SWAZILAND NEWSPAPER TURNS PIMP

Just when you think the newspapers in Swaziland can’t get any worse, they do.

The Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, is now acting as a pimp.

This week, the newspaper that has no shame, published a letter from a man in the United States who is seeking a Swazi woman for a wife.

And, according to his letter, any woman will do.

The sad man is visiting the continent next year to watch the soccer at the FIFA World Cup in neighbouring South Africa and while he is over here he wants to pick up a wife.

Don’t worry, he writes, ‘I’m not too picky; I just want a woman with a good heart to help me raise my daughter and take good care of me. I make good money so my wife will not need to work or worry about finances.’ His email address is then given for responses.

The Times editor, in a footnote to the letter says, ‘We [Swaziland] have beautiful women, who were raised right’. Presumably by ‘right’ he means will prostitute themselves to this man.

SWAZI POLICE AGENTS FOR EMPLOYERS

Here’s further evidence that the Royal Swaziland Police supports the rich and powerful in the kingdom and sees it as its duty to oppress ordinary working people.

In Swaziland this week about 60 police officers descended on a textile factory where workers downed tools because they had not been paid their full wages and bonuses.

The stoppage at HO Enterprises involved 2,000 workers.

As soon as it became clear that the workers would not resume work the management called in the police. The officers, who arrived in police bakkies and sedans, patrolled the premises and checked inside the factory shells.

Even though the workers were not causing trouble, the fact that the company owners wanted the police to attend to deal with the workers, and that the police obliged, is evidence that the police force in Swaziland is politically motivated against working people and for bosses.

The incident happened on Tuesday (22 December 2009) only days after police fired shots over the heads of striking textile workers at the Zheng Yong Garment Factory.

On a previous occasion one guard was shot in the head with a rubber bullet by police and five people in total were injured when police opened fire on striking security guards in Swaziland’s capital Mbabane.

At HO Enterprises the workers’ trade union the Swaziland Production and Refinery Allied Workers Union (SPRAWU) successfully negotiated with the management which had withheld promised pay rises and bonuses from the December salary packet. The workers will now be paid the missing money.

ARRESTED FOR WEARING PUDEMO CAP

The following is a report that appeared on the Swaziland Solidarity Network forum about Swazi police officers who ‘pounced on a 17 year old girl on the streets of Nhlangano, a town in the south of Swaziland.

‘She was harassed and publicly humiliated in the presence the busy shopping public. Her crime was to innocently wear a cap written 'PUDEMO' [the banned People’s United Democratic Movement]. Obviously the intention was to protect herself from the scotching heat. While being led to the local police station, she was called all sorts of degrading names and told she is better off wearing Swazi traditional attire as a symbol of her loyally to the oppressive regime, like all 'good' Swazis do.

‘Obviously the police are seriously effecting the mandate that was issued last year in October by the head of state [King Mswati III] that all those seen to be behaving in an 'unSwazi' way and disturbing the peace of the regime must be strangled. The government has followed this with huge budgets for its security forces to combat all those calling for multiparty democracy in Swaziland.

‘Less and less money is allocated to health and education. The health system has literally collapsed and the levels of poverty in the country are growing by the day. But the regime sees it fit and appropriate to use resources to protect its failing hold over the people. Abusing the rights of the people in the country by the state’s security agents has become part of their job description.’

COCKROACHES INFEST NEW HOSPITAL

Hot on the heels of a report that said children in Swaziland may have been infected with HIV because of poor medical conditions, comes news that the newly opened Moneni TB Hospital was infested with cockroaches and other vermin.

The hospital was so bad that it had to be sprayed at cost of E134 000 (17,000 US dollars) at a time when the Swaziland Ministry of Health and Social Welfare says it doesn’t have money to buy basic medical supplies.

And employees at the hospital are said to be in danger of catching tuberculosis (TB) because the ministry is not supplying them with face masks.

A source at the hospital told the Swazi News, an independent newspaper in Swaziland, ‘We do not have basic supplies like masks. The staff here is exposed to the drug-resistant TB XDR and if we do not have masks we can easily contract the disease. At the moment we are forced to use one mask for two weeks which is extremely unhealthy.’

The newspaper reported there are no extractor fans to purify air in the wards.

The source said, ‘Because there are no cars, the staff in accounts have to use buses to collect our pay slips. They also have to use their cellphones to call people for official duties because there is only one telephone line.

‘It would be better if the money for buying airtime was provided by government. But when you go to the administrator’s office she tells you that government does not have money to compensate the people using their personal airtime.’