NOW THE PHONE COMPANY NEEDS CASH

Another day, another cash crisis caused by the Swaziland Government’s mismanagement of the economy.

This time it’s the Swaziland Post and Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC) which needs E409 million (about US$60 million) to keep on going.

Nelisiwe Shongwe, Minister of Information, Communication and Technology, wants to sell off the 21 percent of shares in the mobile phone operator MTN that SPTC owns to raise the money, but the Swazi Cabinet has blocked the move.

The government has decided to provide a short-term budget subvention to SPTC to try to ease the cash-flow problem. But where the government will find the money is not clear.

Shongwe said the huge financial injection would not only help support the operations of the SPTC, but also address a pension fund deficit.

The Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, reports Shongwe saying, SPTC has cash-flow problems and needs money. A major cause of the problem is a huge investment SPTC has made in the Fixed Wireless Network (a joint venture with MTN), also known as ‘One’, which like the rest of the economy has been badly mismanaged by government.

SPTC has been at the centre of controversy and a Parliament Select Committee was tasked with investigating irregularities in Shongwe’s intervention in the transfer of SPTC shares and regulatory powers. The committee found, ‘SPTC is struggling financially and such position has been demonstrated to government on several occasions.’

See also

BILLS UNPAID: CARS OFF THE ROAD

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2010/12/bills-unpaid-cars-off-road.html

BILL UNPAID: GOVERNMENT SILENCED

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2010/12/bill-unpaid-government-silenced.html

MORE GOVERNMENT HEALTH CUTS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2010/12/more-government-health-cuts.html

GOVERNMENT CUTS: ‘PEOPLE WILL DIE’

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2010/12/government-cuts-people-will-die.html

GOVERNMENT NOT PAYING ITS BILLS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2010/12/government-not-paying-its-bills.html

GOVERNMENT CAN’T PAY THE RENT

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2010/12/government-cant-pay-rent.html

SWAZI SEX SCANDAL WITCH HUNT

Swaziland’s only mobile telephone network provider, MTN, is under pressure from King Mswati III to help him track down journalists and others in the kingdom who spread the word about the affair between one of his wives and a Swazi cabinet minister.

The Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) reports that King Mswati, who is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, and a shareholder in MTN, was made a ‘laughing stock’ of the nation when it emerged that his 12^th wife Nothando Dube (also known as Inkhosikati LaDube) and his closest friend Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister, Ndumiso Mamba had been having an affair.

The scandal, although censored in the Swazi media, was well reported in South Africa, a country whose publications inevitably find their way to Swaziland, and on the Internet.

SSN says reliable sources reveal ‘that the king is so deeply embarrassed by the leakage of information to these publications that he has made it his mission to track all the people involved in revealing it.

‘MTN Swaziland, being the primary electronic means of communication between journalists, has been secretly ordered to investigate all phone calls made in the past week to in order to identify those who might have communicated with South African journalists.’

SSN advises journalists and political activists to take extra precautions in the days to come in order to avoid becoming victims of this illegal witch hunt.

SSN has threatened MTN that if it complies with the request from King Mswati, SSN will campaign across the continent of Africa for a boycott of MTN services.

SWAZI P.M. ‘CLARIFICATION’

Following my post yesterday (1 September 2009) I received the following statement from the executive director, Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa. The statement also has some relevance to the post Swaziland Sinking Backwards.

Please note that the ‘publication’ was at no time released by OSISA. In fact the document is an internal OSISA document and OSISA is surprised and disappointed that a document that was not for public consumption is being distributed without our consent and without prior discussion. It was not meant for external publication and sharing and indeed we are not prepared to stand behind these allegations of corruption. Please note that OSISA is only prepared to make such allegations public once we have thoroughly investigated a situation.

We have not done so in this case and wish to distance ourselves from the assertions that indeed the Prime Minister is corrupt. We have our suspicions, but it would be irresponsible to put this information into the public without further investigations.

Best regards,

Sisonke Msimang

Executive Director

Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa

web: www.osisa.org

SWAZI P.M. 'IN CORRUPT SHARES DEAL'

Was Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed prime minister, acting corruptly for personal gain when his government scuppered a deal made by the state-owned Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC)?

A report just released suggests that Dlamini was acting for his own benefit in a decision to stop SPTC from setting up mobile phone operations in competition with the privately-owned MTN, which has a monopoly of cell phone services in Swaziland.

Dlamini owns shares in MTN.

A report from the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) accuses the Dlamini-led government of being ‘confused’ and ‘economical with the truth’ (diplomatic-speak for ‘telling lies’) on the controversial matter involving the intended sale of shares held by the SPTC on behalf of government in MTN Swaziland.

OSISA, in a review of Swaziland for the period May – July 2009, reports, ‘It would seem that SPTC had engaged government on a huge project that would see the public enterprise set up a mobile unit under a new company called Horizon. To avoid unfair competition and conflict of interest, SPTC had to dispose of the shares in their possession.

‘The whole project had been marred by controversy (For details of that controversy click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here) with disgruntled workers fighting against it, claiming that it would cost them their jobs. The tension became so high such that in June, acts of sabotage were allegedly staged by the workers to force management to stop the project.

‘Worse still, at the eleventh hour government stopped the sale of the shares saying that it was not aware of the matter. The Minister for Information Communications and Technology, Nel’siwe Shongwe, issued the denial and subsequently dismissed the entire SPTC board.’

OSISA concludes, ‘It should be recalled that the current Premier owns some shares in MTN Swaziland; hence it would not be wrong to suspect that his stopping of the SPTC project was informed by capitalistic and self-benefiting intentions.’

OSISA also thinks the whole affair paints a negative image of Swaziland abroad and will put off possible foreign investors.

To read the full OSISA report. Click here.

CLARIFICATION

Following publication of the above report I received this statement from OSISA.

‘Please note that the ‘publication’ was at no time released by OSISA. In fact the document is an internal OSISA document and OSISA is surprised and disappointed that a document that was not for public consumption is being distributed without our consent and without prior discussion. It was not meant for external publication and sharing and indeed we are not prepared to stand behind these allegations of corruption. Please note that OSISA is only prepared to make such allegations public once we have thoroughly investigated a situation.

‘We have not done so in this case and wish to distance ourselves from the assertions that indeed the Prime Minister is corrupt. We have our suspicions, but it would be irresponsible to put this information into the public without further investigations.

‘Best regards,

Sisonke Msimang

Executive Director

Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa’

web: www.osisa.org