SWAZI CABINET 'NO RIGHT TO GOVERN'

The Swaziland Cabinet and government have lost the moral right to govern, one of the kingdom’s leading pro-democracy activists says.

The whole Cabinet led by Barnabas Dlamini, the kingdom’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister, has colluded in abusing their positions by awarding themselves land worth up to twice what they are paying for it, according to Musa Hlophe, coordinator of the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO).

He says, ‘This, at a time when the government is facing financial meltdown and has to borrow from the banks just to get salaries.

‘Yet the Cabinet can award some of its members a collective E1 million pay rise.

‘I assume the others agreed to it because they are next.’

Hlophe writes in his regular column in the Times Sunday, an independent newspaper in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, that the Human Rights Commission should act.

‘It is in charge of the Code of Conduct for Ministers and surely this massive unreasonable enrichment is a breach of the code.

‘If it is not the Human Rights Commission then it is the Anti Corruption Commission.

‘Why are our constitutional watchdogs silent?

‘Have they no bark? Have they no bite?

‘The current Minister of Justice [Rev. David Matse] was once Chairman of the Human Rights Commission.

‘He told the country and the world that it would be judged by international standards of transparency and effectiveness. What happened?’

Hlophe also criticises Majozi Sithole, the Swazi Finance Minister, for an interview he gave last week where Sithole was able to offer no concrete plan to get Swaziland out of the economic mess it is in today.

Hlophe writes, ‘As a man tasked with bringing the country’s finances back from the brink of disaster, he seems to have no ideas other than trying to stop small areas of corruption such as the amount of overtime the cleaners in his office get.

‘He says, “For us to get out of this situation we need to turn this crisis into an opportunity. That is for us to restructure and do a lot of structural reforms that we need in a number of areas as a country.”

‘What does that mean?

‘It is bland generalisation and mumbo-jumbo.

‘What we as a people need to know is what structural reforms are necessary in which parts of the country.

‘What have they promised the IMF and how is it going to affect us?

‘We know that thousands of civil servants are going to lose their jobs but which ones?

‘I have not yet met one who is seriously thinking about taking the package government is offering.

‘They know that when the money runs out there will be no more.

‘The packages are the path to certain poverty.’

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DISASTER AT SIKHUPHE AIRPORT

The Swaziland Government has agreed to throw another E350 million (50 million US dollars) at the discredited Sikhuphe Airport project.

It turns out that the government’s management of the project has been so poor that it is cheaper to continue building it (because of clauses in contracts with builders and other companies) than to abandon the project.

Sikhuphe, otherwise known as King Mswati III’s vanity project, has already far exceeded its budget and on one estimate could cost one billion US dollars by the time it is finished. It has already missed numerous deadlines for completion and opening.

The building of Sikhuphe was started without any ‘needs assessment’ having been undertaken, nor any clear idea of what it would be used for.

Now, one of Swaziland’s leading pro-democracy activists has pointed out other flaws in the Sikhuphe project.

Musa Hlophe, coordinator of the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO), writing today (28 November 2010) in his regular column in the Times Sunday, an independent newspaper in the kingdom, asks what would happen if an aircraft with (say) 400 passengers on board crashed at the airport?

He writes, ‘Assuming that we expanded our country’s ambulance fleet to 200 and each one was able to get to Sikhupe within one hour, how could our hospitals manage with hundreds of extra patients in one day? The closest hospital will be Good Shepherd at Siteki which is not exactly state of the art and the nearest major hospitals are in Manzini and Mbabane. They are already all on their knees, struggling to cope with our current crises of TB, HIV&AIDS.

‘Do our hospitals have a plan to cope with maybe 400 foreign people all needing bed spaces urgently? Do we have enough doctors and nurses trained in accident and emergency and most importantly do we have the necessary medicines, equipment and blood for this level of disaster? In a country that cannot even supply its own citizens with the proper drugs to prevent a child dying from rabies because of the bite of one dog - I doubt it. I doubt they could cope with fifty people never mind four hundred.

‘Sikhuphe’s business model to attract major foreign passenger carriers is already flawed because of the competition from four other regional airports within half a day’s drive - Kruger National in Mbombela (Nelspruit), Maputo in Mozambique, King Shaka in Durban and, of course, OR Tambo in Johannesburg. But what really stands out for me, as someone who has worked for businesses for a long time, is what little proper risk analysis has gone on here. Can you imagine an airline that wanted to carry rich western investors and tourists that would risk the lives of hundreds of its passengers? Can you imagine them ignoring the lack of medical systems, equipment, personnel or facilities to cope with even a relatively minor crash that required treatment of only a quarter of their passengers and staff?

‘If we adapt our medical systems to meet this need, will we take resources away from our families who are living with and dying from HIV&AIDS? So I ask a question that does not seem to have been considered in public before. How will the disaster plan for Sikhupe affect the provision of health care for the rest of us? Will the health budget be diverted from the families of our sick and dying to allow for the imagined needs of strangers who will only stay a few hours in our country? Has Minister Xaba and his team even considered it - have they thought it through? What do they say to the foreign investors?’

Hlophe also questions whether the airport was really hit by a tornado earlier this year (2010) or whether this was just made up people at the airport to cover up the fact that they were behind schedule with the building.

He writes, ‘I see that the cabinet and parliament have authorised even more money to be paid to complete the airport in the same week when Finance Minister Sithole has been decrying the lack of proper control of government finances and the continuing corruption by civil servants that he is powerless to sack. Sikhupe has run massively over budget and over time.

‘It was so bad that in March the people at the airport had to make up a story about a tornado hitting the building and putting back construction by many months. Who has ever heard of a tornado that damages only one building but leaves the rest of the neighbouring countryside completely unharmed? I have heard rumours that the actual runway is so poorly constructed that it is not even flat enough to land planes safely.

‘I also hear that the internal equipment that has been specified is so expensive to maintain that many US airports will not use it. How can we pour money down the drain like this? The small number of planes that fly to and from Matsapha are already only half full, if that airport was operating at full capacity then maybe there would be an argument for Sikhuphe - until then there simply is not. I hope that the forensic audit that the cabinet proposes looks at the issues of tendering, the business plan, the corruption, the quality of the work already done and sets out recommendations to the future.

‘Most of all I hope that the auditors make the common sense recommendation that no more money should be spent on this white elephant at this time of deep financial crisis. I cannot see any realistic scenarios where it will recoup its costs. No business person I know of thinks that it will ever attract regular business other than some cargo planes and most of us see it as a continuing barrier to development and not a creator of wealth.’

SWAZI PM SCAM: ‘HEADS MUST ROLL’

‘Heads must roll’ after Barnabas Dlamini, the illegally-appointed Prime Minister of Swaziland, fell for an easily identifiable scam.

That’s the verdict of the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO) after Dlamini and a group of his supporters had flown to the Bahamas to receive a medal for his record on human rights. The Swazi Government said Dlamini was to be honoured because he was a ‘highly respected global figure, whose role in history has been significant’.

It was revealed on Friday (1 October 2010) that the World Citizen Awards, the organisation behind the medal, was ‘little more than a Florida phone number and website’.

The whole thing was a scam. But the Swazi people have yet to find out how much in hard cash Dlamini and his supporters have paid to the con artists.

Musa Hlophe, the Coalition’s Co-ordinator said, ‘This is a gross abuse of our taxes. The country is facing an economic crisis, our foreign reserves are pitifully low and we see the Prime Minister spending them lavishly just to feed his vanity

.

‘It is incredible that he thought he could be eligible for a Human Rights Award, it is even more incredible that he took an entourage with him to the Bahamas to watch him receive it.’

He added, ‘If the award was genuine it would still be a gross waste of money at this time. The fact that it is an easily identifiable fraud calls into question the judgement of this man and his officers.

‘We demand that a full inquiry be set up so that we get to know how this scandal arose, how much government money has been spent on this exercise and who was responsible for investigating, recommending and authorising the acceptance.

‘We also demand that the Prime Minister and his advisors are personally held responsible and pay every cent of our money that they have squandered back. Heads must roll.’

SCCCO said in a statement it was ‘not at all surprised, that the award for Dlamini was ‘a complete hoax.

‘In his short time in power The PM and his government have earned severely negative human rights reports from the International Labour Organisation, Amnesty International, Freedom House, Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa, International Bar Association, Frontline Defenders, Human Rights Observatory, United States Government and the European Union.

‘So any award praising his efforts to promote human rights that came at the same time that he was advocating torture for dissidents must surely have come as something of a surprise to him and should have set alarm bells ringing everywhere. We now find out that the award has absolutely no merit.

‘It seems that the President of the World Citizens Award is someone who has bestowed on himself the title of His Excellency Dr. R. K. LaRoda-King but is actually nothing but a common fraudster who is wanted in the United States for offences totalling more than 20 Million Emalangeni. The Awards website lists a number of distinguished human rights defenders as judges, yet it turns out that their names have been used without their knowledge or permission. Its phone numbers are bogus and cannot be called.

‘The Coalition and many others uncovered these facts in an afternoon. What was the Swazi government thinking about?’

HLOPHE RAID: ACT OF INTIMIDATION

The recent raid on the home of pro-democracy activist Musa Hlophe was an act of intimidation that shows the desperation of the Swazi authorities.

And it shows the ‘reality of Swaziland as a repressive, corrupt and undemocratic regime is open for the world to see’.

This is how the Swaziland Coalition for Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO) reacted to the raid on Hlophe’s home. Police had a warrant to search for bombs or bomb-making equipment.

SCCCO, in a statement, said it doubted that the police really had evidence that Hlophe was involved in terrorism and it is seeking legal advice to see if it can discover why ‘supposedly independent, judicial authorities’ granted a search warrant.

SCCCO said, ‘The state's recent surveillance of our members, staff and offices means that they know that the Coalition is a peaceful organization and does not subscribe to any form of violence. The Coalition believes that this raid was an act of intimidation and that it shows the desperation of the Swazi authorities. Our members' domestic and international advocacy work with SADC [Southern African Development Community], AU [African Union], the Commonwealth, the European Union, United States, United Nations and elsewhere now mean that the reality of Swaziland as a repressive, corrupt and undemocratic regime is open for the world to see.’

SCCCO said, ‘To use the Suppression of Terrorism Act against Musa Hlophe, a 72-year-old human rights defender, grandfather, farmer and newspaper columnist shows how far removed from reality the Swazi authorities are. In his professional and personal capacities, Babe Hlophe has consistently been the voice of calm reason, guiding the pro-democracy movement towards a mature and measured response to increasingly callous policies and heavy handed tactics by the Swazi Authorities.’

SCCCO is made up of Swaziland-based organizations representing the trade unions, employers, lawyers, churches, NGOs, media, women’s groups and youth.

It also has international strategic partners, including the Centre for Conflict Resolution, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, the Institute for Democracy in Africa, Amnesty International, the Dennis Hurley Peace Institute, the Catholic Aid Foundation and Bread for the World.

‘Each one of them reflects our complete and utter commitment to non-violent approaches to change and we would not, and could not partner, with them if it were not so,’ SCCCO said.

SCCCO Chair, Bishop Meshack Mabuza, said, ‘To have a system of governance that confuses legitimate dissent with terrorism is obviously one that understands neither. If a man of peace such as Babe Hlophe can be called a terrorist then all Swazis can be called terrorists. Who can protect us from our government? The judges and MPs have failed us, it is left to civil society to stand up for the ordinary men, women and children of Swaziland. These foolish, wasteful and short-sighted bullying tactics by the authorities only increase the Coalition’s sense of purpose. Our mission to educate the public and the government on their rights, duties and responsibilities as citizens continues as before.’