BUGGING THE SWAZI CELL PHONES

I laughed like a drain when I read that MTN Swaziland, the kingdom’s only provider of cell phone services, claimed that it offered its customers ‘absolute privacy’ when they made calls.

Tebogo Mogapi, MTN chief executive went so far as to say, ‘Bugging of people’s phones is not happening on the MTN network and it is not possible for someone to bug a phone on our network.’

Sorry, but bugging a cell phone is comparatively easy and Mogapi must know that. If he doesn’t he shouldn’t be chief executive of a phone service provider. If, as I suspect, he does know this why is he trying to mislead his customers?

Part of the answer is found in the new Electronics Bill presently making its way through the Swaziland Parliament.

The bill would allow Swazi security services to tap phones if it can get a court order.

The Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, was at pains to reassure readers their liberties were not under threat.

It quoted Mogapi saying MTN had ‘streamlined how the police can access information if they were investigating a serious matter’. However, he said MTN would allow police access, but only if they had a court order. So, not much of a protection there then.

The court order is irrelevant. In the modern age, you don’t need permission to bug someone’s cell phone; the technology is there for people to do it quite easily.

Mogapi, who remember is chief executive of MTN, doesn’t seem to have heard about this. He told the Observer, ‘We understand that there’s software available that could go into your number and duplicate messages, but it hasn’t been demonstrated to me yet.’

Where has he been hiding? There are numerous accounts of cell phone tapping from across the world. In 2007 a UK newspaper journalist Clive Goodman made international news when he was jailed for reporting the private phone calls of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles.

Although it is illegal in most countries it is easy to tap a cell phone. If you feel the need to listen in on the conversations of King Mswati or Barnabas Dlamini, his illegally-appointed prime minister, or anyone else for that matter, you can get the necessary software here, or here or here.

EX-SWAZILAND PM’s E1m CARS MYSTERY

How the former Prime Minister of Swaziland Themba Dlamini came to buy two cars worth E1 million (145,000 US dollars) remains a mystery.

The Times Sunday published pictures of Dlamini’s cars, including a Mercedes Benz S 350, and wanted to question the former prime minister about where the money came from to buy them .

Dlamini refused to answer questions and instead complained to the Weekend Observer newspaper which reported his views on Saturday (3 January 2009).

Dlamini who left the PM’s office in September 2008 is now managing director of the company that owns the Weekend Observer and its stablemate publication, the Swazi Observer. The company is in effect owned by King Mswati III.

Dlamini cried ‘foul’ and said that the Times Sunday had invaded his privacy and had put his life in danger by publishing the photo.

The editor of the Times Sunday responded by saying that the car was clearly visible from the street and no intrusion into Dlamini’s property had taken place in order to take photographs.

Dlamini and the Weekend Observer have tried to make the incident into a matter of journalistic ethics, claiming that Dlamini’s privacy was invaded.

This doesn’t seem to be the case. If the Times Sunday photographer could see the car from the street there was no invasion of privacy. As for the ‘terrorism’ fear, even the most dim-witted terrorist would also be able to see the car. Perhaps the Times Sunday has done Dlamini a favour by alerting him to the fact that he needs better security.

What remains unanswered is how could Dlamini afford the cars? The Times Sunday in an editorial (4 January 2009) said, ‘Certainly we are entitled to know this, because this man spent five years as our prime minister, and therefore enjoyed a salary paid for by us, the taxpayers. As far as we are concerned, he is still being well looked after by the government, and therefore everything he does we must know.’

I am reminded of another car scandal from February 2005. On that occasion King Mswati III banned newspapers from publishing pictures of his car after the king was criticised both inside Swaziland and in the wider international community for wasting money on expensive luxuries, while 70 percent of his subjects lived in abject poverty, earning less than one US dollar a day, and many of them relied on international food aid to stop from starving

We can only assume that Themba Dlamini feels he has something to hide by not talking about his cars. I doubt that his silence is because he feels a deep sense of shame.