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 TRUTH: SWAZI HUNGER IS WORSE

In the week the Swaziland Government was caught out doctoring an official United Nations document to make it look like hunger in the kingdom was improving, comes an international report revealing the truth - it has got worse over the past 20 years.

Today, 18 percent of Swaziland’s one million people are in hunger (compared to 12 percent in 1990); 6.1 percent of children under five are underweight, compared to 8.1 percent in 1992.

A report from the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) concludes that Swaziland has moved from being a nation with a ‘moderate’ hunger problem to one with a ‘serious’ problem.

In its report IFPRI states, ‘In Swaziland, the high prevalence of HIV and AIDS, coupled with high inequality, has severely undermined food security despite higher national incomes.’

The IFPRI report, which has received publicity all over the world, tells the true picture of what is happening in Swaziland. Earlier this week it was revealed that the Swazi Government lied to the United Nations in a report on the progress it was making to achieve the Millennium Development Goal on hunger and poverty.

It claimed that it could ‘potentially’ meet the target to halve hunger and poverty by 2015, when the report’s authors concluded it was ‘not likely’ to meet it.

A source told the Times of Swaziland, the only independent daily newspaper in Swaziland, that Cabinet ministers demanded the changes because the truth ‘made it seem as if they were not doing their jobs’ and ‘might actually lead to their dismissal’.

QUESTIONS SWAZI PM MUST ANSWER

Apparently Barnabas Dlamini, the illegally-appointed Prime Minister of Swaziland, is returning to the kingdom this afternoon (13 October 20120) after his trip to the Bahamas to collect a bogus medal from the con man Rudy King.

He has also been to Washington to beg (unsuccessfully) for the International Monetary Fund to support the ailing Swazi economy.

Usually after a foreign trip the prime minister holds a press conference to tell journalists what a wonderful person he is and how successful he has been (on behalf of the Swazi people, of course) while he has been away.

I don’t know if he intends to hold a press conference this time (I never get invited), but I hope he does, because he has a lot of questions to answer.

I won’t be there, but if I was invited here are some of the questions I (and the rest of us) would want answers to.

On his trip to the Bahamas to meet the con man and get an award for his humanitarian work. Why did the Swazi Government approve of the award without first checking on the background of the organisation giving it? How much has it cost the Swazi taxpayer to send Dlamini and his entourage to the Bahamas and did they have to pay any money to the World Citizen Awards organisation to subsidise the cost of the ceremony?

And lastly: Why did Dlamini go ahead and accept the award after the world knew that it was being given by a scam organisation and a con artist?

On the IMF. When he visited the IMF in Washington did he tell them that he had awarded himself a severance payment of E1.6 million and other politicians a total of E60 million (8.5 million US dollars) to be paid when the present parliament ends in 2013.

On the United Nations. Will he explain why he allowed a report to the United Nations to be doctored so that it looked as though Swaziland was succeeding in eradicating hunger and poverty in the kingdom? Also can he explain why he allowed the report to lie about the rate of maternal mortality in the kingdom?

ATTACK ON LYING SWAZI GOVERNMENT

The Swazi Government is under attack for lying to the United Nations about poverty and hunger in the kingdom.

It doctored a report on how much progress Swaziland has made on reaching the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and changed it from ‘not likely’ to meet the target of ‘eradication of extreme poverty and hunger’ and made it read it could ‘potentially’ meet the target.

The Director of the Coordinating Assembly of Non Governmental Organisations (CANGO) Emmanuel Ndlangamandla, said CANGO and a number of stakeholders who represent all sectors of society had contributed to the drafting of the report, so the report did not just belong to government or the UN but it belongs to the Swazi nation.

Ndlangamandla told the Times of Swaziland, the only independent daily newspaper in the kingdom, ‘When drafting this report we looked at the scenarios based on the evidence on the ground, and we aspired to produce a document that would provide us with an opportunity for national reflection.'

He added, ‘What government has done is really unfortunate, especially because the draft report did not undermine government in any way. All over the continent countries are struggling with these goals. Why shouldn’t we be frank about our situation here? How are we going to get assistance now?’.

The Times also reported that the government also doctored the part of the UN report that said Swaziland would not meet the target to reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio. The Government changed it to say the kingdom ‘might’ meet the target.

SWAZI POVERTY: MINISTERS LIE TO UN

The Swaziland Government has doctored a report to the United Nations to make it seem that it may eradicate poverty in the kingdom by 2015.

A report it commissioned to review the progress the government was making to achieve Millennium Development Goals’ (MDGs) said clearly and with evidence that it was ‘not likely’ meet the target of ‘eradication of extreme poverty and hunger’.

When they saw the report the Swazi Cabinet decided to change the conclusion so that it read it could ‘potentially’ meet the target.

A source told the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, the Cabinet ‘edited’ the report because they felt it would portray the country negatively. The report with the Cabinet-ordered changes was sent to the UN.

But the Cabinet ministers, led by Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minster, were so inept they forgot to make the changes throughout the report so in some places it reads ‘potentially’ but elsewhere it makes it clear Swaziland is ‘not likely’ to meet the target.

A source told the Times that Cabinet ministers demanded the changes because the truth ‘made it seem as if they were not doing their jobs’ and ‘might actually lead to their dismissal’.