‘SWAZI OBSERVER’ PLOTS FOR KING

I smell a rat at the Swazi Observer.

For the past two weeks Thulani Thwala, the newspaper’s editor, has attacked Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister, on his personal character (for being involved in a corrupt deal that stole government land from the people for his own personal benefit) and his competence in handling the economy of the kingdom.

Yesterday (29 December 2010), he called on Dlamini, along with the Deputy Prime Minister and the Finance Minister to quit.

At the same time as condemning Barnabas Dlamini, Thwala praised Themba (AT) Dlamini, the man King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, replaced as Prime Minister in 2008, after what in Swaziland passes for a ‘parliamentary election’.

The king replaced Themba with Barnabas, even though this was against the constitution of Swaziland.

Thwala’s praise of Themba Dlamini had a few tongues wagging in Swaziland. The reason is this: after he left office as Prime Minister the king made Themba Dlamini Managing Director of Tibiyo, the conglomerate that runs the Swazi Observer on behalf of the king.

So we have Thwala praising his boss and saying that the boss made a better PM than the present post holder.

Did Themba Dlamini instruct Thwala to praise his work as PM and put it into people’s minds that he would be an ideal replacement for Barnabas, or was this just a bit of freelance brown-nosing by Thwala?

We can be sure of one thing: the attack in the Swazi Observer and its companion Weekend Observer on Barnabas Dlamini and his government has been sustained and I expect will continue in the days and weeks ahead.

King Mswati appointed Barnabas Dlamini and the king owns Observer newspapers, so it is inconceivable that Thwala would make this attack if he didn’t have the support of Themba Dlamini (his boss) and the king.

Thwala, his journalists and paid commentators, make it clear in their criticisms that Barnabas and his minister are to blame for the current crisis in Swaziland and that King Mswati has nothing to do with it.

This isn’t true, of course. King Mswati chooses the PM and the cabinet and sets the tone of government and parliamentary business. He also bleeds his subjects dry to pay for his 13 palaces and lavish lifestyle: he is to blame for the dire plight the Swazi people face today.

So, Barnabas is being targeted as the cause of the problem. And the solution? Get rid of Barnabas and replace him with a ‘competent’ new PM. Step forward Themba Dlamini.

And in one single move King Mswati thinks he has solved his problem. With Barnabas gone, the king, his new PM and his state-controlled media can tell the Swazi people that the crisis is over. The Big Bad Barnabas is no more and we can all rest safely in our beds.

Or at least the ruling elite can rest safely.

There is only one problem: Themba is no more able to solve the problem of Swaziland than Barnabas. It will take more than a swap of personalities at the top of government to do that. It can only be achieved by complete root-and-branch change of Swaziland and that is something the king and his hangers-on do not want to see.

EX-SWAZI PM'S NEW LINK TO CONMAN

The Swazi Government was so taken in by con man Rudy King it offered him the chance to open an office in Swaziland.

King is the man behind the bogus ‘humanitarian’ award given to Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally appointed Prime Minister.

As I reported on 4 October 2010, Barnabas Dlamini wasn’t the only Swazi Prime Minister who fell for King’s con. The previous Prime Minister Themba Dlamini was taken-in as well.

Following up on my report, the Times of Swaziland discovered in its files that in 2007 Themba Dlamini was quoted as saying members of King’s foundation would be visiting Swaziland to finalise the setting up of an office. King had claimed his organisation funded education by giving grants to primary and high schools, colleges and universities around the world.

Of course, nothing came of this offer and as far as I known Themba Dlamini never talked about it publicly again.

Themba Dlamini was well and truly bamboozled by King, who is a well-known con artist in the Bahamas and the United States.

Themba Dlamini told the media upon his return to Swaziland after receiving his medal, ‘I am humbled for being identified as one of the people to deserve the award and I am dedicating it to the Swazi nation as my efforts would not have been recognised had I not been serving the Swazi nation.’

He was embroiled in a controversy after his return when it was discovered that he had taken his wife and his ‘spiritual advisor’, Pastor Phila Mathunjwa, with him to the Bahamas to collect his award. Mathunjwa flew business class, which cost E39 000 (nearly 6,000 US dollars).

When independent newspapers in Swaziland tried to get the government to come clean over the cost they were told to mind their own business and because there is no freedom of information law in the kingdom, ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, there was nothing much they could do about it.

FORMER SWAZI PM WAS ALSO CONNED

Barnabas Dlamini is not the only Swaziland Prime Minister to be conned by the World Citizen Awards –Themba Dlamini, his predecessor, also fell for the scam.

As we all know by now, Barnabas flew to the Bahamas for an award ceremony on Saturday (2 October 2010) expecting to get a medal for his humanitarian work, his love of human rights and for being a substantial world figure.

The whole thing was a scam, organised by a well-known con artist in the Bahamas called Rudy King.

We have still to get an explanation from Barnabas or the Swazi Government about how he fell for the scam and what inquiries it made before agreeing to accept the award.

But he is not the first Swazi Prime Minister to fall for the trick. In October 2007, Themba Dlamini, who was then Swazi PM, flew off to the Bahamas to accept a similar medal. The trip caused annoyance back in Swaziland, because Themba took his wife and his personal pastor on the trip with him at the taxpayers’ expense.

Luckily for Themba, the scam wasn’t made public, but we can’t be sure whether he rumbled something was wrong, and was too embarrassed to admit his foolishness, and just kept quiet.

Of course (even more foolishly perhaps) he might not have realised he was the victim of a con.

Oddly, Themba went to collect the award, without knowing what it was for, according to a report in October 2007 published in the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily. The government’s official spokesman Percy Simelane and the ex-PM himself have never publicly explained what Themba did to deserve the award.

The Times tried to find out how much the trip cost, but was told that that information was ‘confidential’.

Its companion newspaper the Times Sunday followed up the story about Themba and his personal pastor in January 2008.

It reported that the pastor accompanied the PM, and this fact was accepted, but nobody explained why the pastor was needed.



The Times Sunday reported Percy Simelane saying that the PM paid for the costs of the pastor’s trip. But the newspaper also quoted ‘sources’ saying that the Swazi taxpayer footed the bill.



So we have a conflict here. Who really paid the bill? We still don’t know because there is no freedom of information law in Swaziland and if the government says ‘we won’t tell you’ that’s pretty much the end of the argument.

Con man Rudy King obviously knew it was easy to scam members of Swaziland’s ruling elite. As well as Barnabas Dlamini and Themba Dlamini he also caught two members of the Swazi Royal Family. Prince David got his gong in 2006 and Prince Guduza is listed by the World Citizen Awards organisation as having received one also between 2007 and 2009.

SWAZI P.M. AND FREE SPEECH FARCE

Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini met editors and senior journalists last week at what is promised to be a regular monthly ‘editors’ forum’ meeting.

The forum is billed as an opportunity for journalists to question the Prime Minister (and any other senior politicians he chooses to invite along). To some people this ‘openness’ demonstrates how much he believes in freedom of speech and freedom of the media.

The forum is not a new idea; the most recent Prime Minister Themba Dlamini also held such meetings. There was some doubt about whether Barnabas Dlamini would carry on with the ‘tradition’ because he has a well-deserved reputation as a hater of freedoms, including freedom of the press and freedom of association. Since he came to power in October 2008, Barnabas Dlamini has branded four political formations as terrorists and announced that anyone who is a member or supporter of the organisations will be deemed a terrorist. Under the Suppression of Terrorism Act, this could result in up to 25 years in jail.

I suppose Barnabas had nothing to worry about meeting the journalists. At his final editors’ forum meeting in July 2008, Themba Dlamini praised the editors for all the support they had given him and his government over the previous five years.

The forum is billed as an opportunity for the media to question the Prime Minister and his Cabinet colleagues on matters of interest to the nation, but in his speech the PM was very open about the fact that he would only answer the questions that he wanted to.

He told the editors, ‘You will recall that the initial breakfast meetings were very difficult and tense even though I had given you the rules of engagement.

‘I think you will remember rule number one, which says, “I am not under any obligation to answer all your questions and I reserve the right to refuse to answer any question” This has been the rule of thumb for our breakfast meetings and I am happy that we have kept it alive throughout our sessions; and our interaction has ma­tured over time.’

This, of course, doesn’t represent an open dialogue. A real interaction would only take place when the Prime Minister and senior politicians were forced to answer questions they did NOT want to answer.

In view of the recent controversy surrounding Mfomfo Nkhambule, who was threatened with jail for the articles he has written in the Times of Swaziland, it is instructive to note that in his speech Themba Dlamini told editors, I’ am glad that in Swaziland people have constitutional rights to express themselves freely I am also happy that there is no one that has been reprimanded because of ex­pressing himself or herself through the media or any other medium.’

Following Barnabas Dlamini’s first editors’ forum, the civil society group Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO) wrote a media release critiquing the Prime Minister’s contribution.

It covered the PM’s views on the Swaziland Constitution, the controversial constitutional commitment to free primary school education, the attempts at influencing the press and the diplomatic corps, the government’s disregard for ‘International Human Rights Norms’ and the use of performance incentives for cabinet ministers.

The release did not get widespread coverage, so I have posted it on the blog here.

EX-SWAZILAND PM’s E1m CARS MYSTERY

How the former Prime Minister of Swaziland Themba Dlamini came to buy two cars worth E1 million (145,000 US dollars) remains a mystery.

The Times Sunday published pictures of Dlamini’s cars, including a Mercedes Benz S 350, and wanted to question the former prime minister about where the money came from to buy them .

Dlamini refused to answer questions and instead complained to the Weekend Observer newspaper which reported his views on Saturday (3 January 2009).

Dlamini who left the PM’s office in September 2008 is now managing director of the company that owns the Weekend Observer and its stablemate publication, the Swazi Observer. The company is in effect owned by King Mswati III.

Dlamini cried ‘foul’ and said that the Times Sunday had invaded his privacy and had put his life in danger by publishing the photo.

The editor of the Times Sunday responded by saying that the car was clearly visible from the street and no intrusion into Dlamini’s property had taken place in order to take photographs.

Dlamini and the Weekend Observer have tried to make the incident into a matter of journalistic ethics, claiming that Dlamini’s privacy was invaded.

This doesn’t seem to be the case. If the Times Sunday photographer could see the car from the street there was no invasion of privacy. As for the ‘terrorism’ fear, even the most dim-witted terrorist would also be able to see the car. Perhaps the Times Sunday has done Dlamini a favour by alerting him to the fact that he needs better security.

What remains unanswered is how could Dlamini afford the cars? The Times Sunday in an editorial (4 January 2009) said, ‘Certainly we are entitled to know this, because this man spent five years as our prime minister, and therefore enjoyed a salary paid for by us, the taxpayers. As far as we are concerned, he is still being well looked after by the government, and therefore everything he does we must know.’

I am reminded of another car scandal from February 2005. On that occasion King Mswati III banned newspapers from publishing pictures of his car after the king was criticised both inside Swaziland and in the wider international community for wasting money on expensive luxuries, while 70 percent of his subjects lived in abject poverty, earning less than one US dollar a day, and many of them relied on international food aid to stop from starving

We can only assume that Themba Dlamini feels he has something to hide by not talking about his cars. I doubt that his silence is because he feels a deep sense of shame.