DENMARK HONOURS PUDEMO LEADER

The Swaziland Government does like to bury its head in the sand when it comes to the irresistible move towards democracy in the kingdom.

The government’s official spokesperson refused to comment on the news that Mario Masuku, president of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), had been honoured with a democracy award in Denmark.

The official spokesperson Macanjana Motsa said government would not comment because PUDEMO was banned and therefore ‘non-existent’.

You can call PUDEMO many things but ‘non-existent’ isn’t one of them.

The world knows about PUDEMO and the struggle for democracy in Swaziland which is ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

So strong is the support for the democracy campaign in Swaziland that a group in Denmark called the Swaziland Democracy Watch (SWADEWA) has awarded Masuku with its Democracy Prize 2010.

SWADEWA says what Masuku and PUDEMO are doing in Swaziland is very important for the future of the country. ‘We admire Masukus courage to speak up and fight for human rights and a multiparty democracy in Swaziland,’ it says.

DOG EATS DOG IN SWAZILAND

Paul Loffler, publisher of the Times of Swaziland, is suing a tiny newspaper in the kingdom for defamation.

Loffler says the Swazi Mirror published an article that said he pays himself E1 million a month as salary whilst his employees earn peanuts.

Loffler’s lawyers now say, ‘If one juxtaposes our client’s alleged monthly remuneration of E1 million (which is not true) with the employees’ salaries, in the context, it implied our client is greedy, selfish and has no regard for the employees’ welfare.’

Loffler wants E400 000 (75 000 US dollars) in damages.

E400,000. Loffler greedy? You decide.

SWAZI DISSIDENT GROVELS TO KING

It is with great sadness that I read that Mfomfo Nkhambule, the political dissent in Swaziland, has thrown in the towel.

He has announced that he will stop writing about King Mswati III and will apologise to him for what Nkhambule calls his ‘grossly disrespectful writing and comments about him and the country’.

Nkhambule became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Swaziland when he was forced to stop writing for the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper.

Nkhambule was reportedly threatened with torture by state authorities and his family were put under surveillance and he was thrown out of his traditional regiment.

Today, the world reads in the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, that a ‘repentant ‘ Nkhambule, ‘has apologised to the authorities at Gundvwini Umphakatsi (the Chief’s Kraal) where he presented a fattened ox to Prince Logcogco. He insists that he is not selling out, or looking for favours from BakaNgwane, but is driven by a strong desire to be at peace with himself.’

A report written by Observer editor-in-chief Musa Ndlangamandla, who earlier this week (1 March 2010) told his readers, ‘our collective stand as a newspaper is that the integrity of Swaziland as a democratic State and His Majesty King Mswati III as the legitimate leader of the Swazi nation, must never be compromised in any way.’ quotes Nkhambule saying, ‘I have realised the folly of my ways and the fact that what I was writing about His Majesty was hurting and showed lack of respect for my King.’

Nkhambule told the Observer that he will continue to write his online blog, although personally I can’t see the point as it clearly won’t be worth reading.

SWAZILAND KING’S AIRPORT FAILURE

It is now March 2010 so where’s the Sikhuphe International Airport that King Mswati III promised us?

The king, the last absolute monarch in sub-Saharan Africa, and the media in Swaziland, have been telling the world that the airport would be up and ready this month and planes would be flying there in time to take visitors to the FIFA World Cup in South Africa this coming June.

But what is there at Sikhuphe? Not much more than a building site.

Regular readers will know that in October 2009 King Mswati was so confident that the airport would be ready he told an audience in Kuwait where he was trying to get people to invest in his kingdom, ‘Swaziland is an ideal safe, secure, stable and investor-friendly destination, which boasts world class infrastructure. The completion of Sikhuphe International Airport in March 2010 will further improve our standing.’

Will ‘further improve our standing’, the king said. Well, here we are in March 2010 with no airport. What does that say about King Mswati III’s standing?

I’ve been writing about Sikhuphe since November 2008, when I exposed the extent to which the so-called international airport at Sikhuphe is one of King Mswati III’s vanity projects. He says that Swaziland needs the airport and therefore there shall be one.

The airport was estimated to cost at least E1.5 billion (about 150 million US dollars) if it ever gets finished. International organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have criticised the project as a waste of resources, but the Swazi Government continues to throw good money after bad.

As part of my Fantasy Watch game, I also reminded the Swazi media that they needed to keep an eye on all the claims about the airport that were coming from the king and his hangers-on, because there was next to no truth in them. If the media refused to tell it as it is, I would.

The media went on with their optimistic reports. Only last month (February 2010) they reported on a whirlwind visit to the airport site made by Swaziland’s Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku.

The Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, which yesterday publicly declared that it would never compromise King Mswati, reported on the visit.

It claimed that building was on schedule and that it would open ‘in time for the FIFA World Cup, to be held in neighbouring South Africa’.

Swaziland is banking on a heavy air traffic flow during the one month football spectacular and is hoping to attract a number of tourists to visit the country, and a world class airport is one of the prerequisites to ensure this, the newspaper reported.

Absolute nonsense. Will the media in Swaziland now just tell us the truth that it isn’t going to happen.

Sikhulphe is not only a white elephant; it’s a dead duck too.

SWAZILAND POLICE ATTACK AGAIN

Swaziland police officers have been on the attack again, assaulting members of the public – one a form-four school pupil and the other, a pregnant woman.

The latest news is that a group of police attacked the son of a Swaziland member of parliament. They dragged him out of the family vehicle he was driving, kicked him and threw him in a government van, before dumping him on a dangerous road.

Police later said they mistook Sizwe Ngcobo, aged 21, a son of MP Musa Ngcobo, for a wanted criminal (as if that was an excuse for their actions).

Ngcobo’s crime? He couldn’t produce his driver’s licence on demand to the police.

Meanwhile, the Coordinating Assembly of Non-Governmental Organisations (CANGO) has protested about how police assaulted a pregnant woman at the Mbabane Plaza in Swaziland’s capital city, because she was selling items at the bus rank.

The police kicked and punched the woman even though she told them (and it was obvious to see) she was eight-months pregnant.

‘It is more disappointing that even members of the law enforcement are in the habit of perpetuating violence in the pretext of pursuing their work,’ a CANGO spokesperson said.

The Swaziland Human Rights and Public Affairs Commission said it wanted to investigate the case of the assault on the pregnant woman, but it was unable to do any work because it did not have any people employed as investigators.

Editor’s note. New chief of police Issac Magagula told the world in October 2009 that his police officers were servants of the public and would treat ‘clients’ (i.e the public) with respect. I didn’t believe it then and I don’t believe it now.

‘SWAZI OBSERVER’ IS PROPAGANDA

Just in case you missed it. Today (1 March 2010), Musa Ndlangamandla, the editor in chief of the Swazi Observer group of newspapers, told his readers in an article in his own newspaper what the Observer stood for.

‘But our collective stand as a newspaper is that the integrity of Swaziland as a democratic State and His Majesty King Mswati III as the legitimate leader of the Swazi nation, must never be compromised in any way.’

So let there be no more doubt. The Swazi Observer and the Weekend Observer are not newspapers, they are propaganda sheets.