HOW THE KING CONTROLS SWAZILAND

On Monday (3 January 2011), I reported on how King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, and his Royal Family were abusing their positions in Swazi embassies across the world.

The way the Royal Family dominates what passes for ‘public life’ in Swaziland is insidious: it invades all parts of the kingdom.

In October 2008, I wrote the following report, which I think is worth digging out the files so that we can be reminded how the king keeps control of ‘his’ kingdom.

SWAZI KING KEEPS IT IN THE FAMILY

There’s nothing quite like a family business for making sure everyone pulls together.

In Swaziland the business of political repression is run by the Dlamini family with the monarch at the head of the family.

Last week we saw a Dlamini appointed head of government (Prime Minister) by King Mswati III. In Swaziland only a Dlamini can be Prime Mimister. There’s no law that says this and it certainly isn’t in the constitution, but that’s the way it is. That’s the way the ruling family holds on to power.

Last week the king also announced his choices for Senate (he chooses 20 out of the 30 places, MPs choose the other ten. None are elected by the people). Four of his choices are princes or princesses and another five are chiefs.

In Swaziland chiefs do the king’s bidding at a local level. People know not to mess with the chief because their livelihood depends on his goodwill. In some parts of Swaziland the chiefs are given the power to decide who gets food that has been donated by international agencies. The chiefs quite literally have power of life and death in such cases and with 65 percent of the population of Swaziland receiving food aid last year that’s some power.

The speaker of the House of Assembly is also a prince.

There have been new appointments to the Swazi National Council Standing Committee (commonly known as Liqoqo). This is the ‘advisory’ body to the king and is in effect the committee that decides the traditional law of Swaziland. And in Swaziland traditional law beats the constitution if ever there is a clash. It is also generally accepted (at least by Liqoqo) that it can veto any decision made by the Swazi parliament.

There are three so-called ‘royal committees’.

The Weekend Observer (18 October 2008) published the names of all three committees and they break down like this.

Liqoqo has 22 members, seven are princes / princesses, six are family Dlamini and three are chiefs.

The 15 members of the Ludzidzini Committee, which advises the Queen Mother, are four princes / princesses, two are Dlamini and four are chiefs.

The third royal committee, the Border Determination Committee, has 12 members, three princes / princesses, three from Dlamini and one chief.

The Times of Swaziland today (22 October 2008) reckons that in total at least 20 princes and princesses and 16 chiefs have been appointed to highly influential decision-making positions that they will occupy for the next five years.

We are still waiting for the king to appoint the cabinet.

With public life in Swaziland effectively carved up by the king to ensure that everyone is singing his praises (if you took away these posts from the family members what would they do all day?) is it any wonder that the kingdom is in the dire state it’s in today?

CHIEF MAKES WOMAN IN PANTS STRIP

One of King Mswati III’s chiefs reportedly stripped a woman of her clothing in the middle of a Swazi street in full view of the public because she was wearing trousers.

Nhlonipho Nkamane Mkhatswa is chief of Lwandle in Manzini, the main commercial city Swaziland, ruled by King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

A reader of this blog writes to me that on Monday (13 December 2010) the chief, ‘indecently assaulted, humiliated and totally degraded a woman in the area by stripping her naked at a bus stop for being dressed in a pair of trousers in “his area” at a time where the Incwala ceremony is going on in the country.’

Incwala is a ceremony that King Mswati holds every year to sanctify the kingship.

The chief, who is employed as a soldier, and like all chiefs in Swaziland is the representative of King Mswati in his chiefdom, unwittingly exposes the king as a liar of international proportions. As I reported in September 2010, King Mswati misled the General Assembly of the United Nations when he praised the part his women subjects played in Swazi life. He told the UN that Swaziland ‘continued to promote equality’ in all sectors of the kingdom.

I said at the time he talked rubbish and now I am proved right.

I also wrote before about how three women in Dvokolwako in Swaziland had been summoned by ‘traditional authorities’ for wearing trousers after elders in the area had banned them. One woman said someone reported her after she was spotted wearing jeans as she was walking to the shops. Another woman was said to be wearing pants at her home when she was charged.

In Swaziland women are traditionally regarded as ‘minors’ and they are in effect owned by men, most usually their husbands or fathers. They have no rights and like small children they aren’t even allowed to decide which clothes to wear.

That’s the reality of life for women in Swaziland, even though since 2005 women have constitutional rights, but chiefs ignore them. Section 29 (3) of the Swaziland Constitution states, ‘a woman shall not be compelled to undergo or uphold any custom to which she is in conscience opposed’. That means she can wear trousers if she wants to. By law.

Chief Nhlonipho Nkamane Mkhatswa has form when it comes to bullying his way around Lwandle. Last month (November 2010), to the distress of her family and friends, he ordered that the deceased Ms. Dudu Sithole, had to be buried at night. Sithole had been a member of the banned organisations, the Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO) and the Peoples United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO).

Chief Nhlonipho Nkamane Mkhatswa, who is said to rule the Lwandle area with an ‘iron fist’, in June 2010 summoned Bhekinkhosi Dlamini, a senior activist in PUDEMO before the Inner Council of the Elwandle Royal Residence to answer why he officiated at the funeral of democracy activist Sipho Jele.

In 2005, the chief threatened the family of Vusi Shongwe, a PUDEMO member with eviction from the chiefdom after Shongwe was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the spate of petrol bottle attacks that took place in the kingdom in 2005-2006.

My correspondent writes that people in Lwandle learnt of Mkhatswa’s attack on the woman with ‘great shock, disgust and anger’.

My correspondent adds, ‘Mkhatshwa’s actions need to be condemned in the strongest of terms and exposed to the world for the fool and backward airhead he is.’

And so say all of us.

SWAZI KING KEEPS IT IN THE FAMILY

There’s nothing quite like a family business for making sure everyone pulls together.

In Swaziland the business of political repression is run by the Dlamini family with the monarch at the head of the family.

Last week we saw a Dlamini appointed head of government (Prime Minister) by King Mswati III. In Swaziland only a Dlamini can be Prime Mimister. There’s no law that says this and it certainly isn’t in the constitution, but that’s the way it is. That’s the way the ruling family holds on to power.

Last week the king also announced his choices for Senate (he chooses 20 out of the 30 places, MPs choose the other ten. None are elected by the people). Four of his choices are princes or princesses and another five are chiefs.

In Swaziland chiefs do the king’s bidding at a local level. People know not to mess with the chief because their livelihood depends on his goodwill. In some parts of Swaziland the chiefs are given the power to decide who gets food that has been donated by international agencies. The chiefs quite literally have power of life and death in such cases and with 65 percent of the population of Swaziland receiving food aid last year that’s some power.

The speaker of the House of Assembly is also a prince.

There have been new appointments to the Swazi National Council Standing Committee (commonly known as Liqoqo). This is the ‘advisory’ body to the king and in effect the committee that decides the traditional law of Swaziland. And in Swaziland traditional law beats the constitution if ever there is a clash. It is also generally accepted (at least by Liqoqo) that it can veto any decision made by the Swazi parliament.

There are three so-called ‘royal committees’.

The Weekend Observer (18 October 2008) published the names of all three committees and they break down like this.

Liqoqo has 22 members, seven are princes / princesses, six are family Dlamini and three are chiefs.

The 15 members of the Ludzidzini Committee, which advises the Queen Mother, are four princes / princesses, two are Dlamini and four are chiefs.

The third royal committee, the Border Determination Committee, has 12 members, three princes / princesses, three from Dlamini and one chief.

The Times of Swaziland yesterday (22 October 2008) reckons that in total at least 20 princes and princesses and 16 chiefs have been appointed to highly influential decision-making positions that they will occupy for the next five years.

We are still waiting for the king to appoint the cabinet.

With public life in Swaziland effectively carved up by the king to ensure that everyone is singing his praises (if you took away these posts from the family members what would they do all day?) is it any wonder that the kingdom is in the dire state it’s in today?