DEPUTY PM BOASTS OF HIS MILLION

Swaziland’s Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku, who is at the centre of a corruption probe over land sales, has boasted that he is a millionaire.

Masuku, who believes he should be appointed the next Deputy General Secretary of the United Nations, said he had worked hard to get his money and he was ‘clean’.

The boastful Masuku told a group of Christians that he was motivated by his own childhood poverty to become rich.

I’m sure that will be music to the ears of the seven in ten people in Swaziland who live in abject poverty, earning less than one US dollar a day.

And also to the poor Swazi people he reportedly stole land from in a controversial deal that also involved Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister, four members of the Swazi Royal Family and at least nine cabinet ministers (past and present).

He may be proud of his wealth, but he has a long way to go to catch up with King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, who has a personal net worth, estimated by Forbes in 2009 to be about E1.4 billion (US$200 million).

Masuku was quick to tell the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, that being a millionaire did not mean he had E1 million (about US$150,000) in cash, as his assets made up most of it.

The Times reported, ‘Masuku said the millions were in the form of a farm which he bought while still employed in the private sector. The farm is in Malkerns.

‘“It should be noted that I finished paying it off when I was employed by government,” Masuku told the Times. He also revealed that he had property at Eveni.

The Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, reported, ‘he did not elaborate on how he attained the millionaire status save to put emphasis on the fact that he worked above board’.

The Times reported, ‘He said it was possible to be a millionaire as long as people changed their mindsets towards living.’

If wealth were evenly distributed in Swaziland, everyone would be a millionaire, according to resident United Nations (UN) coordinator Musinga Timothy Bandora, who claimed this in October 2008.

What he realised was that Swaziland isn’t a poor kingdom when you measure its total wealth: the problem is that the wealth is being siphoned off by a few people – with King Mswati and the Royal Family top of the tree.

What’s left, and it isn’t much, goes to the people.

SWAZI DEPUTY PM IS DELUSIONAL

Swaziland’s Deputy Prime Minister, who is at the centre of a corruption scandal involving government land, says he should be the next Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations.

In an astonishing newspaper interview, Themba Masuku says if he can’t have that post, he is ‘eyeing the WTO (World Trade Organisation) or UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) in Geneva or the WFP (World Food Programme) in Rome’.

According to the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, Masuku, who clearly has delusions, said, ‘he already understands everything there is to know about UN operations’.

Masuku has previously worked for the UN in Geneva and Washington.

Masuku told the newspaper that he is looking to his future beyond the next election in Swaziland to be held in 2013.

At present he is accused along with Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister, four members of the Swazi Royal Family and at least nine cabinet ministers (past and present), of stealing from the Swazi people. He and his colleagues were able to purchase government land at hugely reduced prices in a deal that has been described as illegal. A parliamentary select committee is investigating his actions.

The Times reports that Masuku said he has no interest in any other high office position within Swaziland, which will please the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III, which last month (December 2010) called on Masuku to resign because of his incompetent handling of the Swazi economy.

With a record like Masuku’s I’d be surprised if any of the international organisations that he aspires to join would touch him with a bargepole. Would you?

The Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III, has told Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s Prime Minister, his deputy and the Finance Minister to all resign.

‘[The] PM has allowed himself to be party to the collapse of our economy and there is no better punishment than to ask him to leave,’ Thulani Thwala, the editor of the Observer says.

Thwala, writing in his own newspaper today (29 December 2010), also calls for Majozi Sithole, the Finance Minister, and Themba Masuku, the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM), to quit.

Thwala writes, ‘Reality is; we are in trouble as a country and definitely 2011 will be such a mountain to climb for many of us. In a nutshell, we are dead walking. Who is to blame for the situation we find ourselves in as a country? Look no further than the PM, DPM and Finance Minister Majozi Sithole.’

He goes on, ‘Here are three thoroughly educated Swazi men who are letting everyone including the King down. With their education combined, we should not be swimming in financial troubles.’

He goes on, ‘Now, the reason I picked on the three is simple; the current PM has been finance minister before, the longest serving one at that. The current DPM was once finance minister, a good one, if you like. And we have Majozi who has been in the finance office for over 11 years now.’

Writing on Sithole, Thwala says, ‘He has allowed people to plunder state funds without raising a finger,’

He goes on, ‘I ask; how did Majozi (an economist by profession or birth) fail to spot that our financial standing was collapsing in the 11 years he has been minister?

‘In normal countries, Majozi should have been asked to leave. He has allowed people to plunder state funds without raising a finger. Allowed lunatics (by his own admission) to keep government’s safe keys.

Thwala writes, ‘I know Majozi would argue that he has been issuing warnings in his recycled budget speeches and people ignored to listen. To me that is not good enough. His cabinet colleagues have been flying non-stop (business class or first class) to an extent that some are now personally known to pilots of the international flights.

‘I can’t find a single record where Majozi attempted to barricade some of his colleagues from attending the many useless international conferences. It would not surprise me to learn that some ministers attended swimming and cooking workshops overseas.’

He writes, ‘It would help if Majozi resigned. I strongly feel someone like Dumsani Masilela would make a good finance minister.’

Writing on Masuku, Thwala says,‘The DPM will also have to go, simple because of his status as an accomplice, an educated one at that, to the heartless strangling of the economy.’

Thwala also accuses Dlamini, who was illegally appointed Prime Minister of Swaziland by King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch, and cabinet colleagues of greed and feathering their own nests by buying government land for themselves at vastly discounted prices.

To read Thwala’s full denunciation, click here.

SWAZILAND PM IN LAND SALE SCANDAL

Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister, his deputy, and four cabinet ministers are at the centre of a land purchase scandal.

Dlamini, who has claimed to be determined to stamp out corruption in the kingdom, was allowed to buy government-controlled land at half price, netting himself a E304,000 (43,000 US dollars) saving. Themba Masuku, the Deputy PM and four ministers each received discounts of between 30 and 50 percent on their purchases.

The politicians were allowed to purchase the so-called ‘crown land’ (which is ‘owned’ by the king) in the Swazi capital Mbabane without having to compete with other would-be buyers. They were given the land at below market value, in effect cheating the Swazi people out of the money.

Two of the ministers who took advantage of this scam are members of the Swazi Royal Family, which is headed by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

The ministers involved are Minister of Natural Resources and Energy, Princess Tsandzile; Minister of Economic Planning and Development, Prince Hlangusemphi; Minister of Home Affairs, Chief Mgwagwa Gamedze; and the Minister of Agriculture, Clement Dlamini.

The Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, reports that the Prime Minister made the biggest killing. He was allocated ‘a portion of land measuring 6,084 square metres. He paid E304,000 for the land after it was discounted from the initial price of E608,000. Effectively, he was granted a 50 percent discount’.

In total the land was sold at about E1 million less than it was worth, the Times estimates.

Former government ministers also benefited from the land purchase scandal. They include two members of the Swazi Royal Family. Prince David received a 50 percent discount on land worth E97,000 allocated to him. Prince Mbilini also received land, but the exact details of his windfall are not known, the Times reports.

It is believed that at least nine former ministers were given land at discounted prices.

Reacting to the scandal, Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Lindiwe Dlamini, said she was entitled by the Crown Land Disposal Act of 1911 and the Vesting of Land in King’s Order of 1973to dispose of the land as she saw fit.

Such disposal may be through sale, lease or grant ‘or whatever manner’.

She said, ‘The minister is however empowered to deal with Crown Land in whatever manner she deems advisable without obtaining the King’s consent in an urban area.’

Or put another way: just as Swaziland enters economic meltdown and tens of thousands of government workers lose their jobs and poor people will become a little bit poorer, Lindiwe Dlamini has allowed the Prime Minister and cabinet colleagues to exploit the Swazi people for their personal gain.

SWAZILAND KING’S AIRPORT FAILURE

It is now March 2010 so where’s the Sikhuphe International Airport that King Mswati III promised us?

The king, the last absolute monarch in sub-Saharan Africa, and the media in Swaziland, have been telling the world that the airport would be up and ready this month and planes would be flying there in time to take visitors to the FIFA World Cup in South Africa this coming June.

But what is there at Sikhuphe? Not much more than a building site.

Regular readers will know that in October 2009 King Mswati was so confident that the airport would be ready he told an audience in Kuwait where he was trying to get people to invest in his kingdom, ‘Swaziland is an ideal safe, secure, stable and investor-friendly destination, which boasts world class infrastructure. The completion of Sikhuphe International Airport in March 2010 will further improve our standing.’

Will ‘further improve our standing’, the king said. Well, here we are in March 2010 with no airport. What does that say about King Mswati III’s standing?

I’ve been writing about Sikhuphe since November 2008, when I exposed the extent to which the so-called international airport at Sikhuphe is one of King Mswati III’s vanity projects. He says that Swaziland needs the airport and therefore there shall be one.

The airport was estimated to cost at least E1.5 billion (about 150 million US dollars) if it ever gets finished. International organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have criticised the project as a waste of resources, but the Swazi Government continues to throw good money after bad.

As part of my Fantasy Watch game, I also reminded the Swazi media that they needed to keep an eye on all the claims about the airport that were coming from the king and his hangers-on, because there was next to no truth in them. If the media refused to tell it as it is, I would.

The media went on with their optimistic reports. Only last month (February 2010) they reported on a whirlwind visit to the airport site made by Swaziland’s Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku.

The Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, which yesterday publicly declared that it would never compromise King Mswati, reported on the visit.

It claimed that building was on schedule and that it would open ‘in time for the FIFA World Cup, to be held in neighbouring South Africa’.

Swaziland is banking on a heavy air traffic flow during the one month football spectacular and is hoping to attract a number of tourists to visit the country, and a world class airport is one of the prerequisites to ensure this, the newspaper reported.

Absolute nonsense. Will the media in Swaziland now just tell us the truth that it isn’t going to happen.

Sikhulphe is not only a white elephant; it’s a dead duck too.