swaziland or ‘in special circumstances’ outside the kingdom.

The size of the debt was revealed by Phalala Fund Administrator Thabsile Dlamini, following media reports in Swaziland that cancer patient were not being assisted by the fund.

The Swazi Observer reported that the E66 million owed was not the only debt, that included unpaid bills for optical treatment.

In 2017, the Swazi Government owed E170 million through the Phalala Fund. In March 2018 South African health institutions stopped giving medical assistance because of the unpaid bills and more than 100 people were immediately denied treatment.

The Phalala Fund has been riddled with incompetence and corruption for many years. Many times in the past South Africa stopped taking patients because of unpaid bills. For example, in 2014 a Ministry of Health’s Senate Portfolio Committee Report said E40 million was unpaid and patients were being refused treatment.

In November 2014, the Accountant General Phestecia Nxumalo reported that the Phalala Fund had been defrauded of E9 million because single bills had been paid multiple times.

As long ago as 2006 a report published by the World Bank recommended sweeping reforms to the funding scheme, but these have not taken place. 

The report said ‘only a tiny segment’ of the Swazi population benefitted from the large medical subsidy the government paid. It said there were no cost-effective guidelines so the fund could be used on patients who were too sick to benefit from treatment. 

Also, fees and other prices were not negotiated before treatment and were ‘completely supplier-determined’.

The report concluded the Phalala Fund provided a ‘blank cheque’ for South African doctors and hospitals: whatever amount they asked was paid by Government, ‘since it has no recourse but to pay up.’

It also said that management of the funds were poor and it was easy to mistakenly pay bills more than once ‘due to multiple reminder billings’.

The report recommended that as far as possible medical care should take place within Swaziland rather than outside using both public and private health facilities and investment should be made to make this happen.

See also

Food collection points set up in Swaziland as hospital patients unfed after Govt fails to pay suppliers

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/07/food-collection-points-set-up-in.html

 

HIV drugs not available across Swaziland as health crisis deepens

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/06/hiv-drugs-not-available-across.html

Swaziland health crisis getting worse as budgets cut. Rural areas most affected

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/02/swaziland-health-crisis-getting-worse.html

Swaziland police deny they shot woman with a stray bullet at music concert

A nineteen-year-old woman was shot and hospitalised after Swaziland (eSwatini) riot police opened fired during a disturbance at a music concert.

The bullet lodged close to her heart and she had to be transferred to hospital in South Africa because local medics did not have the expertise to treat her.

It happened at the Epic Gig at Mavuso Trade Centre, Manzini.

The Swazi Observer reported hooligans threw bottles to the stage and vandalised property after lights went off on stage. ‘This forced police to call for the riot squad, which came fully armed with riot gear, including teargas canisters and rubber bullets,’ the newspaper reported.

‘Police tried to disperse the crowd using rubber bullets and teargas canisters. At that moment some people were injured by the rubber bullets.’ 

The woman was hit by a bullet from live ammunition.

The Observer on Saturday later reported, ‘The parents of the young girl have been left with so many unanswered questions on what happened to their daughter as they alleged that the police have not briefed them about the incident. Unconfirmed reports were that the teen had been shot by the police during the skirmish.’

Police denied that the bullet was fired by one of their officers, but an independent investigation has not taken place.

See also

New ‘shoot-to-kill’ fear as Swaziland police gun down three suspects as they flee

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/07/new-shoot-to-kill-fear-as-swaziland.html

Food collection points set up in Swaziland as hospital patients unfed after Govt fails to pay suppliers

Collection points have been set up across Mbabane, the Swaziland / eSwatini capital, to collect donations to feed hospital patients left hungry after the government failed to pay food suppliers.

It is the latest development in the financial crisis that is striking the kingdom ruled by absolute monarch, King Mswati III.

Patients in hospitals across Swaziland are going unfed, medicines of all sorts have run out, and hospital equipment has broken down. The government which is not elected but handpicked by the King is broke and has not paid suppliers. Other public services, including schools are also hit.

Food banks organised by members of the public working as the ‘Emergency Disaster Network’ have set up collection points for donations at various points across the city for patients at the Mbabane Government Hospital. Food items, ranging from bags of beans, rice, chicken portions and sugar have been collected, the Swazi Observer reported. Cash donations have also been made.

The health crisis has been growing in recent years.  The Observer reported Health Minister, Lizzy Nkosi, ‘has explained that some of the shortages were as a result of suppliers cutting supply because of outstanding payments, which runs into millions of Emalangeni’.

It was reported in June 2019 that the food shortage had also hit two other public hospitals, Hlatikhulu Government Hospital and Nhlangano Health Centre, both in the Shiselweni Region.

The food problem is one of many facing the health service in Swaziland which is caused by the government’s inability to pay suppliers. There are shortages of many drugs across the kingdom. Local media reported in the past that many people, including children, have died as a result.

It is not only a problem of drugs. Hospital equipment, including at intensive-care units at Mbabane Government Hospital, has also not been maintained and cannot be used. 

In June 2018 it was revealed there were only 12 working public ambulances in the whole of Swaziland because the government failed to maintain them. It had bought no new ambulances since 2013.

See also

Swaziland hospital crisis: govt not paid bills so patients only eat bread

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/06/swaziland-hospital-crisis-govt-not-paid.html 

HIV drugs not available across Swaziland as health crisis deepens

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/06/hiv-drugs-not-available-across.html

Swaziland health crisis getting worse as budgets cut. Rural areas most affected

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/02/swaziland-health-crisis-getting-worse.html

New ‘shoot-to-kill’ fear as Swaziland police gun down three suspects as they flee

Police in Swaziland / eSwatini have been criticised for shooting dead three men after setting fire to the building they were in in what appears to be another case of ‘shoot-to-kill’.

 

The three men were reported in local media to have escaped from Big Bend Correctional Facility. Police were told they were hiding in a rondavel in a homestead at Manyeveni, near Mpaka. 

The Times of Swaziland reported a source saying there was an exchange of gunfire. It added, ‘The officers reportedly doused the rondavel with petrol and then set it alight. This forced the three men out of the rondavel and that is how they got shot, narrated the source.’

A source told the Swazi Observer, ‘One of the suspects jumped out and tried to run for it and did not heed calls to surrender. He was shot and killed in the process.’

The Times said, ‘People who visited the scene after the shooting told this publication that the homestead resembled a war zone.’

In an editorial comment, the Times criticised the police action in setting fire to the rondavel and said, ‘surely they could have apprehended the suspects without killing them’.

There is evidence that police in Swaziland routinely ‘shoot-to-kill’ suspects. In July 2018 at least 30 officers shot and killed a man as he fled after they had stormed his home at Matsebula. 

In August 2017 Siboniso Brian Mdluli, aged 22, who police wanted in connection with armed robbery, was reportedly killed at point blank range in ‘cowboy style.’  His family demanded an inquiry saying Mdluli was assassinated by trigger happy police officers for no apparent reason.

In November 2015 police shot a man at close range after he overturned rubbish bins and then ran away from them. The Times of Swaziland, reported at the time that a 21-year-old man had been suspected of throwing rubbish in the road and pelting vehicles with stones. The newspaper said, ‘he was shot by police at close range after refusing to board their vehicle’.

A plain-clothed policeman shot an unarmed man in the back killing him while on a public bus in February 2014. The man had allegedly stolen some copper wire before boarding the bus, travelling from Siteki to Manzini. The Times Sunday newspaper reported at the time the driver of the bus Majahonke Zikalala said, ‘the man was attempting to force his way out of the bus, the police officer shot him in the back, near the spine… the man fell on the floor after which he was handcuffed while he bled’. He died of his injuries at the scene.

In March 2013 Swaziland police shot a man dead in front of his 11-year-old child as he held his hands up in an attempt to surrender to them. Thokozani Mngometulu, aged 31, was killed as he got out of his car at his homestead in Dlakadla, in the Shiselweni region. Thokozani’s family, who also witnessed the killing, said he was shot in the pelvis at close range by a police officer.

In June 2012 a serial rapist suspect Bhekinkhosi Masina, popularly known as Scarface, was shot by police as they cornered him for arrest. Police said they only shot him in the thigh and he unexpectedly died of his injuries. The Times of Swaziland newspaper later revealed he had been shot six times, including in the head and back.

In July 2012 a mentally ill man, Mduduzi Mngometulu, aged 34, was shot seven times by police and died of his injuries. He had four holes in his stomach, one in the leg and two bullet wounds on the left side of his chest.

These are not isolated incidents in Swaziland where police across the kingdom have a growing record of killing or maiming suspects before arrest. The cases have largely gone unreported outside of the kingdom itself.

In one example, police executed a suspect Thabani Mafutha Dlamini at Nkwalini in Hlatikulu in the presence of his colleagues and home boys in what local media called ‘cowboy style’. The Swazi Observer newspaper reported the incident in December 2011 saying, ‘Police had previously warned the mother of the dead man to “budget for funeral expenses” as they intended to remove him. He was said to be on a police “wanted list”’. Dlamini was unarmed.

In a separate case in February 2011 a Swazi policeman shot Mbongeni Masuku, described in media as a Form IV pupil, in the head in what was later described as ‘an execution-style killing’. The killing happened outside a bar in Matsapha. Masuku’s uncle Sigayoyo Maphanga said Mbongeni had been dragged out of his car by police. He told the Swazi Observer, a policeman whom he named, ‘shot my nephew at the back of the left ear and he fell on the ground with blood oozing from his mouth and ears. We were all shocked and angered by such brutality from police officers.’ 

In May 2011 Mathende Matfonsi was shot dead by police while he was attending a field of dagga (marijuana) inside the remote forests of Lomahasha near the border with Mozambique. His family accused the police of ‘cold-blooded murder’. Matfonsi was shot dead at Ebhandeni, the same area where Nkosinathi Khathwane had previously been shot dead by soldiers at night.

In March 2010 police shot a man as he was trying to surrender to them. This time the victim, Mncedisi Mamba, did not die. His mother Thoko Gamedze said Mamba had his hands up and was surrendering to police, but they shot him anyway.


See also

 

Police killing, family demand answers

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/police-killing-family-demand-answers.html
 

‘Police execute man cowboy style’   

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/police-execute-man-cowboy-style.html

Police shoot surrendering man

http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/police-shoot-surrendering-man.html

Swazi police ‘murder’ suspect

http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/swazi-police-murder-suspect.html

Police ‘execute’ suspect in street

http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/police-execute-suspect-in-street.html

Swazi police shoot-to-kill again

http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/swazi-police-shoot-to-kill-again.html

Police shoot and kill mentally ill man

http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/police-shoot-and-kill-mentally-ill-man.html

Police ‘shot accused rapist in head’

http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/police-shot-accused-rapist-in-head.html

Police shoot-to-kill on bus

http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/police-shoot-to-kill-on-bus.html

Police kill surrendering man

http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/police-kill-surrendering-man.html

Swazi police shoot-to-kill

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2012/07/swazi-police-shoot-to-kill.html

One in five of Swaziland’s rural population need urgent humanitarian assistance against hunger

More than 200,000 people in Swaziland / eSwatini which is one in five of the rural population are experiencing severe food shortages and require urgent humanitarian assistance, a report published on Tuesday (2 July 2019) stated.

And, hunger has got worse since last year. There are about 157,000 people in a ‘crisis situation’ and another 47,000 in an ‘emergency situation’.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) snapshot for the period up to March 2020 stated, ‘In comparison with last year, the situation has deteriorated.’ It added, ‘This deterioration can be attributed to the anticipated drought, which led to farmers choosing not to plant their fields, reducing casual labour opportunities and food availability, with one-fifth of households depleting their assets or engaging in crisis or emergency coping strategies to mitigate moderate to large food gaps.

‘Between October 2019 and March 2020, around 232,000 people (25 percent of the rural population) are estimated that they will likely experience severe acute food insecurity.’

It stated that even if rains are better in the coming year, it is likely that ‘households will run out of food stocks before the end of the year’.

IPC is a multi-partner initiative for improving food security and nutrition analysis and decision-making. It includes the Swaziland government, Red Cross and World Food Program.

In a previous report the World Food Program said it had fallen more than US$9 million short in its fundraising to help ease the hunger crisis gripping Swaziland. That amounted to only 47 percent of the US$17.4 million it hoped to raise.

See also

World Food Program falls short in fundraising as hunger grips Swaziland and King spends lavishly on himself

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/07/world-food-program-falls-short-in.html

Swaziland’s US Ambassador renews call to scrap decree that keeps king absolute monarch

Lisa Peterson, United States Ambassador to Swaziland / eSwatini, has renewed her call for the Royal Decree that keeps King Mswati III in power as an absolute monarch to be scrapped.

She said that failure to unequivocally revoke the 1973 proclamation created uncertainty and hindered development in the kingdom.

She was speaking at an event to mark the US Independence Day which falls on 4 July. She also renewed her call for political parties to be allowed to operate and contest elections.

On 12 April 1973 King Sobhuza II proclaimed a Royal Decree after he objected to his subjects electing members of a political party that was not under his control. He tore up the kingdom’s constitution that had been in place since Swaziland gained independence from Britain in 1968. Even though Swaziland adopted a new constitution in 2006, the kingdom, now ruled by King Mswati, remains an absolute monarchy.  

In his decree King Sobhuza announced, ‘I have assumed supreme power in the Kingdom of Swaziland and that all Legislative, Executive and Judicial power is vested in myself.’ 

Swaziland holds national elections but the people are only allowed to choose 59 members of the House of Assembly, the King appoints another 10. No members of the Swazi Senate are elected by the people, the King appoints 20 and the House elects 10. The King appoints the Prime Minister and cabinet ministers, as well as senior judges and civil servants.

Immediately following the most recent election in 2018, the King appointed eight members of his Royal Family to the kingdom’s Senate and six to the House of Assembly. Later, in April 2019, he appointed 28 members of his family to various committees and boards in the kingdom, including 10 princes and princesses to the 23-member Liqoqo, a supreme traditional advisory body which is also known as the Swazi National Council Standing Committee. This group rules on matters relating to Swazi traditional law and customs.

King Mswati also appointed seven members of his family to the 17-member Ludzidzini Council, a group of senior traditionalists centred around the King’s Ludzidzini Palace. The Ludzidzini governor is also known as the traditional prime minister and has more status in the kingdom than Ambrose Dlamini the man King Mswati appointed Prime Minister to lead the cabinet the King also hand-picked.

Ambassador Peterson has called for the Royal Decree to be scrapped before. Last year she wrote an article that was published in both of Swaziland two national newspapers saying, ‘Former Minister of Justice Edgar Hillary went to Geneva in 2017 and told the United Nations Human Rights Commission that the 1973 Decree had been repealed by the Constitution. If this can be said to the outside world, why can it not be explicitly stated to the Swati nation? And if the Decree has truly been repealed, why do officials act as if it is still in place?’

She wrote in favour of political parties, ‘[P]arties are critical to enabling individuals to join forces around common issues and pool their resources – intellectual, financial and organizational – to advance policies and candidates they believe will best serve their communities. In this moment of severe financial adversity, emaSwati need such collective community advocacy more than ever. It is time to start a dialogue on this issue and plot a way forward.’

Peterson is not alone in advocating for political parties in Swaziland. In 2013 the EU which is a major donor of aid to Swaziland told King Mswati he must allow political parties to operate in his kingdom as it was important that international principles of democracy were upheld in Swaziland.

In October 2012, the United Kingdom also called for political parties to be un-banned in Swaziland.

See also

Anniversary of day Swaziland stopped being a democracy and became absolute monarchy approaches

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/04/anniversary-of-day-swaziland-stopped.html

 

U.S. Ambassador supports parties

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/us-ambassador-supports-parties.html 

Swazis want democracy - survey

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/12/swazis-want-democracy-survey.html

EU tells King: ‘free parties’

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/03/eu-tells-king-free-parties.html
 

UK calls for parties to be un-banned

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2012/10/uk-calls-for-parties-to-be-un-banned.html

Royal Decree should stay: Swazi A-G

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/12/royal-decree-should-stay-swazi-g.html

World Food Program falls short in fundraising as hunger grips Swaziland and King spends lavishly on himself

The World Food Program has fallen more than US$9 million short in its fundraising to help ease the hunger crisis gripping Swaziland / eSwatini.

That amounts to only 47 percent of the US$17.4 million it hoped to raise, the WFP ‘resource situation’ report for June 2019 states.

In a separate briefing for May 2019 WFP says ‘an estimated 22 percent of the population [of 1.1 million] has been food insecure in the past ten years’. 

It adds, ‘Chronic malnutrition is a main concern in Eswatini: stunting affects 26 percent of children under the age of five.’

WFP provides social safety nets for 55,000 young orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) of pre-primary school age across the kingdom at neighbourhood care points through access to food and basic social services. 

WFP reports, ‘Seventy percent of the rural population live below the national poverty line and 25 percent are extremely poor. Eswatini has a very high HIV prevalence, affecting 26 percent of the population between the ages of 15-49. Life expectancy is 49 years, and 45 percent of children are orphaned or vulnerable.’

In May 2017 the WFP estimated 350,000 people of Swaziland’s population – more than one in three – needed food assistance.

WFP gives no reason for its shortfall in funding but there have been reports in recent years that international donors are concerned about the lavish lifestyle of King Mswati III, who rules Swaziland as an absolute monarch, and his family.

Swaziland is designated a ‘middle income’ country by the World Bank based on the Kingdom’s national income. The problem in Swaziland is that this income is not evenly distributed among the population. The King takes 25 percent of all mining royalties and controls the profits of the conglomerate Tibiyo TakaNgwane. Officially he keeps these monies ‘in trust’ for the Swazi nation, but in reality much of it goes to fund his own lifestyle. 

He has two private airplanes, at least 13 palaces and fleets of top-of-the-range cars. At his 50^th birthday in 2018 he wore a watch worth US$1.6 million and a suit beaded with diamonds that weighed 6 kg. Days earlier he had taken delivery of his second private jet. This one, an Airbus A340, cost US$13.2 to purchase but with VIP upgrades was estimated to have cost US$30 million.

In 2017 King Mswati was named the third wealthiest King in Africa by the international website Business Insider. It reported he had a net worth of US$200 million (about E2.8 billion in local Swazi currency).

In May 2018 Lucky Ndlovu, the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office Director of Children Services, revealed that neighbourhood care points that feed the hungry across Swaziland were short of food because donations were drying up.

The Sunday Observer reported Ndlovu saying, ‘There is a lack of support from those who used to supply the food. Most of the support was from international donors who are now focussing on other countries which are not classified as middle income countries.’

He added, donors believed Swaziland had enough money but it was not being directed towards the poor.

‘Government must come up with programmes that are pro-poor because the international community is now not willing to support us,’ he said.

In 2018 Afrika Kontakt (Africa Contact), a Danish NGO, reported European Union taxpayers’ money was being used to finance the lavish lifestyle of Swaziland’s royal family through money donated to develop the kingdom’s sugar industry. The report called The European Union in Swaziland: In support of an Authoritarian King? said since the King controlled much of this industry, EU money ‘benefits the Royal Family greatly’ and undermines democratic forces in Swaziland.

The Afrika Kontakt report stated, ‘By continuing to support these sectors, without raising demands from the Swazi Government to prioritize its citizens’ well-being over the lavish lifestyle of its monarch, it is essentially EU taxpayers’ money that finances the lavish spending of the monarchy.’

A separate report written by Klaus Stig Kristensen and published by Afrika Kontakt in 2017 stated that in Swaziland almost 6 percent of the national budget was spent on the Royal Family while only 3.3 percent was spent on agriculture, ‘the engine that is supposed to pull the rural population out of poverty’.

In July 2016 Lisa Peterson, United States Ambassador to Swaziland, warned Swaziland might not receive further food aid from her country because of the Swazi King’s ‘lavish spending’ on holidays. She was responding after it was revealed that at least three of King Mswati III’s wives had been on holiday in Orlando, Florida – with an entourage of more than 100.

The cost of this holiday was equivalent to the drought relief that the US was then providing to the drought-stricken kingdom –  E14 million (US$1 million).

News24 in South Africa reported Peterson saying the US had limited funds for drought relief. She said, ‘When we hear of the lavish spending by the Swazi royal family – especially while a third of their citizens need food aid – it becomes difficult to encourage our government to make more emergency aid available. You can’t expect international donors to give more money to the citizens of Swaziland than their own leaders give them.’

See also

King takes US$10m from iron mine

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/king-takes-us10m-from-iron-mine.html

Swazi King and queens of bling

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/swazi-King-and-queens-of-bling.html
 

King wears watch worth US$1.6-million

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/King-wears-watch-worth-us16-million.html

King wears suit beaded with diamonds

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/swazi-King-wears-suit-of-diamonds.html 

Swazi royals spend, spend, spend

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/swazi-royals-spend-spend-spend.html