CRITIC OF SWAZI KING WINS AWARD

Congratulations to Zapiro (Jonathan Shapiro), the South African cartoonist who this week won the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Media Freedom Award.

Zapiro was in Swaziland to pick up the award on Saturday and to be praised for his political cartoons which have appeared in newspapers including the Sowetan, Cape Argus, Mail & Guardian, Sunday Times Johannesburg, Cape Times, The Star, The Mercury and Pretoria News.

He also has a website here.

While congratulating Zapiro on his award, let’s also give five marks out of ten to the Swazi Observer for its coverage of the event.

The newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III gave a detailed account of the life of Zapiro (see here) and made reference to his courage in lampooning important politicians in South Africa, including Jacob Zuma, its president.

But (alas) the Observer was silent on the work Zapiro has done about Swaziland, and in particular a certain absolute monarch.

I’ve written about Zapiro’s cartoons before (here and here). He is no lover of King Mswati III, and has sharp things to say about Mswati’s ability to attract women as his cartoon below demonstrates.

Long may he continue. Zapiro that is, not King Mswati.

SWAZI KING’S BRIDE COMES OF AGE

Inkhosikati LaDube , the wife of King Mswati III, has just had her 21^st birthday.

Of course, when I saw ‘the wife’ I mean ‘one of the wives’. The King is thought to have 13 wives, but nobody can be sure because this is information that the Swazi people are not allowed to have.

According to the Times Sunday (15 February 2009), LaDube spent a quiet birthday at the Esibayeni Lodge motel with family and friends. The newspaper doesn’t say whether the King was present.

As those of us who sat through the 40/40 celebrations last year know, King Mswati III is 40 years old. He has a daughter Princess Sikhanyiso who is older than this wife.

King Mswati married LaDube after she came in the top three of the Miss Teen Swaziland competition in 2004. By my reckoning that made her about 16 years old at the time. Since marriage she has given birth to two children for the king.

LaDube told the Times Sunday, ‘I have no problem with the fact that I didn’t get to enjoy most of my teenage years, but getting married has made me more mature and proud.’

Not all teenagers feel the same. In October 2008, the Sowetan newspaper reported that a 19-year-old woman fled from Mbabane to South Africa after King Mswati spotted her at a Reed Dance and wanted her as a bride.

The Times Sunday quoted LaDube saying, ‘I decided to just have a small thing with my family and friends because this one [birthday] is more meaningful. And just like all 21-year-olds, I feel good.’

I’m not quite sure which other 21-year-olds she meant. In Swaziland 70 percent of the population of one million people live in abject poverty, earning less than one US dollar a day; last year 600,000 needed some form of international food aid to keep from starving and roughly one in three adults in their twenties are HIV-positive. Not much to celebrate there.

Cartoon source

For more Zapiro cartoons click here