SWAZIS JUMP AT TERRORIST SHADOWS

Be afraid, be very afraid. The Swazi press is whipping up rumours that al Qaeda terrorists are hiding in Swaziland.

It’s not the first time we’ve been fed this nonsense.

This time we are told that 10 ‘Asians’ are living ‘undercover’ in various parts of the kingdom.

According to the Swazi News, an independent newspaper in Swaziland, ‘This should undoubtedly trigger a cause for concern to the nation as the New Year unfolds, as such signs could signal an imminent attack that could most likely to first strike at our security lacking airport.’

The newspaper gives no evidence of who these ‘Asians’ are and why they should want to attack Matsapha Airport beyond saying, ‘that the terrorists may have chose Swaziland for its quietness and enabling environment to work on their targets without hindrance’.

The news media are playing into the hands of the Swaziland political elite that has clamped down on dissent in the kingdom since Barnabas Dlamini was illegally appointed Prime Minister in 2008.

Now, the police will use the ‘terrorist threat’ to further clamp down on legitimate protest in Swaziland.

The Swaziland Police spokesman Vusi Masuku let the cat out of the bag. He told the Swazi News, ‘These allegations are to receive the serious investigation they deserve and cannot be taken lightly. Terrorism is a global enemy, threat to innocent human life and economy.

‘We shall cast our net to the length and breath of this country with the aim of exploring all avenues of our investigation in order to probe and verify the existence of such allegations.

‘We appeal to people with information on the matter to volunteer such to the police through their channels of convenience’.

We’ve been here before. In February 2009, the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, reported that al Qaeda terrorists may be in Swaziland disguised as secondhand car salesmen. The newspaper reported that ‘sleeper cells’ may already be in place ‘and ready to act’.

Although we might be tempted to laugh off the newspapers’ claims, there is something more sinister going on here. Since October 2008 with the illegal appointment of Barnabas Dlamini as Prime Minister, there has been a clampdown on free speech in Swaziland (there was never much to begin with) and a Suppression of Terrorism Act has been implemented to ban organisations critical of the government and the non-democratic structures in Swaziland.

The actions of the Swazi Government have caused outrage both inside Swaziland and in the international community for being heavy handed and anti-democratic. In response the government has said it needs to do these things in order to save Swazis from terrorism.

As I reported in February 2009, the Swazi people are not alone in being duped about the dangers of al Qaeda. A convenient mythology about the group has grown since the World Trade Center bombings in 2001 as a fear of a phantom enemy has been allowed to grow by politicians desperate to maintain their power.

A documentary on al Qaeda shown by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 2004 concluded that al Qaeda ‘is not an organised international network. It does not have members or a leader. It does not have “sleeper cells”. It does not have an overall strategy. In fact, it barely exists at all, except as an idea about cleansing a corrupt world through religious violence.’

SWAZI PRINCE AND AIDS DRUGS SCAM

The revelation this week that fraudsters are peddling fake cures for AIDS on the streets of Swaziland reminds me of the time when King Mswati III himself endorsed a miracle goat serum.

On this occasion one of the king's sons Prince Lindani backed a plot that was set to make its promoters 100 million US dollars.

The scam was to sell goat serum that was ‘totally reliable in the cure of Aids’. It involved injecting goats with HIV and creating antibodies which were then injected into people with AIDS.

The prince even wrote a letter that was used by the fraudsters in their publicity saying his father the King backed the project.

The prince wasn’t at the centre of the fraud: he was just a gullible dupe who got conned. And as for his father? I’ll leave you to decide.

The plot was exposed by BBC journalists in 2006. To see their report click here.

To read more about the case click here.

BBC AND TRUTH ABOUT SWAZILAND

Swaziland’s annual Umhlanga ‘Reed Dance’ ceremony at which tens of thousands of maidens from all over the kingdom perform bare-breasted before King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, is once again upon us.



This ceremony attracts massive attention inside Swaziland and most years it is also covered by some foreign news media. I have written at great length about Umhlanga in the past (click here to see the posts).



What interests me is that the foreign media often use the Umhlanga as an opportunity to report on Swaziland more generally.

This is exactly what the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) did when it visited Swaziland for the 2006 ceremony.



The report, which lasts a little over three minutes, manages to give a comprehensive account of what life is really like in Swaziland, contrasting the wealth of the monarchy with the poverty of ordinary Swazis.

The report begins by looking at the ceremony itself and then puts the significance of the event into a broader cultural context. It includes a rare face-to-face interview with King Mswati III. Look out for the point where King Mswati seems not to know how many wives he has.



The reporter Allan Little describes Swaziland as ‘a triumph of African tradition over an imported modernity’.



Viewers who have been raised on the deferential reporting of Swazi TV and Channel S may find this report disturbing.

SWAZI CHILDREN’S MESSAGE TO G20

Swazi schoolchildren have been talking about what they want the world’s most powerful countries to do to at next week’s G20 summit.

The meeting brings together finance ministers and central bank governors of major industrialized and developing economies to discuss key issues in the global economy, in particular the present recession that is sweeping across the world.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in its World Today programme has been interviewing schoolchildren to find out what is important to them.

The BBC met children from the Waterford Kamhlaba United World College, Mbabane, and found (not surprisingly) they were worried about their futures and what chances they had of getting jobs when they became adults.

The abject poverty suffered by most people in Swaziland was high on their agenda (seventy percent of Swazis earn less than one US dollar a day). One youngster wanted the G20 participants to visit a township to see for themselves what real life was like. Another wanted them to visit Swazi schools which are so poor children have to have lessons sitting on the floor because there is not enough furniture.

Another wanted them to visit families ravaged by the AIDS pandemic (Swaziland has the highest rate of HIV infection in the world) to see how children have to become head of their families when parents and grandparents die.

If you missed the programme, click below to hear the Swazi children’s contribution. It lasts a little over three minutes.

BOGUS TERROR SCARE IN SWAZILAND

Swazis are being urged to jump at shadows following an absurd claim in a newspaper owned by King Mswati III that al Qaeda terrorists may be in Swaziland disguised as secondhand car salesmen.

The Swazi Observer reports today (3 February 2009) that ‘sleeper cells’ may already be in place ‘and ready to act’.

The Observer report relies heavily (a polite way of saying is copied almost word for word) from a story published in the Botswana Sunday Standard this weekend (1 February 2009). The Standard claimed that al Qaeda terrorists were infiltrating Botswana and 10 nations across the world, ‘Brazil, Namibia, South Africa, Malaysia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Lesotho, Mauritius, Swaziland, and Trinidad and Tobago’.

According to the Observer, Swazi Police Public Relations Officer (PRO) Superintended Vusi Masuku said they would follow-up the allegations. ‘We will apply all forms of investigations available to prove and disprove the reports,’ he said.

Of course the Observer nor the Standard really explain why a supposed international terrorist ring would want to be in Swaziland, although the Standard does allude to the fact that Botswana and Swaziland are close to South Africa which might be a target for terrorist action during the FIFA World Cup next year.

It’s not much of an explanation, since most of the countries in the list given by the newspapers are nowhere near South Africa.

Although we might be tempted to laugh off the newspapers’ claims, there is something more sinister going on here. Since October 2008 with the illegal appointment of Barnabas Dlamini as Prime Minister, there has been a clampdown on free speech in Swaziland (there was never much to begin with) and a Suppression of Terrorism Act has been implemented to ban organisations critical of the government and the non-democratic structures in Swaziland.

The actions of the Swazi Government have caused outrage both inside Swaziland and in the international community for being heavy handed and anti-democratic. In response the government has said it needs to do these things in order to save Swazis from terrorism.

Up to now we have been told that the so-called ‘terrorist threat’ comes from within Swaziland. People close to the ground have laughed openly at the absurdity of the suggestion, so now it is extremely convenient that the Swazi Government can claim that an international threat exists and who better to blame than al Qaeda (a supposed international network of terrorists?)

The message that the people of Swaziland will be asked to swallow is that they must allow the government a free hand to tackle this new terrorist threat and if that means rounding up dissidents, then so be it.

The Swazi people are not alone in being duped about the dangers of al Qaeda. A convenient mythology about the group has grown since the World Trade Center bombings in 2001 as a fear of a phantom enemy has been allowed to grow by politicians desperate to maintain their power.

A documentary on al Qaeda shown by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 2004 concluded that al Qaeda ‘is not an organised international network. It does not have members or a leader. It does not have “sleeper cells”. It does not have an overall strategy. In fact, it barely exists at all, except as an idea about cleansing a corrupt world through religious violence.’

If the Swazi Observer really is a ‘newspaper’ and not a propaganda sheet for the king and the anti-democratic forces in Swaziland it needs to retract its story pronto.