HAS MAMBA BEEN LEFT OUT TO DRY?

Lutfo Dlamini, Swaziland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, has distanced himself from his senior civil servant who spoke out against Col Muammar Gadaffi of Libya, one of King Mswati’s close allies.

And, Clifford Mamba, Principal Secretary at the Ministry, who is at the centre of the storm, is keeping his head down and refusing to speak to the media.

Meanwhile, the Swazi Government is in no hurry to come to Mamba’s aid. Government mouthpiece Macanjana Motsa and her assistant Sabelo Dlamini told inquiring reporters to talk to Mamba.

Lutfo Dlamini ‘repeatedly’ refused to comment on Mamba’s position when contacted by the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper.’

According to the newspaper, Dlamini said ‘they were going to investigate the authenticity of the leaked document’, but told the newspaper it should speak only with Mamba.

But, Mamba repeatedly refused to answer his phone or respond to a text message, the Times reported.

The row hit Swaziland last Friday (31 December 2010) after I reported that Wikileaks had published a secret cable sent by Maurice Parker, the then US Ambassador to Swaziland. Parker reported that Mamba had criticised Gaddafi’s time as Chair of the African Union (AU). Mamba reportedly said Gaddafi had ‘put the AU secretariat into chaos, by-passing all protocol and the institutional framework’ during his time in charge. Gaddafi was Chair of the AU for one year until January 2010.

King Mswati has been an ally of Libya for some years and has been trying to get business and development aid for Swaziland. At least one of King Mswati’s sons, Prince Sicalo, is undergoing military training in Libya. Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister, visited the prince while he was in Libya in October 2010.

In 2009, Col Gadaffi sent the king six camels as a token of his friendship.

SWAZI DEPUTY PM IS DELUSIONAL

Swaziland’s Deputy Prime Minister, who is at the centre of a corruption scandal involving government land, says he should be the next Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations.

In an astonishing newspaper interview, Themba Masuku says if he can’t have that post, he is ‘eyeing the WTO (World Trade Organisation) or UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) in Geneva or the WFP (World Food Programme) in Rome’.

According to the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, Masuku, who clearly has delusions, said, ‘he already understands everything there is to know about UN operations’.

Masuku has previously worked for the UN in Geneva and Washington.

Masuku told the newspaper that he is looking to his future beyond the next election in Swaziland to be held in 2013.

At present he is accused along with Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister, four members of the Swazi Royal Family and at least nine cabinet ministers (past and present), of stealing from the Swazi people. He and his colleagues were able to purchase government land at hugely reduced prices in a deal that has been described as illegal. A parliamentary select committee is investigating his actions.

The Times reports that Masuku said he has no interest in any other high office position within Swaziland, which will please the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III, which last month (December 2010) called on Masuku to resign because of his incompetent handling of the Swazi economy.

With a record like Masuku’s I’d be surprised if any of the international organisations that he aspires to join would touch him with a bargepole. Would you?

SWAZI ROYALS MISUSE EMBASSIES

Why does Swaziland have so many embassies and consulates in foreign countries? The kingdom is the smallest on the African continent and is virtually invisible on the international stage. It doesn’t do much trade globally and on close inspection it is obvious that it doesn’t need to go to the vast expense of keeping embassies overseas.

The answer is King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, and the way he and his Royal Family bleed dry the Swazi people.

A reader of this blog with close connections to the Swazi Royal Family has written to me to tell me about their misuse of Swaziland’s embassy in Taiwan.

But it’s not only Taiwan: there is also misuse of three Swazi embassies in the Middle East.

The reader writes, ‘The Swazi embassy in Taiwan is run by none other than Njabuliso Gwebu, sister-in-law of the king (sister of langangaza).

‘She was promoted from hairdresser to diplomat. She once attempted teaching but was forced to retire in the public interest for a scandal she committed.

‘She has turned the office in Taiwan into a family business. Her sister Thandiwe Dlamini is her secretary and Thandiwe’s husband Fakudze has joined them at government expense. The ministry of foreign affairs paid for his ticket to go there.

‘He is said to be studying for a masters degree yet while in Swaziland he was a driver at the Ministry for Housing. How does somebody graduate from driver to Masters?

‘This is at the expense of deserving Swazi students who could get scholarships and study there.

‘Thandiwe’s son caused a scandal a few years ago when he impregnated the daughter of the ambassador of Malawi in Taiwan, yet Thandiwe was never recalled from the foreign service of Swaziland.

‘Njabuliso is also said to be arranging for her husband Dumisani Gwebu to be employed as an investment officer at the same embassy.’

The reader also points out to me that three embassies in the Middle East were opened simply to accommodate the needs of King Mswati’s children.

Qatar - was opened especially for Princess Tiyandza to go to university in that country.

Emirates - was opened for Prince Bandzile to study there. He is tipped to be appointed ambassador there in 2011 after he learns the ropes.

Kuwait - was opened for Princess Temaswati to study in that country.

SWAZI WOMEN 'ARE MINORS FOR LIFE'

The next time King Mswati III, Barnabas Dlamini, the man he illegally-appointed Prime Minister, and their hangers-on, say that Swaziland is on its way to becoming a ‘First World’ nation, show them this blogpost.

A Swazi High Court judge ruled this week that women are the property of their menfolk.

Justice Mbutfo Mamba was hearing an argument between the husband and father over who had the right to decide on the burial of a deceased woman.

The husband believed he had the right, but the in-laws said this wasn’t so because they had never sanctioned the marriage.

Attorney Mbongeni Simelane, on behalf of the in-laws, told the High Court that even if the deceased woman was married she was still a minor and therefore her parents still had the rights to determine where she would be buried.

‘In Swazi Law and Custom women are perpetual minors and the deceased was no exception,’ he said.

The court was told about the marriage customs in Swaziland (that definitely have no place in a First World nation).

They go like this: the husband’s argument was that he was legally married to the deceased by virtue of smearing her with the red ochre (libovu). He said that he sent to his in-laws the ceremonious meat (Umsasane), which he said was accepted by a member of the family.

The Swazi Observer reported that the in-laws argued that though the family member was present, he was not the rightful person to accept umsasane. Further they said umsasane was never accepted by them.

The husband’s lawyer, Ian Carmichael, argued that in Swazi Law and Custom, the smearing of the red ochre constitutes marriage. ‘However, his in-laws disputed this, saying the marriage was invalid because they rejected umsasane. By rejecting it, they stated they did not approve the union between the two.

‘They said the purported marriage did not comply with all the customary requirements validating marriage such as lobola,’ the Observer reported.

Simelane, for the in-laws, said that smearing the deceased with the red ochre was not enough validation to the marriage.

‘Further, the rejection of the ceremonious meat was proof that the marriage was not accepted’ by the in-laws, Simelane argued.

Justice Mamba found for the in-laws on the grounds that he was not convinced that the deceased was married in terms of the Swazi Law and Custom.

Readers will notice that in this dispute over the marriage, the views of the woman concerned were never taken into account. This High Court case conforms what all Swazi women know: when it comes to their rights the Swaziland Constitution (s28 (1) is a good place to start) isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.

We should also be worried about the High Court judge’s willingness to ignore the constitution, which we should consider as a ‘modern law’ (befitting a ‘First World’ nation) in favour of ‘Swazi Law and Custom’ (which is a feudal law).

But, this decision is hardly surprising because feudal law favours King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, who sits at the top of the feudal pile. All people below him must defer to his wishes.

Swaziland on its way to becoming a First World nation? You decide.

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.