RACISM AND THE 'TIMES OF SWAZILAND'

Racist hysteria has gripped one section of the Swazi press following the claim that a group of Asian members of al Qaeda are hiding in Swaziland.

Vusi Sibisi, a top columnist of the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent newspaper, makes the absurd claim that Swazis ‘should be very much afraid’ of Asians in their midst.

He writes, ‘Initially the response likely to be triggered by the news that we might have terrorists within our midst is alarm and panic accompanied by the pungent smell of fear. And we should be very much afraid because we do not know what the mission of these terrorists is or if they are merely using this country as a hideout or a launch pad for their murderous missions.’

He then goes on to claim that ‘the frightening inward flood of Asians’ into Swaziland over the past few years has infiltrated ‘every fibre of Swazi society within every nook and cranny of this country to the extent that by and large they have become the second citizens – far better treated than the majority of the people’.

He then goes on to talk of Asians ‘flooding’ the kingdom and bringing nothing of value in terms of investments.

Complete and utter rubbish of course, and Sibisi, who has a fine record of speaking up for democracy and writing against the ruling class in Swaziland, should know better.

Asians are treated just as badly as Swazis by the ruling elite and have no special privileges.

The Swazi media have an inglorious history of racism and have many times attacked Muslims. They have also allowed the arch racist and businessman Walter Bennett space to peddle his own filth against immigrants.

One of the main ‘concerns’ of the racists is that the Asian immigrants run small businesses (‘fish and chip shop businesses’ they call them in Swaziland) and the implication is that they are taking away businesses that Swazis could do.

I’ll leave it to you to decide whether local Swazis would be setting up the businesses if the Asians weren’t there.

CALL TO EXTEND POLITICS PURGE

After the Swaziland Government launched its purge of civil servants who have an interest in politics, comes a call for schools, universities and colleges to be targeted next.

The Public Service Bill which is going through parliament states that civil servants who are considered by the Swaziland ruling elite to be ‘political’ would be given the chance to recant and if they didn’t they would be sacked from their jobs.

The new bill, which could become law as early as next month, says it will be an offence for a public servant to be ‘visibly associated’ with a political formation or organisation. It will also be an offence to be a member of a political party.

Now, Walter Bennett, a prominent businessman and former Swaziland Senator, has called for schoolteachers and college and university leaders to be screened to see whether they are supporters of the Tinkhundla system of government. If they are not, they should be sacked, he says.

Under Tinkhundla all political parties are banned and King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, makes all the important decisions. Last year he unconstitutionally appointed Barnabas Dlamini as the kingdom’s prime minister.

According to the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, Bennett told a gathering at Lozitha primary School last week that it was high time the government screened college and university leaders to make sure they supported the political system in Swaziland.

The Observer quoted him saying, ‘Every time we see students from the colleges and the university march and one wonders why. Some of the students disappear after getting allowances,” he said.

He said teachers who are against the Tinkhundla system should also be removed. Bennett said principals should also make sure that teachers in schools adhere to our system of governance.

Bennett has a reputation for outspokenness and is unafraid to speak out on matters he knows little about (see for example his comments on HIV and his call to beat up workers). He is also openly racist and has regularly verbally attacked Asians.

Despite his shortcomings as a social and political commentator, Bennett is afforded considerable respect by the Swaziland media and many ordinary Swazis so unfortunately we cannot simply ignore his latest ranting.

BEAT UP WORKERS, SAYS BENNETT

Swazi businessman and anti-democrat Walter Bennett says workers should be beaten up for organising their own meeting to discuss the needs of the people of Swaziland.

Bennett, a former Swazi Senator and full time apologist for King Mswati III, the last absolute monarch in sub-Saharan Africa, says it is a pity that beating up a person is against the law.

According to the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, and a newspaper that regularly offers Bennett space to air his (often unconsidered) views, Bennett is annoyed that trade unions, churches and civil society groups, have decided to boycott a ‘smart partnership’ national dialogue called to discuss some of the issues affecting present day Swaziland and which King Mswati and Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed prime minister, are expected to attend.

The Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions has decided to hold its own meeting to be attended by workers and supporters of a free civil society because the government-initiated dialogues have in the past failed to bear fruits.

Bennett, who I reported last month believes that the Swazi Government should stop providing medical support to HIV AIDS patients because others were more deserving. He said that people with HIV and AIDS had ‘got this disease out of their evil habits and out of choice’. he said. He also wanted to close down places of entertainment because they led to the spread of HIV.

Bennett is also openly racist and has regularly verbally attacked Asians.

Despite Bennett’s open (and illegal) incitement to violence, he has not been arrested or even questioned by Swazi police.

Meanwhile, people of good will (and good sense) are ignoring Bennett’s threats and plans are in place for the first ‘People’s Dialogue’ to take place this coming Saturday (18 July 2009) at John Bosco Hall, Manzini, starting at 8:30am. More on this later.

NO SEX PLEASE, WE’RE SWAZI

Can any of us be surprised that Swaziland has the highest rate of HIV infection in the world when people are not prepared to discuss the subject properly?

Hot on the heels of Swazi MP Timothy Myeni who called for people who are HIV-positive to be branded on the buttocks to advertise the fact, comes news that one of Swaziland’s prominent HIV AIDS educators was stopped part way into a talk to school children about AIDS because he mentioned sex.

Sanele Mdluli, who writes a widely respected column for the Times Sunday about living with HIV (I have written about him before), was invited by the Good Shepherd High School, Siteki, to talk to pupils.

The school gave him 30 minutes for his talk but he had barely got five minutes into it before the school principal stopped him and had a teacher march him off the school premises.

Mdluli told the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, today (12 June 2009), ‘As the teacher led me out of the school premises, I asked her what the problem was and that was when she told me that I was teaching the pupils sex, something that was unacceptable in a catholic school.’

He said all that he was doing was present an honest, truthful motivational talk to the pupils and therefore felt embarrassed by the principal’s actions.

Sources said pupils were shocked at the principal’s action because they wanted to hear what Mdluli had to say.

Mdluli had previously made similar presentations to other schools in Siteki, including Nazarene, where they never had a problem with his talk.

School principal Susan Matsebula told the Times, ‘In less than five minutes the boy had said a lot of things about sex and we were all taken by surprise hence I felt I should stop him.’

She said as a Catholic institution they were told to teach abstinence and not what Mdluli was telling the pupils.

Meanwhile, Walter Bennett, a favourite ‘rent a quote’ for the Swazi media has supported MP Myeni who called on HIV-positive people to be branded. He said people should not make fun of the MP’s ideas.

I have written about Bennett before and his habit of talking about things he knows nothing about. I am particularly concerned about his racism against Asians.

Bennett has form when it comes to HIV. In 2002, when he was a Swazi senator Bennett said the Swazi Government should stop providing medical support to HIV AIDS patients. He told a rally in Manzini that it was unfair to continue taking care of people with HIV AIDS because others were more deserving.

‘The government is wasting a lot of money, yet these people got this disease out of their evil habits and out of choice,’ he said.

He went on to urge the government to close down places of entertainment. ‘Swaziland can do without these places and this could lower the HIV AIDS prevalence in Swaziland,’ he said.

SWAZI KING ‘TO BLAME’ FOR HIV RATE

King Mswati III is being blamed for the huge incidence of HIV in Swaziland.

The king’s lifestyle and Swazi’s disrespect for women are major causes of the spread of the virus that leads to AIDS.

The criticism comes as a new report is published showing that 42 percent of pregnant women in Swaziland are HIV-positive. This is an increase of three percent in two years and means the kingdom has the worst HIV rate in the world. Average life expectancy in Swaziland is now only 37 years.

King Mswati has at least 13 wives (we don’t know the figure for sure because this is information the Swazi people are not allowed to have) and this encourages polygamy (men having more than one wife) in the country.

Reacting to the report and King Mswati’s polygamy, Professor Alan Whiteside, of South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal University, who has spent years studying HIV and AIDS in Swaziland, said, ‘There are particular gender questions in the country around the role of women and how they're perceived by men.’ He said polygamy ‘is a major issue’.

Whiteside told the Voice of America radio station, ‘This [polygamy] is a problem that we face in that you do have polygamy, which is accepted and respected. What we’ve had until recently is a view of women as being there primarily for men. What I have to say is that legislation in the country has recently changed and the challenge is to change the mindset of the people. And maybe the king has a role in leading this change of mindset.’

Whiteside says that the fact that Swaziland is ruled by a king puts the international community off. ‘... the global community looks on it as not being typical’.

Criticism of King Mswati’s role in the HIV pandemic also comes from closer to home. The Associated Press (AP) news agency reported, ‘AIDS activists blame King Mswati III for doing too little to spread prevention messages and promote condom usage and HIV testing, and they say he sets a bad example by having 13 wives.

‘“The nation, especially polygamous men, look up to the monarch,” Sphiwe Hlophe, who runs a support group called Swaziland Positive Living,’ told the AP.

King Mswati has a poor record on HIV in Swaziland. He was slow in recognising there was an HIV problem in the kingdom and despite the urging of the international community, he would not admit that the virus was in Swaziland and refused to declare a state of emergency. He did this even though it was estimated that 90 percent of the beds at Mbabane Government hospital were filled by people with AIDS.

King Mswati also let Swaziland down after, in response to the rising level of HIV infection, he imposed a five-year sex ban young women. He was one of the first to break the ban when he took a 17-year-old teenager as a wife. At the time he already had one other fiancée and seven wives.

Walter Bennett (a well known ‘rent a quote’ in Swaziland) was once a Swazi Senator and adviser to the King. During this time he said there was no need to continue providing medical support to people with HIV AIDS because they contracted the disease out of choice by being promiscuous. He called for all places of entertainment to be closed to stop promiscuity.

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The increase in the rate of HIV infection should now cast doubt on the Swazi Government’s policy of encouraging men to be circumcised. As I have reported before this method of controlling the spread of HIV has been discredited by many medics, but remains a major plank of HIV policy in Swaziland. According to the AP. ‘there are fears that this [circumcision] might backfire by making men more complacent and more likely to have unprotected sexual intercourse’.