JOBS FOR KING MSWATI’S BOYS

The following is a media release issued today (26 January 2011) from the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN). It criticises the Swazi Royal Family for using jobs in the kingdom’s civil service as a way of rewarding supporters. As the International Monetary Fund seeks 7,000 job losses among civil servants, SSN shanes those who are on the government payroll, courtesy of King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, but who do no work.

SOURCE

The IMF’s Recommends A Less Effective Civil Service as Mswati's Cronies Take Enemas at Tax Payers' Expense.

SSN PRESS RELEASE –

26th January, 2011

According to the latest Public Information Notice (PIN) released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the 24th of January 2010, the kingdom of Swaziland has the second largest wage bill in sub-Saharan Africa after Lesotho. The country’s finance minister once reported that with this wage bill makes up 54% of the country’s overall budget.

Despite the fact that the IMF has recommended the reduction of this wage bill by taking drastic measures such as not hiring any new civil servants, implementing early retirement exit schemes and things continuing its privatization policy among other things, the government has stalled on implementing this recommendation out of fear that it will spark social upheaval.

What it has since done, however, is to claim to have cut overtime wages, freeze the hiring of civil servants and reduce ghost workers, the latter being a serious problem in the country’s civil service. The wage bill is artificially inflated by the fact that some unscrupulous civil servants draw salaries of nonexistent workers. This is one of the many fruits of the royal blanket covering corruption.

Due to the Royal family’s extended patronage systems many other registered civil servants draw salaries that they never work for. This is most prevalent in the armed forces, particularly in the defence force, which has gone to the extent of hiring the king’s two sons despite the fact that they are rarely ever in the country and do no soldier work.

The king’s brother in law, Sibusiso Mngomezulu is another well connected individual who draws a high salary in the country’s defence force despite the fact he has a job as a financial director at Chancellor House, the ANC’s private investment firm that recently bought a coal mine in Swaziland. All this rot is happening while both countries are struggling to create quality jobs for its citizens.

A large number of civil servants in less senior positions are also guilty of this grossly unprofessional behaviour. Many of them during this time of the year are found relaxing at the country’s natural hot spring in Lobamba bathing and taking enemas during working hours having told their superiors that they are on official royal duty.

As the financial crisis deepens in the kingdom these are the issues which should be dealt with immediately before any hard working and vastly experienced civil servants are pressured into taking early retirement schemes, a move that will render the civil service less effective than it currently is and in the end add to the country’s economic woes.

Issued by the Swaziland Solidarity Network [SSN] South Africa Chapter.

PLOTS, INTRIGUE AND THE SWAZI KING

King Mswati III of Swaziland must be a very worried man at news that court papers relating to a treason trial held in secret shortly after he came to the throne have come to light after 23 years.

The papers, which were deliberately removed from Swaziland after the trial in 1987 and have been unearthed in Namibia, could contain details about the plotting that surrounded King Mswati’s rise to power. The papers might also remind the King’s subjects that he is really only where he is today because of political intrigue. Put simply, a political group plotting within the ruling elite of Swaziland supported him. Does he owe his position and wealth to them – and who knows, if today that same group wanted to withdraw its support, what happens next?

Unlike in many societies that still have monarchs, in Swaziland the eldest child (often only the son is eligible) of a deceased monarch doesn’t simply become king once the reigning monarch dies. In Swaziland, the king is said to be chosen in accordance with Swazi law and custom. But the part of Swazi law and custom relating to the selection of a successor to a king is unknown to a majority of ordinary Swazi.

The story of how King Mswati, who was known as Prince Makhosetive as a child, became the monarch goes like this, according to one biography.

‘King Sobhuza II had deftly managed to hold rivalling power factions within the royal ruling alliance in check, and so his death in August 1982, left a power vacuum.’

At this time Makhosetive was 15 years old and a schoolboy at Sherborne in England.

‘In keeping with tradition, Makhosetive’s appointment by his father was not publicly announced. Before his death the King had chosen one of his queens, the childless Princess Dzeliwe, to preside over the monarchy as regent until the prince turned 21 years of age.

‘It was in keeping with tradition that she be childless, so that she would not involve herself in a factional struggle to advance the position of her own son. Factional quarrels broke out into the open, however, in the interregnum period, while the prince was [at school] in the United Kingdom.

‘Continuing disputes led members of the Liqoqo, a supreme traditional advisory body, to force the Queen Regent to resign. In her stead the Liqoqo appointed Queen Ntombi, Prince Makhosetive’s mother, who initially refused to take up the position.

Further disputes between royal factions led to his coronation as King Mswati III, in April 1986, three years earlier than expected.

At the time, the King was the youngest monarch in the world.

‘Observers saw the early coronation as an attempt on the part of the Liqoqo to legitimate the usurpation of Dzeliwe and consolidate their gains in power. Prince Makhosetive, now King Mswati III, acted quickly however to disband the Liqoqo and call for parliamentary elections.

Another biography takes up the story.

‘In May 1986 Mswati dismissed the Liqoqo, the traditional advisory council to regents, which had assumed greater powers than were customary. In July 1986 he dismissed and charged with treason Prime Minister Prince Bhekimpi and several government officials for their role in the ejection of Queen Regent Dzeliwe, though he eventually pardoned those who were convicted.’

Another biography of King Mswati says,

‘King Mswati’s first two years of rule were characterized by a continuing struggle to gain control of the government and consolidate his rule.

‘Immediately following his coronation, Mswati disbanded the Liqoqo and revised his cabinet appointments. In October 1986 Prime Minister Bhekimpi Dlamini was dismissed and for the first time a nonroyal, Sotsha Dlamini, was chosen for the post.

‘Prince Bhekimpi and 11 other important Swazi figures were arrested in June 1987. [Prince] Mfanasibili, [Prince] Bhekimpi, and eight others were convicted of high treason. Eight of those convicted, however, were eventually pardoned.

‘In early 1989, rumors circulated to the effect that Prince Mfanasibili had attempted to orchestrate a coup while in prison. Other rumors suggested that Mfanasibili was planning an escape from prison for the purpose of mounting a coup. After Mswati's coronation, royal infighting and intrigue remained very much an aspect of Swazi governance.’

According to the Times Sunday, an independent newspaper in Swaziland, the court papers that have just come to light relate to the trial of Prince Mfanasibili, Robert Mabila and George Msibi, three of the men convicted of treason. They are now said to want redress from the present Swazi Government. Mabila had been sentenced to eight years imprisonment and Prince Mfanasibili and Msibi were given 15-year jail terms. They were released after an order from King Mswati III in 1988.

I doubt if it is entirely a coincidence but on 15 January 2011 Prince Mfanasibili called his family together for a private meeting in which he is said to have given his version of the events surrounding the treason case. Some details of the ‘private’ meeting were reported in the Times of Swaziland yesterday (24 January 2011).

Until now the treason court judgement has remained secret. If the three men seeking redress from the government press their case, it is difficult to see how the details can remain secret much longer.

IS SWAZI KING READY TO SACK PM?

Has King Mswati III signed the political death warrant for Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister?

As I predicted in December 2010, the Observer newspapers, in effect owned and edited by King Mswati III, are continuing their calls for Dlamini to resign.

The latest call comes today (22 January 2011) from Alec Lushaba, editor of the Weekend Observer. And he seems to be writing with the full support of the King.

Lushaba writes in his own newspaper, ‘My view is that the prime minister and his collective failed His Majesty the King in 2010. Their actions have put the name of king and country into disrepute and for that and that alone, they have to go.’

He goes on to say that the King’s ‘image’ internationally has been damaged.

You will notice that Lushaba says Dlamini has failed the King and not the people. The King’s ‘good name’ is really all the newspaper cares about.

Lushaba also accuses Dlamini of making the King look like a liar over support for the Royal Jozini Big Six, the tourist development that was closed down by the King in November 2010.

Lushaba previously told us that his newspaper would never publish anything about King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, without the King’s permission.

So we must assume that the King himself supports the Observer’s call for Dlamini’s resignation.

Lushaba writes, ‘... it is unSwazi and foreign in our culture to use His Majesty the King and iNgwenyama as your shield when under attack. If anything, it is expected that iNgwenyama uses or sacrifices his lieutenants when under-siege.’

He goes on, ‘Now that iNgwenyama is officially out of seclusion, what do we expect him to do?’

I cannot believe Lushaba would dare write such words unless he had the permission of the King.

Dlamini should start collecting cardboard boxes now in readiness for the office clearout he will surely have to make shortly.

The only question that remains is does he resign or is he sacked?

See also

‘SWAZI OBSERVER’ PLOTS FOR THE KING

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2010/12/swazi-observer-plots-for-king.html

IS IT TIME TO PULL THE TRIGGER?

http://www.observer.org.sz/index.php?news=20171

LUTFO: SWAZI MEDIA TALK IN RIDDLES

I wish the newspapers in Swaziland would stop talking in riddles about the Lutfo Dlamini corruption scandal.

Today (21 January 2011), it’s the turn of the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper.

Its managing editor Mbongeni Mbingo writes about how the Swaziland Government Cabinet often talks about ‘collective responsibility’.

He then asks, ‘How does Cabinet reconcile this with what is happening with their colleague at foreign affairs?

‘We do not know as yet the extent of the problem that we are made to believe the minister has got to answer to, to his superiors, but I was just thinking that his colleagues would perhaps have taken the fall too.

‘But then again, perhaps this was a decision that did not involve Cabinet! Only time will tell, and the public waits, with bated breath.’

Indeed, if by the ‘public’ Mbingo means Times’ readers, they do indeed wait with baited breath to find out what’s going on. The rest of us know that Lutfo Dlamini, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and Phesheya Dlamini, Swaziland Ambassador to Kuwait, were both sacked from their jobs last week because they are implicated in a corruption scandal involving missing millions of emalengeni that was intended for King Mswati III, King of Swaziland and the last absolute monarch in sub-Saharan Africa.

Yesterday, the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned and edited by King Mswati, dribbled on about Lutfo Dlamini being away from work ‘sick’ and his cabinet post being assigned temporarily to Clement Dlamini, the Agriculture Minister.

We expect this misleading reporting from the Observer, but the Times claims to be an ‘independent’ newspaper. Could the people at the Times show us that independence and tell their readers what is really going on. Please.

SWAZILAND, SPONSORED BY COCA-COLA

Coca-Cola is to work to promote Swaziland, a kingdom with one of the world’s worst human rights records.

Coca-Cola presently contributes about 40 percent of the kingdom’s gross domestic product (GDP) through the concentration plant it has in the kingdom, ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

This helps to prop up a regime that consistently uses torture against dissidents and alleged criminals. In September 2010, Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister, said he wanted people (especially foreigners) who criticised him and his government to be tortured using foot whipping.

Swaziland Investment Promotion Authority (SIPA) has said that it will work with Coca-Cola to market the kingdom internationally.

Phiwayinkhosi Ginindza, SIPA Chief Executive, said a country market study done with Coca-Cola was almost complete.

Ginindza told the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned and edited by King Mswati, they had identified Taiwan, the Middle East, and Europe as some possible targets.

Swaziland supplies the Coca-Cola concentrate (the sugary syrup the drink is made from) to most of Africa, big parts of Asia and all of Australia and New Zealand from its industrial plant in Matsapha.

Swaziland has been mortgaged to Coca-Cola, ever since it allowed the company to use it in its fight against workers’ interests in other countries. In 2009, Coca-Cola closed its concentrate supply plant in Nigeria, citing an ‘unfriendly manufacturing environment’ in that country.

It had made ‘little profits because of the high manufacturing costs’.

Coca-Cola is said to be so large in Swaziland that it accounts for 40 percent of the kingdom’s GDP, but it is said to be exempt from paying full taxes.

Coca-Cola also has an impact on the international standing of Swaziland’s economy. The money generated by Coca-Cola is what largely accounts for the kingdom being classified as a ‘lower-middle income developing country’ (and therefore not eligible for certain types of international aid), even though seven in ten of Swaziland’s one-million population live in abject poverty, earning less than one US dollar a day.

This dominance of the Swaziland economy by Coca-Cola represents a breathtaking piece of economic mismanagement by King Mswati and the governments he appoints. It in effect allows Coca-Cola to determine the economic (and other policies) of the kingdom. Coca-Cola can blackmail Swaziland at any moment it likes. If it doesn’t get its way it simply has to threaten to take its business elsewhere and Swaziland’s already depressed economy sinks into the mire.

Of course, it could use this power for positive effects. It could demand political reforms in the kingdom that has one of the worst human rights records in the world. It could insist that political parties be unbanned and that the Swaziland Constitution be honoured.

Alas, Coca-Cola won’t do any of that: it likes things the way they are. Coca-Cola is in Swaziland in such a big way precisely because it is a dictatorship. This allows wages to be kept low, unemployment high and workers rights to be oppressed.

It also means that Coca-Cola can work directly with King Mswati and the King can ensure that the company gets all it wants. It is no secret that the King keeps a slice of the income from Coca-Cola ‘in trust for the nation’, which we all know means, ‘for himself’.

King Mswati is said to be so close personally to Coca-Cola that he visits the company’s global headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, US, each year.

Ginindza, of SIPA, told the Observer, ‘We decided to use Coca-Cola as they have shown so much love for the continent [Africa] and they care for it. Over the past 20 years Africa has developed a relationship with them.’

But does Coca-Cola really ‘love’ Africa? In October 2010, Bloomberg Business Week reported that Coca-Cola’s sales in the US and other countries had stagnated and it will rely on some of the poorest nations (including in Africa) to generate the 7 to 9 percent earnings growth it has promised investors.

Consumption of Coke is also low in India and China, relative to the US, Europe, and Latin America, but those countries present less of an opportunity for the company than Africa, where Coke is the dominant brand and a middle class is just emerging.

Tara Lohan at foodchange.org reports that Coca-Cola has been in Africa since 1929, but has not reached total domination yet.

Lohan says, ‘The reason for this is that while there are many countries in Africa with growing middle classes, it’s also a continent with extreme poverty, scarce or unclean water sources, hunger, political instability, and war. Coke intends to spend $12 billion in the next ten years there and what do Africans get in return? A product that will use vast amounts of water, create more waste, and offer people no nutritional value.

Lohan adds, ‘Having recently been briefed on Coke’s sordid history in Michael Blanding’s new book The Coke Machine: The Dirty Truth Behind the World’s Favorite Soft Drink, I have to say I’m extremely wary of the company’s advances. Blanding's book details Coke's history of anti-union activity in Central and South America, allegations of its fraternization with paramilitaries who murdered bottling plant workers, the effects of marketing to kids in schools, and the wake of environmental catastrophes the company left behind in places like India where Coke has drained and polluted drinking water.

Lohan says, ‘If that's what Coke has in store for Africa, then it looks like the continent is getting the raw end of the deal.’

So there you have it. King Mswati allows Swaziland to be taken for a ride, for his own personal gain.