RETRACT JUDAS JIBE, KING’S MAN TOLD

The Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO) is demanding an apology from Prince Mangaliso-Logcogco, the chair of King Mswati III’s advisory council Liqoqo, following revelations that a US$5 billion deal to build a power station in the kingdom was a contrick.

In 2009, when the project involving Franken Mining was announced with great fanfare as a great coup for the king, SCCCO was among a small band that doubted the viability of the project.

For this, Bishop Meshack Mabuza, SCCCO Chairman, was branded a ‘Judas’ by Prince Mangaliso.

In a statement SCCCO now demands a retraction from the Prince.

Here is SCCCO’s statement in full.

COALITION DEMANDS RETRACTION FROM PRINCE MANGALISO FOR ‘JUDAS’ COMMENT

The Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations notes with relief that the proposed US$5 Billion Mine and Power Station project is now dead. It also notes that the reasons that the deal is dead was because it was simply a corrupt money laundering scheme that would never have brought a cent to the country.

In April 2009 when the project was announced, the Coalition took a little time to do some research and within a day knew that the project was never going to be viable. It compared how other African Leaders, especially President Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, had negotiated their deals with western businesses. It looked at the way that this project was put together and came to only one conclusion. It was ripe for corruption from the start and should not be touched.

The Coalition set out a series of 20 questions that were designed to test the ability of this project to benefit the Swazi Nation. For these questions Prince Mangaliso, called the Coalition and its Chairman Bishop Meshack Mabuza ‘Judas’ for betraying the Swazi Nation. The Coalition thinks that it would be appropriate for the Prince to acknowledge his misjudgment and publicly withdraw that remark.

The Coalition also questions the assertion that no money has been spent. Who paid for the tendering process that appeared in the ‘Engineering Times’ last year? Does Professor [Frans] Whelpton work for free? Who paid for his trip to Germany and Switzerland last year?

Bishop Meshack Mabuza, Chair of the Coalition said ‘The Coalition was called terrible names for asking the questions that nobody else asks and shining a light into some unwelcome places. This is what a healthy Civil Society is supposed do. Because we do not seek power or riches, we can ask questions of those who do. It turns out that when they are too arrogant to answer us, and childishly call us names, it is because we were right. Ordinary Swazis know what happens when deals are done in the dark. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The real Judases are those who are betraying the Swazi Nation for their own thirty pieces of silver.’

See also

$5bn SWAZI POWER PLANT WAS A CON

SWAZI POWER ‘FRAUD’ RETURNS

SWAZILAND KING LOSES POWER

$5bn SWAZI ‘FRAUD’ MYSTERY DEEPENS

RAGE AT $5bn SWAZI ‘FRAUD’ REPORT

$5bn SWAZI FRAUD IN THE MAKING?

$5bn SWAZI POWER PLANT WAS A CON

The office of King Mswati III has fallen for a US$5 billion con trick over a coal powered electricity plant.

The king’s advisory body Liqoqo bypassed the Swaziland Parliament to set up the deal with international aid donors.

Now, it has been realised there was no money and the scheme was a con to ‘launder money’.

It revolves around a nonexistent company called Franken Mining. Regular readers of this blog will remember that in April 2009 I wrote that King Mswati III had secured this amount to pay for Franken Mining to build coal power stations, but suspicions were aroused because no one could trace a company called Franken Mining.

The waters got murkier when it was revealed that the Swazi Government had not been involved in any negotiations over the project: instead King Mswati deliberately by-passed ministers and his office made the deal itself.

Myself and others working independently tried to piece together the background to this deal. Chief among our concerns was that US$5 billion was said to be available through donor aid to pay for two coal-powered electricity generating stations to be built in the kingdom but there was no evidence about which international donor agencies have contributed the funding or what process was gone through before awarding the contract to Franken.

We were all right to be suspicious, because no such company existed. It was a con – but it has taken 20 months for the King’s office to work it out.

A report yesterday (5 December 2010) in the Times Sunday, an independent newspaper in Swaziland, reports Prince Mangaliso-Logcogco, the chair of Liqoqo, saying that the main intention for the unnamed donors to finance the projects in Swaziland was to gain tax relief for their respective companies and associations.

They were to apply to the US and some governments affiliated to the European Union (EU) that their companies be granted tax relief because of their involvement in humanitarian activities in developing countries across the globe.

‘We discovered that they were a syndicate hell-bent on money laundering tactics when we checked their genuineness. I can confirm that the projects we announced last year will not take off. We can’t deal with those people who wanted to help us because their financial activities are not so clean,’ Prince Mangaliso-Logcogco told the newspaper.

What isn’t fully explained is why the Prince ever thought Franken was legitimate. There was no trace of their company anywhere and the amount of money it claimed to have to invest was so huge – about five times the size of Swaziland’s annual budget.

Also at the centre of the deal was Professor Frans Whelpton, of the University of South Africa. He was supposed to be the middle man between the Swazi Government and Franken. According to Prince Mangaliso-Logcogco in 2009, Whelpton was to invest and manage the US$5 billion.

Now, the Prince says Whelpton was also a victim of the con. Whelpton made the news last month (November 2010) when another project he was involved in – to secure E400 million in development aid as part of a deal to get back E28 million deposit for a private jet for the king – was announced to be a failure.

See also

SWAZI POWER ‘FRAUD’ RETURNS

SWAZILAND KING LOSES POWER

$5bn SWAZI ‘FRAUD’ MYSTERY DEEPENS

RAGE AT $5bn SWAZI ‘FRAUD’ REPORT

$5bn SWAZI FRAUD IN THE MAKING?

EVEN KING MSWATI ATTACKS LOGOGCO

Even King Mswati III himself has distanced himself from the comments of Prince Logcogco that the HIV problem in Swaziland has been exaggerated to help benefit drug companies.

Prince Logcogco is chairman of the shady, but powerful Liqoqo council that advises the king.

In a statement to Cable News Network (CNN), the king’s office decried his stance and underscored its commitment to combating the disease.

‘Government wishes to reaffirm to the nation that the HIV and AIDS pandemic is still a national emergency, as declared some years ago by His Majesty,’ the king’s office said.

Prince Logcogco had caused an international outcry with his comments. Swaziland has the highest rate of HIV infection anywhere in the world.

During an interview with the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent newspaper, Prince Logcogco said that public awareness campaigns against the disease are scare tactics used by drug companies.

‘This pharmaceutical industry is making a lot of money, and if there was no HIV, there would be a lot of people who would lose business,’ he told the newspaper. ‘What is now happening is that they are making so much exaggeration about HIV/AIDS so that they can keep their businesses afloat.’

CNN reports that King Mswati, who has 14 wives, has also come under fire by activists.

His office said it has started programmes to help combat the disease, including male circumcision and extensive medical research.

Many African countries have undertaken a campaign to promote male circumcision after a study showed it reduces the risk of infection by 60 percent.

‘I therefore request everyone -- especially those in leadership positions ... to give full support to the government position,’ the statement said.

Prince Logcogco also questioned whether male circumcision helps prevent the disease, saying that it was no more effective than bathing after sexual intercourse.

AIDS activists condemned the adviser's statements.

‘It is very irresponsible for a man in his position to say that,’ said Siphiwe Hlophe, director of Swaziland for Positive Living.

‘We have let the prince know that his statement sets a bad example. We have the world's highest rates and he should be using his position to educate the public.’

'INVESTIGATE PRINCE FOR CHILD SEX'

The Swaziland Democracy Campaign (SDC) wants the Swazi Police to investigate Prince Logcogco for statutory rape.

It says the Prince, aged 60, has admitted he is the father of a four-year-old child to a woman who is now only aged 18. That means she must have been 13 or 14 when he had sex with her.

The SDC says that means at the time Prince Logcogco had sex with her she was ‘a minor’ (that is under 16 – the age of consent).

In a statement the SDC says, ‘the girl in question is said to be currently in her teens and the child at the centre of the custody battle between the chief and the teenager is currently four years of age.

‘The SDC wonders if at the time of the casual sex encounter the girl was not a minor who was in no position to legally consent to sex with a man old enough to be her grandfather in which case the chief committed statutory rape.’

The mother of the child also alleged in a newspaper interview that Prince Logcogco had abused the four-year-old child.

The SDC now calls on the Royal Swaziland Police and the media in the kingdom ‘to thoroughly investigate both the alleged sexual abuse (child) claims and the statutory rape (teenage mother) so that it is established if a crime or crimes were committed and those responsible are brought to book’.