WHERE THE FINANCIAL BLAME LIES

After I wrote on Sunday (2 August 2009) that Swaziland was heading for an economic meltdown because income from the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) would be halved this year I got a number of private emails telling me it’s not the fault of the Swazi Government because the whole world is in financial crisis.

Sorry but that’s not true. It is the Swazi Government’s fault and the fault of the Swazi ‘tradition’ that allows King Mswati III and his hangers-on to siphon off Swaziland’s wealth for their own use.

As I wrote a year ago the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had reported that Swaziland’s economy was performing worse than any other in sub-Saharan Africa.

The IMF was very clear, ‘When the rest of sub-Saharan Africa was growing over the last decade, the economy of the Kingdom of Swaziland stagnated.’

In a report IMF Survey Magazine it said, ‘The slow growth may have worsened already difficult conditions in the tiny, landlocked country where in 2001, the latest year for which there are data, about two-thirds of its 1 million residents lived in poverty and 20 percent of the population claimed two-thirds of the income.’

The report identified a number of issues that needed to be addressed, including reforms in the banking and finance sector, but mostly the size of the civil service. At recently as yesterday the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, was reporting the IMF yet again calling for civil service reform.

As I said on Sunday, the Swazi Government has consistently ignored the IMF advice and instead of cutting the civil service bill it has increased it. Last month it announced a 12 percent pay rise for civil servants.

We should be in no doubt that the Swazi Government has no sense when it comes to running the economy.

In February 2009 I drew attention to the inaccuracies in the Swazi national budget and in particular Finance Minister Majozi Sithole’s inability to do his sums, especially when it came to counting unemployment in the kingdom and the alleged interest the kingdom would get on a deposit (illegally) paid for a private jet for King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.(Click here for fuller details.)

In March 2009 http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2009/03/vast-cost-of-swazi-royal-family.html I pointed out that the official budget figures presented by Sithole were riddled with inconsistencies and in many cases quite simply didn’t add up.

I wanted to know why Sithole got away with this. Did he lie to Parliament (and if so why?) or is he no good at his job? I asked.

Nobody gave me an answer then. Perhaps readers thought it was a rhetorical question. It wasn’t, but the answer to my question is obvious: Sithole and the Swazi Government are no good at their jobs. They have brought Swaziland to the brink of collapse and since they are the ones who got us here, we can have no confidence that they will get us out of this mess.

PUDEMO CALLS FOR GLOBAL SUPPORT

PUDEMO, Swaziland’s banned opposition party, is calling on the international community for support in the fight to build democracy in the kingdom.

At the 3^rd External Regional Congress of PUDEMO (the People’s United Democratic Movement) yesterday (2 August 2009) participants stated, ‘We see our primary task as being that of organising Swazis outside Swaziland, largely in South Africa to fight for change and build a new and democratic Swaziland.

‘In this regard, we regard ourselves not as a separate entity, but as an integral part of PUDEMO led by our jailed President Mario Masuku.’

In a statement PUDEMO said, ‘We call for all our international friends and supporters to work with us in building PUDEMO in line with the well known internationalists tradition of mutual respect between allies fighting in different terrains for the same cause, but fully recognising the leadership of those who represent the oppressed masses in Swaziland, as the key guide to how we relate to each other in carrying out the tasks of the Swazi revolution.

‘In this regard, we salute all the genuine internationalists from all over the world, who have stood by us during trying times and raised, defended and fought for the interests of Swazi people as if they were their own.’

To read more click here.

SWAZILAND AT ECONOMIC MELTDOWN

Swaziland is facing economic meltdown, but the Swazi Government refuses to take the crisis seriously.

By the end of this year money could run out to pay salaries and for goods and services. Education and the health service (such as it is) will almost certainly grind to a halt as salaries go unpaid and the government runs out of cash to pay its bills.

This is because the amount of income Swaziland gets from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) will fall by about a half this year.

About 70 percent of the total income of Swaziland comes from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU). This is income that is entirely outside of the government’s control. It is not raised within the kingdom as such and the amount that comes in through the SACU depends very much on how much trade there is within other countries in southern Africa.

In the week the Swazi government was warned of the impending disaster it announced that the salaries of civil servants (including teachers and nurses) would rise by 12 percent.

The disaster has been predicted for a number of years, as I wrote in 2008. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has consistently warned the Swazi Government about the way it runs its finances. In 2007 in its official report the IMF stated that ‘Swaziland’s economic performance remains weak. Poverty has escalated in the face of high and rising unemployment, food shortages, and the world’s highest HIV/AIDS infection rate.’



The IMF report went on to say that the amount of money Swaziland was receiving through the (SACU) made the economy of Swaziland look better than it really was. This, however, was a temporary windfall of money that was expected to run out in 2007/2008. After that date the amount of money coming from the SACU would ‘sharply decline’.



The present economic policy of Swaziland would be unworkable once the SACU revenues decline, the IMF report stated. The IMF recommended that to save the economy the Swaziland Government had to change its economic policies. Top of the list was for the government to reduce its wages bill, begin civil service reform and privatize state-owned assets.

Instead, the government has done the exact opposite increasing salaries in 2008 and again this year.



I shudder to think of the consequences of the financial meltdown. Swaziland is a desperately poor kingdom and that’s because the economy is in ruins. About 70 per cent of the population earn less than one US dollar a day. Of those in work large numbers earn almost slave wages. Think of the textile workers whose wages are so low they have to live six to a room and sleep three to a bed.

One consequence of the meltdown might be that as the police and army go unpaid and the Swazi ‘middle class’ salary earners find they are just as poor as the rest of the population their loyalty to King Mswati III and the ruling elite will be severely tested.

ORDINARY SWAZIS DEMAND CHANGE

Ordinary Swazis meeting for their first ever ‘People’s Dialogue’ have drawn up a list of demands to further the cause of human rights and civil liberties in the kingdom.

The ‘Manzini Declaration’ was launched yesterday (31 July 2009) by trade unions, churches and civic organisations including the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO).

The main points of the Manzini Declaration are:

· At least 15% of the national budget should be spent on health

· An education system that meets the demands of the 21st century

· Land reform as a means to ensure food security

· Decent work for all

· Proper equality and respect for women

· Recognition of the importance of the informal trading sector to the economy

· A credible democracy where the people alone choose their government

· Respect for Human Rights

· Adequate and professional policing that makes crime prevention and protection of human rights its priority

· An end to reckless privatisation

· Proper engagement with the youth of the country

· Respect for Swazi culture as a vibrant expression of our uniqueness

· Adherence to ratified international obligations

The declaration follows the People’s Dialogue held in Manzini two weeks ago today which covered a number of issues of importance in Swaziland today including gender equality, child sexual abuse, and human rights generally.

Although organisers stressed that the People’s Dialogue was not meant as an attack on the Swazi state, police nonetheless infiltrated the meetings and two people were arrested and charged with offences under the Suppression of Terrorism Act. One was alleged to have chanted political slogans and the other wore a T-shirt supporting the banned People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO).

At the launch of the Manzini Declaration yesterday secretary general of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions Jan Sithole said the declaration sets out the people’s vision of what we need in the country.

‘It makes demands on government while also committing the SCCCO to working with government to turn the people’s demands into reality. Proper and credible social dialogue and social partnership cannot happen overnight, but we have taken that first step.

‘We know what the people want. It is our job to start advocating and negotiating for their needs. We call on the government to take its first step, take the Manzini Declaration seriously and meet with us as a matter of urgency. They will find us helpful, respectful and constructive.’