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

MEDIA BAFFLE ON LUTFO SCANDAL

There must be a lot of people in Swaziland baffled about what’s happened to Lutfo Dlamini.

And the Swazi media are mainly to blame for this.

As readers to this blog know, Lutfo Dlamini, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and Phesheya Dlamini, Swazi Ambassador to Kuwait, were picked up on Thursday (13 January 2011) by senior police officers and taken to see Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister.

Both Lutfo Dlamini and Phesheya Dlamini were sacked from their jobs. Both are heavily involved in a corruption scandal centred on missing money that the Kuwaiti Royal Family sent to King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

But the Swazi media refuse to tell the Swazi people this. Instead the media either say nothing, or like the two newspaper groups in the kingdom, claim to their readers that there is some mystery to the meeting.

The Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned and edited by King Mswati, even reported ‘Staff at Lutfo’s ministry was left bemused by the “invasion” of the police and wondered what the minister had done to be “visited” by senior police officers who looked mean.’

The Weekend Observer today (15 January 2011), plays a dirty trick on its readers. It knows full well why the Dlamini twins were called to Thursday’s meeting, but it claimed in a report that Phesheya Dlamini might have been called to see Barnabas Dlamini, because the PM holds a grudge against Phesheya because, in 2003, while Swaziland’s’ Attorney General, he sent an SMS text message to Barnabas Dlamini telling him that the king had sacked him from the premiership. The Observer suggests that Barnabas has been biding his time all these years to get back at Phesheya.

There was no need for all this media deceit, because three days previous to the police visit; it had been revealed across the globe that Lutfo Dlamini and Phesheya Dlamini, were implicated in the Kuwaiti corruption.

Of course the Observer won’t tell the Swazi people any of this. We know, because Alec Lushaba, editor of the Weekend Observer told us last week, that the Observer newspapers won’t report anything about the Swazi Royal Family without the King’s permission. Permission in this case was clearly denied.

If we accept that the Observer is simply a propaganda rag for King Mswati, why did it bother to report the meeting at all? By turning the events of this week into a mystery it not only deceives its readers, but it shows utter contempt for them.

The Observer hit new depths (even by its own low standards) and managed to turn the political crisis into a fashion show. Instead of levelling with the Swazi people about what was going on, it chose to publish 380 words on how the participants arrived at the meeting and what they were wearing.

I do not lie to you.

So, we learnt that ‘top lawyer’ Musa Dlamini arrived ‘clad in a navy blue suit blended with a white shirt. The blazer was on his left hand while the other hand was in his pocket’.

Ambassador Phesheya Dlamini ‘was in traditional attire’.

Minister of Justice David Matse, ‘looked conservative in a green suit’.

The star of the show Lutfo Dlamini was in ‘white attire (trouser and shirt) with brown shoes’.

The Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, didn’t do much better. It too mistook the crisis for a fashion show, but decided to feature fewer models in its catwalk commentary.

'OBSERVER' REPORTS SWAZI PM SCAM

The Weekend Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III, today (2 October 20120) published in full the report from the Associated Press, detailing how Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister, fell for a scam over an award for his humanitarian work and support of human rights.

This small example of journalistic integrity is worthy of note since it was the same newspaper that last week splashed the story of Dlamini’s medal all over its news pages and gave the government line that this demonstrated that Dlamini was considered a world statesman.

The Weekend Observer and its partner daily newspaper the Swazi Observer have a much deserved reputation as over-zealous supporters of the king and Dlamini. Dlamini was put in office by the king in contravention of the Swazi Constitution to take on the progressives in the kingdom, who want to see an end to King Mswati’s role as the last absolute monarch in sub-Saharan Africa and who want full democracy introduced.

I’d like to think that the reporting of Dlamini’s public humiliation heralds a new era at the newspapers. I doubt that it is, unless, of course, they tell their readers about the Swazi Royal Family sex scandal that has been reported all over the world this week, but not at all in Swaziland.

SWAZI SENATE BULLIES PRESS - AGAIN

Swaziland senators are up to their old tricks – trying to intimidate local journalists.

The latest victim is Alec Lushaba, editor of the Weekend Observer.

They are angry at an article he wrote last week (14 August 2010) in which he criticised them for being too soft on government ministers.

The senators claim the article was in contempt of the senate and have set up a committee to investigate it.

Swazi senators have form in this. They reckon no one is allowed to criticise their activities and if local journalists dare to do so they get harassed. If it goes to plan the committee will call witnesses to debate the merits of the article and Lushaba will have it all hanging over his head.

The idea, of course, is to stop journalists criticising the senators. If reporters know they will have to jump through hoops to establish their innocence, they might be reluctant to make the criticism in the first place.

But the senators won’t get it all their own way.

In 2007 when a committee was set up to investigate a claim of contempt against Mbingo Mbongeni, the then editor of the Times Sunday and now editor-in-chief of the Times of Swaziland, it declared he had a constitutional right to freedom of expression and it dismissed the charge.

Lushaba has done nothing wrong. We all have a constitutional right to free speech. The senate should cancel the committee of inquiry and set about answering the criticisms made and stop trying to dodge them.

SWAZI PRINCE AND THE ‘LYING MEDIA’

Prince Mahlaba, who received worldwide condemnation with his statement that journalists who criticise the Swaziland state should die, has once again called journalists liars.

Prince Mahlaba, a brother of King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, and member of the shady group Liqoqo that advises the king, says that he never made a death threat and journalist are lying about him.

The death threat statement was made in public at the so-called Smart Partnership public gathering last month (July 2010).

Then he was reported saying, ‘I want to warn the media to bury things that have the potential of undermining the country, rather than publish all and everything even when such reports are harmful to the country’s international image.

‘Journalists who write bad things about the country will die.’

He also said at the time, ‘It’s a fact that journalists earn their living by writing lies and if they do not write the lies then their source of livelihood is threatened and this is fact and beyond debate.’

Now in an interview with the Weekend Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, he says he never made a death threat against journalists and those who say that he did, wrote ‘nothing but lies’.

He went on, ‘Is it then not true that reporters tell lies in order to earn a living? They changed my story.’

There were many journalists and members of the public present when the prince made his original statement, but none of them have come forward to say he was misquoted, even though his remarks gained international attention and he was roundly condemned for making them.

Prince Mahlaba wondered why journalists who were present have not disputed the lies that he said journalists would die. Now, he wants the Swaziland nation to defend him.

Over to you Swazi nation.