PLOT TO REVIVE SWAZI KING’S PARTY

We should not welcome the report that a plot is afoot to revive the Imbokodvo National Movement (INM) political party.

This is not a move towards democracy in Swaziland: in the past the INM was a front for the Swazi monarchy.

The Times of Swaziland reported yesterday (31 December 2010) that ‘a prince, a member of the King’s Advisory Council and an employee of the King’s Office’ were ‘behind a plot’ to revive the party. The Times says all three ‘work very closely with royalty’.

According to the Times, the plotters say King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, supports the revival of the party.

The INM was formed by the king’s father King Sobhuza II and his advisory council, the Swaziland National Council (liqoqo), to contest Swaziland’s election in 1964, which was held prior to the kingdom’s independence from Great Britain in 1968.

The INM’s platform focused on assistance to peasants, labelled the other parties as ‘foreign’, divisive and hostile to Swazi ‘tradition’ and sought to keep traditional land tenure unchanged while vesting mineral rights, like land, in the hands of the monarchy.

The INM had considerable resources at its disposal, including the support of King Sobhuza and the power of the chiefs who were able to force their subjects to vote for the party. The INM also had the support of capitalist interests and was able to persuade the voters that the interests of the King and the survival of the nation were one and the same.

The INM’s victory was overwhelming and it won all eight seats that were available for election, gathering 85.47 percent of the vote.

King Sobhuza banned all political parties in Swaziland following the election of 1973 when his subjects dared to elect some members of parliament who were from opposition parties. That ban has been in force ever since.

The Times in its report says that the plotters are trying to recruit members of the public for the revival of the party ‘as soon as possible’ and several meetings were held last month (December 2010) with some people earmarked to be the ‘front of the party’.

The Times did not name the plotters, but promised more revelations to come.

I don’t know what more it has to tell us, but we should remember that however much democrats might want to see political parties in the kingdom this move to reform the INM is a diversion.

We don’t want ‘plotters’ for the king reforming political parties. As a first step toward democracy we want all political parties unbanned, a free media and freedom of association. That way we can start a proper debate on the way forward for Swaziland.

SWAZI KING SUPPORTS IRAN LEADER

As hundreds of thousands of people take to the street in Iran to protest at the recent stolen election, one man was quick to offer his support to the contested president.

Step forward Mswati III, the king of Swaziland.

King Mswati sent his congratulations to Iran President Mahmound Ahmadinejad, rejoicing in ‘this happy occasion’.

According to the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, King Mswati told Ahmadinejad, ‘I would like to express my firm belief that cordial relations which have always existed between our two countries will continue to be enhanced and strengthened in the years to come for the mutual benefit of our nations and peoples.’

Of course, no one is surprised that King Mswati was quick to offer his congratulations to someone who stole an election. For a long time he has been buddying up to Robert Mugabe, the despot who stole the elections in Zimbabwe last year and recently he was feted by Mugabe.

King Mswati also knows a thing or two about dodgy elections. He held his own in Swaziland last year but banned political parties from taking part. The European Union refused to send a team to ‘monitor’ the elections because it couldn’t see the point since the elections were obviously not free.

The Commonwealth Expert Team did send a delegation and called for a multi-party system to be introduced to save Swaziland.

The Pan-African Parliament also criticised the Swazi elections as unfair because parties were banned.

So Mswati knows who his friends are. He is lucky; the only difference really between Swaziland and Iran is that the people of Iran have the courage to fight back.

ZUMA BACKTRACKS ON SWAZI FREEDOM

Although people have rightly poured scorn on claims made in the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III, that Swaziland played a major role in getting Jacob Zuma elected as president of South Africa, one significant point has been overlooked.

In its election manifesto the African National Congress (ANC), which won the poll with just under two thirds of the vote, stated the South African government would ‘Spare no energy in our efforts to find urgent, democratic and lasting solutions to the situation in Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Western Sahara, Somalia and other countries.’

That seems clear enough to me. Swaziland is not a democracy, it has sub-Saharan Africa’s only absolute monarchy, political parties are banned, Barnabas Dlamini was illegally appointed as the kingdom’s prime minister and the Swazi government is presently ignoring a Swazi High Court ruling that it should abide by the constitution and introduce free primary schooling.

It is right that South Africa as the region’s major democracy should do all in its power to encourage democracy elsewhere.

So far, so good. But a reader of this blog points out to me that once the election was secured, Zuma had a change of heart. In his victory speech he said, ‘We will continue with efforts to find lasting solutions in Zimbabwe, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Western Sahara, Somalia and other flashpoints.’

Not a mention of Swaziland.

Was this an oversight, a mere slip of the tongue or does it tell us that South Africa under Zuma is not quite as committed to democracy as we were led to believe?

The Observer has been making outrageous claims for the ruling elite in Swaziland and its influence on the South African elections. It says that Zuma made many visits to meet King Mswati in the run up to the election (presumably to hear firsthand the experiences the king has in fighting democratic elections).

The chair of the king’s advisory council, Liqoqo, Prince Logcogco Mangaliso, told the Observer, ‘Swaziland has always had a profound role in the victory of Zuma. Actually, we have always known that he was going to win because he made it a point that he came to the country for assistance. He did not forget his roots and the ancestors and culture and has respect for culture.’

The newspaper also reported that Minister of Foreign Affairs Lutfo Dlamini congratulated the king for organising the fair elections in South Africa (don’t ask me how the king was meant to have done this: South Africa has plenty of experience now in running elections and this was the fourth since the end of apartheid).

There was much optimism among progressives that a Zuma victory in South Africa would hasten democracy in Swaziland but as things stand at present this optimism may be misplaced.