SWAZI ARMY NOT LOYAL TO THE KING

If King Mswati III, of Swaziland, the last absolute monarch in sub-Saharan Africa, thinks his military forces will defend him in any impending civil uprising he had better think again.

There is increasing evidence in the kingdom that the Army or so-called ‘defence force’ is one of the most corrupt institutions in Swaziland.

A report on ‘perceptions’ of corruption in Swaziland from the kingdom’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) named the Defence Force and ‘Public Administration’ as the most corrupt sectors in Swaziland.

I assume it didn’t include King Mswati and the Royal Family in its deliberations because they are considered untouchable. Forbes reported in 2009 that King Mswati has a personal fortune estimated at US$ 200 million and I can’t see how the King could have amassed that wealth honestly.

Swaziland’s Defence Force is rotten to its core, according to the ACC.

Alpheous Nxumalo, writing in the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned and edited by King Mswati, speculates that corruption in the Defence Force includes taking bribes for enlistment in the defence force, money for promotions, payment for scholarships involving army cadets, receipt of commissions from contractors / suppliers, irregular expulsion of defence personnel, harassment of junior members of the defence force by the commanding generals, subverting the morale of defence personnel through false reports to the appointing authority, frustrating army officers who advocate for the protection and professional custody of army values and professional ethics.

Nxumalo’s list goes on, ‘Entrenchment of nepotism and patronage to consolidate the positions of the generals, the rampant misuse of defence assets for personal profits, the deliberate bad decisions that led to the collapse and inefficiency of the defence force air wing; the deliberate flouting/violation of defence policies and regulations to benefit the army authorities is a threat to state security.’

Nxumalo concludes ‘It is a kind of threat to the state exactly as the same level of a threat of war.’

Nxumalo goes on to say that the corrupt generals should be sacked. Quite right too, but I suspect if that ever happens there won’t be many generals left.

The corrupt ‘everyone for himself mentality’ in the Defence Force demonstrates that no commander has loyalty to the King. Their loyalty is to themselves – and whosoever will continue to allow them to keep their snouts in the trough, should the King be forced into exile.

So, the good news is the generals won’t necessarily side with King Mswati when the uprising starts. The bad news is that they won’t be on the side of the people either.

At heart Swaziland’s military are simply mercenaries: ready to serve whoever will give them the most.

See also

ARMY BULLIES ANTI-CORRUPTION TEAM

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/01/army-bullies-anti-corruption-team.html

ARMY BULLIES ANTI-CORRUPTION TEAM

Swaziland’s top military officer Lieutenant General Sobantu Dlamini threatened members of the kingdom’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) with violence if they went ahead with a corruption investigation into defence forces personnel.

In a letter to the ACC Commissioner Michael Mtegha he wrote that he would not be responsible should soldiers harm ACC officers.

Rightly, the ACC took this as a thinly-veiled threat and Dlamini has been reported to the authorities.

Dlamini wrote the letter to try to stop the ACC investigating five members of the defence force’s Air Wing on charges of corruption.

They are said to have repeatedly defrauded government, to the tune of E310 000 (about US$45,000).

Charges of corruption were made in September 2010 and in the days leading up to them, the ACC had received a lot of pressure not to make the arrests, according to a report in the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper.

The Times reports an anonymous source, saying, ‘You would not believe the names of some of the people who felt that the military should not be put under a microscope as most of their activities border on matters of national security. The message was loud and clear; leave the military alone.’

The source said the military went so far as to claim that the arrests put the very safety of Swaziland at stake. Why? Because with the arrested men out of circulation, no one would know how to fly Swaziland’s one-and-only military helicopter.

The source hinted there might be a major corruption scandal in the military that is not yet uncovered. The Times reports the source saying there was a concern that if this case against members of the military was allowed to proceed, it would open the door for more cases against soldiers to be investigated.

And the source is almost certainly telling the truth. In an unrelated Army corruption probe, last week, the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned and edited by King Mswati III, reported that Major General Manyosi Simelane, who ranks third in the Army hierarchy, quit the service on advice from lawyers before he was arrested on a corruption charge. Lawyers said if he was not a serving officer at the time of his arrest he could retain some of his long-term service benefits.

The Observer reported that the corruption allegations against Simelane include among others, abusing the name of royalty within the army, army supplies procurement irregularities and taking bribes for army jobs.

The Swazi News subsequently reported that Simelane had confessed to a magistrate that he took bribes from people seeking jobs in the Army. The Swazi News reported that Simelane might have received as much as E300,000 in bribes, from up to 100 different people.

SWAZILAND COALITION AT YEAR’S END

The following is the End of Year Statement for 2010 from Bishop Meshak Mabuza,Chair of the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations

There is a song by the great American soul singer Solomon Burke that has the chorus;

None of us are free,

None of us are free,

When one of us is chained,

None of us are free,

None of us are free.

So it is for Swaziland. When some of us are chained by poverty, illness, discrimination and suffering all of us are.

For too long have we, as a Swazi Nation, sat silently and pretended that other people’s troubles were not ours. For too long have we been quiet as we have seen people, families and communities denied their rightful dignity, thinking “well at least it is not us”.

Well my brothers and sisters I am here to tell you that it is us. Our colleagues in the unions say “An injury to one is an injury to all”. These are not just slogans, they are reality. When we allow bad things to happen to others through fear, all that we do is to delay the time that the very same bad things happen to us. When we say nothing, when we do nothing what we really say is that what is happening is right. But how can we do something? How do we stand up for what is right? We start by knowing what is wrong and why. Our Lord said “as much as you do it to the least of these you do it to me” But in this country we seem to have a lot more Christians than actual Christianity.

Democracy

The Coalition has always argued that the Tinkhundla system was not democratic, the elite within the system are of the view that Swaziland is not ready for multi-party and so Tinkhundla is what is best for the Swazi People. Of course, this is nonsense - the Tinkhundla system is best for them, the Swazi elite, not us the people. It was put together to ensure that there could be no possible way of challenging those that are in power now. There is no way to stop them denying the poor its rightful share of our national riches.

We, the people, can not choose the government, and therefore the government is not accountable to us. Tinkhundla is not really a system at all. It has no coherent political philosophy, it has no expressed values or goals. All that Tinkhundla has been designed for is to keep those who really choose the government (the labadzala) rich and contented. In the process they abuse those of us who get in the way. And when they abuse one of us - they abuse all of us.

But this is all theory, what does it mean to you and me?

Greed

It means that we cannot know if we can feed our families because the land we live on is at the whim of those who rule us and their petty disputes. It means that we cannot go to work and get a fair day’s wage. It means that when the lowly paid are scraping around for their next meal, while their bosses are going to the doctors with gout from overeating.

Look at what has happened this year. The report on the 40/40 celebrations shows that the organisers spent three times the budget - mainly in payments to themselves and their friends. Look at the Circular No 1 that gives our politicians undeserved and unaffordable pay increases in the same time that they are asking for seven thousand of the lowly paid to become unemployed. Look at how they allocate themselves one million Emalangeni discounts on land - how many jobs does that equate to? For those on the grade of a lowly office cleaner who earns E2000 per month that is five hundred jobs that could have been saved, and five thousand lives spared starvation, desperation and humiliation. But what can those five thousand citizens do to express their dissatisfaction? Nothing - because only one of those ministers was elected - the rest were appointed. Those Ministers should be ashamed of themselves. Do they know shame? Do they know modesty? Do they know any humility? Their greed means that people we know will starve. It means that we will all be shamed when honest workers and their families go hungry while ministers and their cronies live in luxury.

Land Rights

We all know of the saying that when two elephants fight it is the grass that gets hurt. Never was that as true as for the people of KaShigali. The feuding that is going on between the descendants of King Sobhuza II is destroying the very fabric of the community there. It goes to show how far our culture has declined in the twenty eight years since His Majesty’s demise. How have we gone from “A chief is a chief because of his people” to sending in bulldozers to destroy the homes and the crops of ordinary decent Swazi families because of infighting amongst the labadzala? These evictions have little to do with Swazi culture but much to do with the egotistical abuse of power. How can so many families’ rights to food, shelter, community and a decent burial in their homelands be so callously ignored? Only when our culture means less to those who rule us than their own self importance. They do not protect our Swazi culture, they defend their power to rule, and in doing so treat ordinary Swazi citizens with less respect than they treat their cattle. Our Culture is our heritage, it is what binds us together as Swazis, it is not right for these people to destroy our families and communities and then call it Swazi Culture. Swazi Culture is not Dlamini Culture - there used to be a big difference, is it still there now?

Human Rights

We stand beside our brothers and sisters whose pain was so openly and tragically expressed at our people’s parliament this month. We will not let their stories be forgotten or their suffering ignored. If civil society is about one thing only it is about calling those in power to account. The courts are an important way to stand up for our rights but they are not the only ones. We must recognise that we have to stand up for ourselves each and every day as well; we must retain our dignity in our homesteads, our families, our clans and our communities. As a Coalition we will continue to campaign for the ability for the people to claim their rights and human dignity in spite of being dispossessed, disenfranchised and downtrodden.

Corruption

Our Prime Minister has talked a lot about corruption but what has been done? Last year he told us that people would be convicted in January 2010 but nothing happened. He has made exactly the same promises for January 2011. Why should we believe him when the Anti Corruption Commission is not even investigating the story that a government minister had over E30 Million in his or her bank account? The only people that they will convict are the little ones at the bottom who use a government car at the weekend. Not the big ones who are stuffing their pockets with money from government contracts. The PM, and everyone else, knows that the truly corrupt are too powerful to be prosecuted.

Public Choices

Our Finance Minister has also talked about corruption as being at the heart of the current economic crisis and, of course, to some extent it is. But the real problem is the silly, extravagant and selfish spending priorities of the government. How much money is being spent on major vanity projects that will not raise any income? In an agricultural society why are we not having more LUSIP projects and less airports and science parks? We have plans to open mines and railroads but no plans to use the income to invest in our future. We have security forces spending more than any other department apart from health. What for? Who are we defending ourselves against? Costa Rica in Central America has not had a standing army for the last forty years. They have ploughed the money saved into development with the result that it is in the top fifty countries in the world - it has gone from poverty to first world status. We could do well to learn its lessons.

Unity

To my sisters and brothers in the Democratic Movement I have one simple message to put to you. What we have in common is so much more than what separates us. We are all clear about our vision for a properly democratic and accountable Swaziland that respects the rights of all. So let us not allow the differences of approach to the goal hinder us getting there. We are all trying to climb the same mountain - it will be easier if we do it as a team. Nelson Mandela gave us the vision of continuous mountains to climb and he is right. But we have to climb this first one together. After that we may have to go our separate ways. But only when we have reached the first summit.

To all of our friends and supporters we thank you for the constant encouragement you have given us throughout the year and look forward to working with you all in 2011 to achieve a peaceful and prosperous Swaziland.

First World Status

If Swaziland really wants to develop first world status it needs to think radically about the options it faces and the choices it makes in the next five years. If we want things to be different we must do different things. Promote proper democracy, empower women, abolish the army, democratise land rights, engage with business and the unions, respect human rights, obey our own laws, develop pluralism, listen to dissent and most of all have a system of power that enables the best and the brightest to flourish ahead of the loyal and the lazy. Less of the ‘unique democracy’ less of the ‘business unusual’ and a bit more humble recognition that the way out of poverty and to avoid strife in Swaziland is the same as everywhere else. Work hard. Trust the people. Free the people. Only we, the Swazis can help our country to prosper as a nation for all of us and not just some of us.

Bishop Meshak Mabuza+

Chair SCCCO

SWAZI PM ‘STEALS FROM THE PEOPLE’

Yesterday (22 December 2010), I criticised Thulani Thwala, the recently-appointed editor of the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III, who claimed it was not a lapdog.

It is.

If you want to learn how journalism should be done in Swaziland you have to turn to the Nation magazine, a small independent monthly journal of comment. Alone among the news media in the kingdom, ruled by King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, it fearlessly publishes news and information to assist readers to make informed decisions – the very thing, Thwala claimed for himself.

I’ve written before with admiration about the way the Nation reported in April 2008 about how King Mswati and the Royal Family were milking their subjects and illegally taking ‘obscene’ amounts money that was not due to them. It also covered in full the documentary Without the King that exposed the huge cavern between the king’s lifestyle and those of his subjects.

Now, the Nation has turned its attention to Barnabas Dlamini, the illegally-appointed Prime Minister.

Bheki Makhubu, the Nation’s editor, writes in the December 2010 edition about how the Prime Minister is stealing from the people of Swaziland.

You will see also that the Nation is not afraid to refer to the Royal Family sex scandal of August 2010 that was reported throughout the world but ignored by the rest of the Swaziland media.

It is a crying shame that the Nation does not have a website so that its journalism can be seen throughout the world. Instead, it can only be purchased in Swaziland.

Below is the article from Makhubu, published in full. I am posting this for the benefit of readers outside of Swaziland, May I urge those of us who are inside Swaziland to support the Nation by buying it each month – and those of us who can, to support it by buying advertising space.

SPEAKING MY MIND

by Bheki Makhubu

The heat was unbearable, sweltering hot on that Thursday, October 16, 2008 when King Mswati III, arriving in the late afternoon to Ludzidzini Cattle byre told a stunned Swazi nation that he was returning Barnabas Dlamini as the prime minister of this country.

In the speech preceding the announcement, the monarch had thundered for some 35 minutes, complaining about the state of politics in the country. There is no doubt that His Majesty did not appreciate the lack of high-handedness in A.T. [Themba] Dlamini’s running of government before.

From that speech, A. T. came out looking weak, a man who had let His Majesty down terribly. What was needed, was a man like the present premier, someone who brooked no nonsense and would deal with the political madness the king saw in the country.

We all shouted ‘Bayethe’ when the king made the announcement. We all knew, though, that the decision was wrong. We knew it because we had all seen what the cantankerous man from KuKhanyeni was capable of when given power. But, we were helpless because the monarch had spoken.

Exactly, two years into office, the prime minister has shown his hand. This time, he is stealing from the people, abusing the trust His Majesty bestowed on him. It is worth noting that this is the second time in a few months that King Mswati III has been betrayed by a person he trusted completely. Earlier this year, then Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Ndumiso Mamba was exposed for having an affair with an Inkhosikati [wife of the king].

Now, Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini is stealing from the Swazi people and, according to an interview he had with the Times of Swaziland, is very arrogant about it. He is plundering the country.

The Prime Minister and his cabinet team cut a deal for themselves, taking land in Mbabane at discounted prices. This is a city so broke the Municipal of Mbabane cannot even fix potholes.

Yet, our Prime Minister sees nothing wrong with it. He argues that the deal was not illegal. If that is the case, then why has he suspended such deals so that the law is changed to conform to the constitution.

A little lecture here would suffice. If a law is inconsistent with the constitution, it has no force of law the day it purports to come into effect and, if it existed when the constitution came into effect, then it becomes ineffective the day constitution came into force.

That’s the law.

I know, I know. The law is a foreign concept with our premier.

The Minister responsible for facilitating the deal, a woman who masquerades as a pastor, Lindiwe Dlamini, told Christians at a meeting recently that cutting land deals was what she did as a hobby. For her, therefore, stealing from the public to secure her longevity in cabinet comes as second nature to her.

And she calls herself a woman of God, anointed by the Holy Spirit to spread the word? What rubbish!

But then, this is what you get when you let people who have not been elected by the people to run the government. You know when I see the prime minister now, I see Hastings Kamazu Banda of Malawi. I see Mobuto Sese Seko of the then Zaire. I see Idi Amin of Uganda. All these were Africa’s despots who plunged their countries into economic and political quagmire while they lived the lives of kings.

These are men we have all learnt never to emulate if we want to be men and women of honour. No, not our Prime Minister. He thinks they were real men. Men of honour he can learn from.

They were unashamed to silence those who questioned what they did because they wanted to feed their greed without disturbance. In our Prime Minister, I see General Sani Abacha of Nigeria, a latter-day despot who plundered the riches of that oil rich country simply because they allowed him to run the country.

My take is that our Prime Minister is beyond caring what the people of our country think or say about him. He is doing what he wants as and when it pleases him.

Our country has collapsed into an economic mess under his watch.

He thinks nothing of it except making sure than his children and grandchildren will be taken care of when he is gone.

When he had an interview with the Times, he has cancelled the usual breakfast meeting with editors under the guise that the Incwala season had started. As if Incwala is a new concept that has come with him.

In cancelling the breakfast meeting, the premier showed he is a coward to boot. But bullies are like that. They can’t face those willing to take them on.

While he is quick to boast that he is the first and only prime minister with a university degree this country has ever had, he does not have the courage to meet editors, uneducated as they are, and explain his ‘brilliant’ idea of stealing from the people.

Instead, he found a lackey in the editor of the Times of Swaziland and tried to cleanse himself. It is a crying shame that Mbongeni Mbingo [the Times editor] listened to the balderdash and fed it to the public. He too should be ashamed of himself.

Anyways, let Sibusiso have his way. Akadle uMlangeni! Inkhosi iphakele.

As a thinker once said: “In a society in which there is little real economic productivity, power relationships are defined by conspicuous material wealth”.

Dlani Nkhosi!! Dlani, umngani wema khosi!