SWAZI STATE SPIES ON 'CABINET'

State spies are infiltrating meetings held by Swaziland’s ‘shadow cabinet’.

Swazi dissident Mfomfo Nkhambule reports that when his Inhlava Forum political party meets state agents come to the meetings and ‘take notes to give to their masters’.

In March 2009 Inhlava set up a ‘shadow cabinet’ to monitor the Swazi Government and to create alternative polices so that once democracy comes to Swaziland it would be ready to serve.

Nkhambule says on his blog today (19 June 2009) that members of the shadow cabinet are being harassed. The shadow minister of housing has been taken in by authorities for ‘a grilling’ after a letter he wrote in the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, in which he advised King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, to meet with Nkhambule.

According to Nkhambule, ‘He told me he got a call from the illegal Prime Minister (appointed by the King in complete violation of the country’s constitution) to report to the Palace on a Saturday without fail.

‘Present in the grilling session were the illegal Prime Minister, Dr Sibusiso B Dlamini, the Chairman of Liqoqo (King’s advisory council) and two other gentlemen whom he could not identify. He was given stern warning not to associate himself with the party or similar statements again.

‘He was threatened with eviction from his village. I saw tears rolling down his face as he narrated his ordeal before the terrible four. Why would these four gentlemen pounce on a Swazi national who is trying so hard to help his fellow Swazis help themselves? What else are they capable of doing?’

To read the full blogpost, click here.

SWAZI DISSIDENT TAKES TO INTERNET

Swazi dissident Mfomfo Nkhmabule, who had his regular column dropped by the Times of Swaziland on the instructions by of King Mswati III has set up his own site on the Internet.

Nkhmabule, a former Swaziland Government cabinet minister and present chair of the Inhlava Forum political party, had gained international attention with his comments against the Swazi ruling elite and his criticisms of King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

On his new site, he says, ‘Anybody standing against the system in Swaziland is branded a terrorist - yes a terrorist just for being a politician, a citizen and somebody who wishes to do the right thing by his fellow citizens as well as His Majesty.’

To access the site click here.

Meanwhile, Nkhmabule has been further victimised for his views. The Times Sunday reported that he was ‘chucked out of the royal fields and further threatened with mob violence’ last week.

The newspaper says ‘he was chased away because he is no longer a member of the Balondolozi regiment, following his expulsion for “writing negatively” about the country’s government and monarchy.

Nkhambule was previously hauled in by Swaziland’s state police and threatened with torture if he continued to criticise the king. He was later dropped from his traditional regiment, threatened with banishment from his homeland, and his family was threatened because he refused to be silenced.

CALL TO SACK ILLEGAL SWAZILAND PM

Swazi dissident Mfomfo Nkhambule has called on Swaziland Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini to resign or be sacked because he was not appointed legally.

Nkhambule, who recently announced his Inhlava Forum political party would form an opposition government to Dlamini, says Swaziland faces a constitutional crisis.

As I have been reporting in this blog since October 2008 when Dlamini was made Prime Minister by King Mswati III, the appointment was unconstitutional because a prime minister can only be appointed from members of the House of Assembly. Dlamini was not a member at the time of his appointment.

Nkhambule, a former Swaziland Government cabinet minister, writing in his regular weekly column in the Times of Swaziland, said, the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) should intervene and see that Dlamini is removed from office.

Nkhambule has been under attack in recent months for his outspoken views on Swaziland’s undemocratic political system and the role King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, plays in it.

In his article, Nkhambule says that if Dlamini stays as prime minister, King Mswati ‘is telling all his subjects to forget about the constitution’.

He goes on, ‘The question that should be troubling some Swazis is: can the king have courage to do what is right? Can he really send Dr Sibusiso [the prime minister] home for the sake of this country and for the restoration of the rule of law? IT IS A COURAGEOUS MAN WHO LIKES UPHOLDING THE TRUTH.’

The questions he poses are, of course, rhetorical since it was King Mswati who appointed Dlamini in the first place. The king knew what he was doing and he knew Dlamini’s reputation as an anti-democrat, who when he was previously prime minister in Swaziland constantly flouted the rule of law.

Appointing Dlamini, King Mswati gave him instructions to wage war against any Swazis who wanted to see the present despotic regime overturned by democracy.

Dlamini has set about his task with energy and a reign of terror was unleashed and pro-democracy advocates have been arrested and harassed and legal public demonstrations banned or attacked.

And that’s just the way King Mswati likes it.

SWAZI DISSIDENT APOLOGISES TO KING

Swazi dissident Mfomfo Nkhambule has been forced to apologise to King Mswati III for writing articles in the Times of Swaziland criticising the king.

Nkhambule was hauled before the Swazi state police Intelligence Unit last week and told if he continued writing articles critical of the king he could end up in jail for 20 years.

Yesterday (11 January 2009), Mbongeni Mbingo, the editor of the Times Sunday, revealed that Nkhambule would have been tortured by police if he failed to do what they said.

In a letter written to the king - also published in the Times of Swaziland today (12 January 2009) - Nkhambule apologises ‘unreservedly for the unnecessary anxiety and stress caused [to King Mswati III] by the articles that have been published weekly over the past 16 months’.

I am not surprised by the apology. As research I published for the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Swaziland Chapter in July 2008 showed, the biggest censor of Swazi media is the monarchy. Journalists are so worried about incurring the wrath of King Mswati that they habitually censor themselves so as to avoid upsetting him.

The king has no hesitating in attacking the media if they dare to criticise him. In March 2007, when the Times Sunday published a report sourced from an international news agency that said King Mswati was in part responsible for Swaziland’s ill, the newspaper’s publisher was summoned to see the king and told his newspaper group (which also includes the Times and the Swazi News) would be closed down immediately unless an abject apology was forthcoming. The king also demanded that the features editor of the Times Sunday be sacked.

The publisher did as he was told.

In his letter to the king, Nkhambule, a former cabinet minister and present chair of the Inhlava Forum political party, says the reason he wrote his articles was to ‘make you [the king] aware of what is going on in the minds of your simple subjects and what they plan to do in order to get out of the hardships they are enduring in this land of their birth under your leadership.’

As we know Swaziland is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarchy. King Mswati has a wealth of 200 million US dollars (about E1.4 billion) at a time when 70 percent of his subjects live in abject poverty earning less than one US dollar a day. Swaziland has the highest rate of HIV infection in the world and last year 60 percent of the kingdom’s one million population relied on international food aid to fend off starvation.

The king rules Swaziland with an iron grip and the kingdom’s parliament has no real powers. In November 2008 the king unconstitutionally appointed Barnabas Dlamini as prime minister.

Since the appointment there has been a reign of terror unleashed by the king and his government against the Swazi people. Only last week Amnesty International said the provisions of a newly enacted Suppression of Terrorism Act ‘threaten human rights, are inherently repressive, breach Swaziland’s obligations under international and regional human rights laws and the Swaziland Constitution, and are already leading to violations of the rights of freedom of expression, association and assembly.’

In his letter to the king Nkhambule says, ‘I know what the lion [the king] is capable of doing when it is angry or threatened. I do not want to test your patience.’

Then in one telling phrase he reveals where the real power in Swaziland lays.

‘Your Majesty, you have the power to put me into eternal darkness but I pray that you allow me to continue with what I started doing over 16 months ago.’

In effect Nkhambule is asking the king’s permission to continue voicing his opinion in public.

So there you have, nobody can do anything in Swaziland without the King Mswati’s permission.

MORE GRIEF FOR SWAZI DISSIDENT

The Swaziland dissident Mfomfo Nkhambule has been hauled before Swazi authorities for the second time in a week because of comments he has made about King Mswati III.

This time, he was summoned by an inner council of Prince Logcogco, the chair of Liqoqo, which is the most powerful advisory committee to the king.

Nkhambule was made to attend at Gundvwini Royal Residence to explain what he was up to.

Nkhambule, a former cabinet minister and present chair of the Inhlava Forum Political Party, writes a weekly column in Swaziland’s only independent daily newspaper the Times of Swaziland. Last Tuesday he was interrogated by the Swazi state police Intelligence Unit and told he faced 20 years in jail if he continued to criticise the king.

The state police told Nkhambule that his writings would incite people to revolt against the king.

This time, according to a report in the Times Sunday today (11 January 2009) Nkhambule was questioned in his capacity as a resident of Gundvwini, paying allegiance to Prince Logcogco, the traditional leader of the area.

The Times Sunday reported that he told his interrogators that the king (the last absolute monarch in sub-Saharan Africa) could govern the kingdom in consultation with the people.

‘They wanted to know about Inhlava, so I told them what this organisation is advocating for. They wanted to know what police were saying to me, and I told them everything,’ Nkhambule told the newspaper.

He said Inhlava was supportive of the monarch but wanted to formulate policies and laws to safeguard it.

‘We don’t want our king to be a laughing stock in the international community and that’s why we want to formulate democratic policies and laws to protect the monarch. We are opposed to violence,’ said Nkambule.

He said he was sure Prince Logcogco was aware of the meeting because it took place at his royal residence. He, however, refused to cite the prince as the initiator of the meeting.

He revealed that John Mngomezulu, the chiefdom’s governor chaired it.

In an interview with the Times Sunday, Prince Logcogco said Nkambule was not summoned to the meeting in his capacity as a leader of Inhlava because the organisation was unknown to him and the elders of Gundvwini. He said he appeared before the inner council in his capacity as a resident of the community.