HAS MAMBA BEEN LEFT OUT TO DRY?

Lutfo Dlamini, Swaziland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, has distanced himself from his senior civil servant who spoke out against Col Muammar Gadaffi of Libya, one of King Mswati’s close allies.

And, Clifford Mamba, Principal Secretary at the Ministry, who is at the centre of the storm, is keeping his head down and refusing to speak to the media.

Meanwhile, the Swazi Government is in no hurry to come to Mamba’s aid. Government mouthpiece Macanjana Motsa and her assistant Sabelo Dlamini told inquiring reporters to talk to Mamba.

Lutfo Dlamini ‘repeatedly’ refused to comment on Mamba’s position when contacted by the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper.’

According to the newspaper, Dlamini said ‘they were going to investigate the authenticity of the leaked document’, but told the newspaper it should speak only with Mamba.

But, Mamba repeatedly refused to answer his phone or respond to a text message, the Times reported.

The row hit Swaziland last Friday (31 December 2010) after I reported that Wikileaks had published a secret cable sent by Maurice Parker, the then US Ambassador to Swaziland. Parker reported that Mamba had criticised Gaddafi’s time as Chair of the African Union (AU). Mamba reportedly said Gaddafi had ‘put the AU secretariat into chaos, by-passing all protocol and the institutional framework’ during his time in charge. Gaddafi was Chair of the AU for one year until January 2010.

King Mswati has been an ally of Libya for some years and has been trying to get business and development aid for Swaziland. At least one of King Mswati’s sons, Prince Sicalo, is undergoing military training in Libya. Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister, visited the prince while he was in Libya in October 2010.

In 2009, Col Gadaffi sent the king six camels as a token of his friendship.

WIKILEAKS: SWAZI GADDAFI GAFFE

Swaziland’s top foreign affairs civil servant has criticised the leadership style of Col Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, the man King Mswati III wants to help save his kingdom’s ailing economy.

Clifford Mamba, Principal Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, suggested Gaddafi’s style was chaotic and autocratic.

Mamba’s comments are contained in a diplomatic cable, marked ‘secret’, written in April 2009 by Maurice Parker, the then US Ambassador to Swaziland, and published on the Wikileaks website.

Mamba is said to have criticised Gaddafi’s time as Chair of the African Union (AU). Mamba reportedly said Gaddafi had ‘put the AU secretariat into chaos, by-passing all protocol and the institutional framework’ during his time in charge. Gaddafi was Chair of the AU for one year until January 2010.

Mamba also criticised Gaddafi’s call for the creation of a ‘United States of Africa’. He said, ‘Moving one country in one direction is hard enough, much less moving 48 countries.’

Mamba was also less than flattering when he received a diplomatic note saying that Gadaffi had given himself a new title, ‘King of Culture’. He is said to have reacted with ‘amusement’ at the news.

Mamba’s comments about Gaddafi won’t please King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, who has been sucking up to Libya for years, trying to get business and economic aid for Swaziland.

Relations between Gaddafi and the king were previously said to be warm. In 2009 Gaddafi sent the king six camels as a token of friendship.

Both King Mswati and Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister, have visited Libya in attempts to drum up business and aid from Gadaffi. Dlamini was in Libya as recently as last month (November 2010).

But, the Libyan leader’s money does not come without strings attached. A West African diplomat who refused to have his name or that of his country published told the Independent newspaper in the UK, ‘We made a deal with Libya whereby we would support and vote for all resolutions proposed by Mr Gaddafi at [AU] summits in exchange for his help.’

How much Gadaffi’s support has cost Swaziland is not known. When his year as AU Chair was up, Gaddafi tried without success to have his term extended, but could not get the support of enough African nations. It would be interesting to know what position Swaziland took to help Gadaffi get his way.

To read the Wikileaks cable in full, click here.

WIKILEAKS: SWAZILAND AND THE US

I hear that Wikileaks is to include 89 cables about Swaziland sent out by the American Embassy in Mbabane.

When you consider that’s 89 out of a total 251,287 diplomatic and not-so-diplomatic messages sent by US embassies across the world to the State Department in Washington it certainly puts Swaziland in its place.

As you know by now, Wikileaks has received confidential and secret communications from US embassies across the world and many of them reveal for the first time publicly what the Americans really think about their friends and foes alike in the international community.

I don’t suppose the cables will reveal much we don’t already know about what the US thinks about Swaziland: you could sum it up as ‘not that bothered, the kingdom just isn’t important to us’.

If the contents of some of the cables about other nations is anything to go by we might see some indiscreet remarks about ‘leaders’ in Swaziland.

What do the Americans really think about Lutfo Dlamini, Swaziland Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and the man he sees as chosen by God, King Mswati III?

We should find out eventually. Wikileaks is publishing its stash of cables gradually on the Internet and if ‘newsworthiness’ is a criterion for how quickly a cable goes up on the web, we can expect to wait a very long time for the first one from Mbabane.