Swaziland@Newsletter 57
Published by Africa Contact (Denmark)

Earlier issues can be read at
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land, life and struggle of the Swazi people.
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1. Preparing for Disaster. UN Integrated Regional Information
Networks. AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com), 15 February 2008.

2. New round in the genetically modified (GM) crop debate. (Johannesburg),
13 February 2008 (IRIN).

3. Africa?s melodramatic elections and the way forward. AfricaFiles.
Berouk Mesfin, Institute for Security Studies, 6 February, 2008.

4. The Swazi quagmire. Richard Cornwell. Institute for Security
Studies, Mail & Guardian Online (Johannesburg), 12 February 2008.

5. Southern Africa: Thirty percent less maize by 2030. (IRIN)
Johannesburg, 8 February 2008.

6. World Bank report highlights Swaziland?s investment climate. World
Bank Group - Washington, DC, USA: Mbabane, February 12, 2008.

7. Poor being priced out of food market: UN official. The Canadian
Press, February 12, 2008.

8. Bheki Ntshalintshali, COSATU Deputy General Secretary, 13 February 2008:
March for free elections & democracy in Kenya, Zimbabwe & Swaziland ? 7 March.

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1. Preparing for Disaster. UN Integrated Regional Information
Networks. AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com), 15 February 2008.

Swaziland's increasing vulnerability to a seemingly endless string of
manmade and natural disasters has prompted a new approach to improving
the speed and effectiveness of the response.

"We are really suffering. We are trying everything we can but we need
help - it [disaster] seems permanent," Dr Ben Nsibandze, Chairman of
the National Disaster Management Authority, told IRIN.

After a devastating drought hit all four of the country's regions last
year, withering up to 80 percent of crops in some areas, 2008 started
with extremely heavy rains, hailstorms and wildfires.

"Disaster risk levels are spiralling up due to extreme vulnerability
to increasing hazards such as droughts, environmental degradation,
windstorms, floods and hailstorms," said Tendai Makanza, Disaster Risk
Reduction (DRR) focal point at the UN Development Programme in
Swaziland.

The mountain kingdom has been working on DRR for some years now. "We
have made some progress," Nsibandze said, but pointed out that
resource constraints, caused partially by the need for continuous
response to calamity, had held back the implementation of a 2006 plan.
"Almost half the population was affected by drought in that year," he
said.

Makanza said DRR has now become a national priority, "Especially after
His Majesty the King's Parliamentary opening speech, where he spoke
about how the people of Swaziland are dependent on aid for DRR and how
the government needed to respond better."

Efforts to address HIV/AIDS - another "continuous disaster" - meant
that any resources available were spread very thin, Nsibandze said.
With HIV prevalence of 33.4 percent among people aged between 15 and
49, the country has the world's highest infection rate; life
expectancy has dropped from nearly 60 years in the 1990s to just over
30 years at present.

No time to catch your breath

According to the UN Environment Programme and the UN International
Strategy for Disaster Reduction, Swaziland was hit by drought in 1981,
'82, '91 to '96 and 2001 to 2007. The areas at high risk, or severely
affected by drought, are in the Lowveld and lower Middleveld regions,
where rainfall is often very low even in 'normal' rainy seasons.

We are really suffering. We are trying everything we can but we need
help - it [disaster] seems permanent

Other notable disasters in recent years include incessant lightning,
hailstorms and strong winds during rainy seasons, a cholera outbreak
in 1982, cyclone Dominia in 1984, periodic earth tremors in 1999 and
2000, and torrential rains and floods in 2000.

Dominia affected up to two-thirds of Swaziland's declining population
of less than a million. After that, "the worst storm in 20 years hit
the country in January 2005, affecting about 100,000 people, causing
widespread damage and killing about 30 people," Makanza said.

Changing weather patterns

The effects of the 2007 drought persist, and aid agencies estimate
that up to 40 percent of the population is dependant on some form of
food assistance.

In Swaziland's eastern Lubombo region, near the Mozambique border,
Phile Gama said, "We should patch those," referring to the gaping
holes in the grass roof that covers her stick house. "But if the rain
would come we'd be so happy we'd just lie in bed and get wet."

Makanza commented that "Lubombo region is our driest region, perhaps
the one that has suffered most from global warming. The UNDP, together
with the GEF (Global Environment Facility) and national partners,
drafted a climate change project specifically targeted at supporting
the Lubombo region."

The plan is meant to ensure sustainable water provision in the region,
and improve food security through agricultural services and training.
"We are hoping to receive funding by the end of the first quarter.
With increasing manifestation of global warming, it is clear that
hydro-meteorological hazards will continue to wreak havoc in poverty
stricken countries such as Swaziland."

Changing the response

Nsibandze said government agencies, UN organisations and NGOs were
currently discussing Swaziland's DRR approach and looking for the
necessary funding to implement projects, and Makanza noted that "The
Government of Swaziland embraced the need for a paradigm shift from a
mere focus on emergency response/relief to identification of root
causes of risks - hence the DRR approach also within the context of
climate risk management."

According to her, "We are redefining disaster. We believe that
disasters should not be limited to drought, they are much more
comprehensive than that. We have included floods, fires, HIV/AIDS,
rising poverty levels, declining national capacities and institutions
to provide social services and safety nets, and of course climate
change related issues."

She noted that "We feel that in order for communities to better manage
disaster, they should be able to look at all their vulnerabilities
against their abilities to be able to mitigate, eliminate and respond
better to all their potential risks."

Continuous flows of assistance meant that Swaziland's history of
disaster had not made communities as resilient as many had hoped.
"Most of the national partners who work daily with the local
communities, especially under the food aid programmes, seem to feel
that communities have increasingly become dependent on aid," Makanza
explained.

"Communities should not wait for handouts or for policy frameworks to
change and deliver, especially when a disaster occurs. Experience has
shown that these wheels tend to move slowly. We are trying to ensure
that communities protect themselves independently and reliably."

A long road ahead

The DRR road ahead was not without substantial challenges: poor
legislative frameworks, poor comprehension and appreciation of DRR
issues by policy makers, poor technical capacities, limited financial
resources, a lack of a unified approach by stakeholders and a
non-comprehensive approach to DRR could undermine the full potential
of effective DRR.

Getting communities to change their ways presented a major obstacle.
"They need to need to be informed about it [climate change]. However,
it should be acknowledged that Swaziland has very traditional
communities, and changing their perception, though possible, will take
a lot of investment, strategic lobbying and advocacy, Makanza said.

Until that perception changes or alternatives present themselves,
Swazis will continue to brave the weather. "If we had money, where
would we go? To town to get jobs? There are no jobs in town," Gama
said, referring to the Swazi reality of 40 percent unemployment.

Her husband has been struggling to find work in the country's second
city, Manzini, for over two years. "He decided to leave home after our
maize plants died again under the sun. I suppose if he finds work that
is stable we will join him. But now we stay here, because this is home."
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2. New round in the genetically modified (GM) crop debate. (Johannesburg),
13 February 2008 (IRIN).

Once heralded as an environmentally friendly "silver bullet" in the
fight against poverty and hunger, genetically-modified (GM) crops
today generate huge controversy over their safety and impact.

The debate widened on Thursday with the release of two conflicting
reports, one by the pro-GM International Service for the Acquisition
of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), the other from the environmental
group Friends of the Earth International (FEI).

ISAAA Global Status of Commercialised Biotech Applications reported a
growth in the use of GM crops worldwide, mainly soya, maize and
cotton, and said this had raised farmer incomes. "At a time when you
have soaring commodity prices and sky-rocketing energy prices, you
want a technology that will increase the supply side and bring down
the cost of production, and that is what you have with this
technology," Clive James, chairman and founder of ISAAA, was quoted as
saying in the Financial Times newspaper.

The ISAAA presents itself as a not-for-profit organisation but is
widely regarded as lobbyists for the GM industry.

GM crops are produced from genetically modified organisms (GMO),
altered through genetic engineering. The GM debate commonly focuses on
human and environmental safety issues, intellectual property rights
and food security. The FEI study, Who Benefits from GM Crops - the
Rise in Pesticide Use, released to coincide with the annual ISAAA
report, concluded that GM crops "have caused an increase rather than a
decrease in toxic pesticide use, and have failed to tackle hunger and
poverty".

GM crops have been researched for 25 to 30 years but they are not
bringing the promised results, they are not a silver bullet solution
[to global hunger], Helen Holder, European coordinator of FEI GMOs,
food and farming campaign, told IRIN.

No chance on small farms?

The problem is general in Africa: what the industry has been
trumpeting has not happened, especially for small-scale farmers,
Nnimmo Bassey, of Environmental Rights Action and FEI Nigeria, said.
GM crops would not solve poverty in Africa but would rather entrench
poverty, he added. The main reason was that the scale of farming in
Africa was too small to reap the benefits.

According to Margaret Karembu, Director of the ISAAA Africentre in
Nairobi, the criticism was unfounded because GM crops had not yet been
given a fair chance on the continent. "We do not have many countries
in Africa using GM crops so we are not yet able to demonstrate the
impact", she said.

African farmers do not have hands on experience, but based on
experience in countries like China and India, farmers in Africa will
start demanding GM seeds, Karembu told IRIN.

According to an FEI statement: Large scale commercial farmers in the
US and Argentina, who represent a small minority of world farmers,
have benefited from GM crops due mainly to the convenience effect.
This includes reduction in farm labour and increased flexibility in
the timing of herbicide applications. The ability to farm more acres
with less labour has facilitated the worldwide trend to fewer and
bigger industrial-style farms.

These benefits would not translate in the African context, Bassey
argued. As an example he noted: the longest and best documented
example of GM crops in Africa is the case of GM cotton in the
Makhatini Flats area of South Africa. The ISAAA had portrayed this as
a success story that proves the benefits of GM crops for small farmers
in the continent. But, after more than eight years of growing GM
insect resistant (Bt) cotton, the number of small cotton farmers in
the area had plummeted from 3,229 in 2001/02 to just 853 in 2006/2007.

Yes, no, maybe?

Clearly GM crops could not have benefited these farmers, commented Bassey.
However, the Makhatini Flats experience remains a contested issue, as
drought also played a part in the decline in cotton production in the
area.

Karembu acknowledged that GM crops were no panacea for African food
insecurity. GM crops were "part of a bigger package" where other farm
inputs such as irrigation, fertilizer and knowledge also played an
important role. "It is a technology that needs to be complemented",
she explained.

The main obstacle to expanding GM crop use in Africa was now the wait
for governments to develop and pass "regulation to guide the safe and
responsible use of GM crops", she added.

Biowatch South Africa, an NGO concerned with food security and
promoting organic farming methods, has long been opposed to the use of
GM crops in the region. In an earlier interview with IRIN, Biowatch
Director Leslie Liddell said: By and large, those farmers don't
understand the contracts they sign with multinationals supplying the
seeds. They are not allowed to replant the seeds because of copyright
laws. These companies are beginning to own our agricultural systems,
and farmers are no longer storing their seeds."

According to an FEI statement, hunger and poverty are complex
political and social challenges. "They are exacerbated more by lack of
access to land, illiteracy and poor healthcare than by deficient
agricultural production techniques".

And while increasing crop yields was a good idea, food insecurity in
Africa was more an issue of access, according to Bessey: "Food
shortages tend to be localised. When there is a shortage in one part
of the continent there is a surplus elsewhere, but a lack of
infrastructure means there is a problem of access".

Report at: http://www.irnnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76728
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3. African melodramatic elections and the way forward. AfricaFiles.
Berouk Mesfin, Institute for Security Studies, 6 February, 2008.

African Charter Article 20: All peoples shall have the right to
existence and self determination and the right to free themselves from
the bonds of domination.

The elections conducted in Africa since 1991 had demonstrated that the
political transformation achieved in Africa was not without substance.
One significant improvement was that African opposition parties had
combined their resources and enlisted more popular support, leading
generally to a large voter turnout which undoubtedly indicates both
the appetite for government change and the strengthening of democratic
standards. Nonetheless, the scenarios of most recently-held African
elections seem to have been written by the same melodramatic
scriptwriter.

Opposition parties make allegations that the polls were dogged by
every conceivable irregularity and fraud in the book, some of which
will be too readily confirmed by international observers. These
irregularities most prominently include the collusion of the national
electoral institution which, typically with great haste and obviously
under great pressure, declares the ruling party as the eventual winner
of the polls. Such hurried declarations eventually trigger spontaneous
anti-government protests, and the ruling party responds
disproportionately by deploying policemen and soldiers by the
hundreds. Then, independent local newspapers and international media
report that demonstrators have suffered numerous deaths as a result of
violent police actions.

The public media limits itself to portraying the protesters either as
crowds-for-hire or as being stirred up by the opposition parties,
reflecting the ruling parties? manifest indifference to the loss of
life and thereby arousing fear and resentment among the African
peoples, who become greatly embittered by the experience of elections
gone astray.

From such melodramatic African elections, a number of observations
can be advanced.

1. In the first place, the African electorate is more likely to accept
the results of elections if it believes that the institution managing
the electoral process is impartial and ensures that rules and
practices are followed. African electoral institutions too often lack
political influence and appear biased in favour of the ruling parties
to which they undeniably owe their existence, thereby provoking
dangerous wrangles over the legitimacy of electoral results. African
electoral institutions ought to be reorganized into sober,
task-oriented and professionally responsible institutions.

2. Secondly, ruling parties disregard the fact that the primary
purpose of elections is to enable citizens to choose among competing
political parties, raising the real possibility of the incumbents
being voted out. On the one hand, they are not able to overcome their
deeply ingrained unwillingness to accept a plurality of opinions about
the course of their countries? future development. On the other hand,
the ruling parties seek to adopt some semblance of democratic
procedure because they need legitimation from their peoples and
especially from the international community.

As recent events (Lesotho in 1998, Cote d?Ivoire in 2000, Madagascar
in 2001, Zimbabwe in 2002, Togo and Ethiopia in 2005, Uganda and the
Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006, Nigeria, Egypt, Senegal and
Kenya in 2007) clearly demonstrated, the passive tolerance and
disturbing disillusionment of an enormous stratum of the African
peoples with the ruling party style, leadership and policies have
produced a considerable legitimacy deficit. Thus, it would be naïve
for the ruling parties of Africa to think that it will be
business-as-usual for an indefinite period of time.

They should recognize that they have unleashed high expectations
which, if denied, can spur the very upheavals that they wish to avoid.
They must also realize that, sooner or later, they will have to make a
choice between genuinely embracing democracy and backsliding towards
authoritarianism. The longer this decision is deferred, the greater
the danger of derailing the transition to democracy and accelerating
the downfall of the ruling parties.

3. Thirdly, African opposition parties fail to notice their relative
unpreparedness for power, and the fact that they need time to gather
strength and experience. They should not squander the opportunity to
overcome their sometimes disingenuous hostility towards the existing
ruling party, in order to learn about state institutions and to better
position themselves for upcoming elections.

African opposition parties should learn how to function as an
organized, united and especially responsible force operating within
the boundaries of the democratic process, even if they perceive that
ruling parties do not always start out with the best democratic
intentions. They should acknowledge that elections are becoming
relatively more open when compared to past elections. They should
temper their political discourse and stop alleging, wherever and
whenever possible, that the ruling party has tried to impede or
influence elections. Whether the allegations have any substance or
not, they will recklessly heighten the already dangerous mistrust
among all stakeholders, further eroding the legitimacy of the entire
electoral system.

4. Finally, all African political parties ought to play the democratic
game of give-and-take. They must act with a sense of responsibility by
moderating political rhetoric and working towards a genuine
distribution of political power. The ruling parties should agree to
share political power, if not in hopes of stemming the tide, at least
in expectation of averting the violent upheavals that CNN, Al Jazeera
or BBC publicize so enthusiastically. The entrance into power-sharing,
whatever its form, undoubtedly marks the moment when the apparent
decline of ruling parties is balanced by the emergence of opposition
parties that have conquered the minds of many of their peoples.

All African countries face many critical issues that require a
credible, strong and decisive government which can command the respect
of the entire people. A government without internal legitimacy is the
last thing African countries need. All Africa countries face a
precarious economic state, extreme dependence on conditional external
assistance, a substantial part of the population living well below the
poverty line and thousands of deaths from starvation and diseases
every year. In such dire conditions, a volatile constituency of the
marginalized and discontented can be mobilized for any cause, at any
time and by anyone.

Berouk Mesfin is a Senior Researcher in the Direct Conflict Prevention
Programme of the Institute for Security Studies.
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4. The Swazi quagmire. Richard Cornwell. Institute for Security
Studies, Mail & Guardian Online (Johannesburg), 12 February 2008.

Elections have been prominent in African news of late. Last year saw a
deeply flawed Nigerian poll return a new president. This year has
begun with a flood of stories about the bloody mayhem in Kenya. It
takes little courage to predict that the electoral focus will soon
shift to Zimbabwe.

It is hardly surprising, then, that the parliamentary elections due
later this year in Swaziland have drawn little attention, nor is it
likely that this will change as polling day approaches. Nevertheless,
there are structural tensions within the social and economic fabric of
the kingdom which, sooner or later, will test the political framework
at the national and local levels.

In 1973, King Sobhuza II suspended the constitution after a minor
parliamentary challenge to the absolute authority of the monarchy.
Almost 30 years passed before his son, King Mswati III, allowed the
formation of a committee to examine the possibility of opening the
political space to greater public participation. In the meantime, a
neotraditional system of government dominated a parliament chosen
largely through a system of individual and localised elections
supervised by traditional authorities.

The principal beneficiaries of this modified absolutism, politically
and materially, were the extensive royal family, their courtiers and
the rural chiefs, a situation which prompted increasing opposition
from civil society and student and trade union activists, supported by
foreign allies.

The new Swaziland constitution was promulgated in 2006, following
several years of national consultations and a farcical series of
events in which nobody, including the King, appeared to know when it
would come into effect. More to the point, there was no clarity as to
whether the new dispensation, in which the royal courts remained
dominant, would allow for political parties to contest the 60 elected
seats in the 76-member House of Assembly.

The new constitution included a bill of rights which allows for
freedom of association, but whether this included the right to form
political parties, proscribed under a 1973 royal decree, remained
moot. Attempts by civil society organisations to have this right
affirmed by the judiciary were rebuffed, and the matter is now on
appeal in the Supreme Court.

Pseudo-political parties have begun to prepare themselves for the
possibility of being allowed to compete at the polls, though most of
these parties might be qualified as moderate royalist modernisers
rather than convinced democrats.

Last weekend, a group of civil society and political organisations
held a meeting in Manzini at which they pledged to boycott the
electoral process until multiparty elections are introduced. They have
decided to form a united front by April, when they will adopt a name
and organisational rules. This will be the first time a common
position has been attempted since the collapse of the Swaziland
Democratic Alliance in 2003.

It would be premature to expect too much from the democratic push,
however. The Swaziland trade union movement, which led the earlier
drive for constitutional rule, is badly fractured.

In any event, although the conspicuous consumption of the Swazi royal
house has created a broader popular unease in the kingdom of late,
there is little evidence to suggest that the democracy followers are
as yet as numerous as they claim. It seems more probable that such
progress as can be made in curbing the royal prerogative and moving
towards more accountable and efficient government will depend for now
on developments within the ranks of the "loyal reformists".

Even they will have their work cut out, however, for there are
powerful entrenched forces determined to thwart any dilution of
neotraditional authority.

Yet unless Swaziland?s government can break free of the inertia born
of its scelerotic political condition, the problems of economic
reform, particularly in a rural sector unable to feed its own people,
and in a macro-economic environment both financially and fiscally
hostile, there can be no serious attempt to address the dangerous
problems of increasing impoverishment among the majority.

Sooner rather than later, this could indeed lead to an unprecedented
destabilising response from a peasantry whose loyalty to the present
system is so blithely assumed.

Richard Cornwell is a senior research associate at the Institute for
Security Studies

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5. Southern Africa: Thirty percent less maize by 2030. (IRIN)
Johannesburg, 8 February 2008.

As global warming pushes temperatures up and droughts become more
intense, the production of maize, southern Africa's staple food, could
drop by as much as 30 percent in another two decades, according to a
new study.

The study by a group of Stanford University researchers calls on
countries to opt for long-term measures like the development of new
crop varieties and investment in irrigation, which could help lessen
the impact on food production more substantially than shifting
planting dates.

"Adaptation is a key factor that will shape the future severity of
climate change impacts on food production," said David Lobell, the
lead author of the report on the study. "These adaptations will
require substantial investments by farmers, governments, scientists
and development organisations, all of whom face many other demands on
their resources."

Adaptation is a key factor that will shape the future severity of
climate change impacts on food production.

The impact on food security by 2030 was estimated by looking at
changes in both temperature and rainfall, as large agricultural
investments "typically take 15 to 30 years to realise full returns."
Lobell said there was little money and time available to invest in the
affected communities.

The Stanford researchers based their analysis on a synthesis of
information on what poor people eat, observed relationships between
historical harvests and climate variability in poor regions, and
various projections of climate change by 2030 to inform investment
decisions. A total of 94 crop-region combinations, including rice in
South Asia and groundnuts in East Africa, were evaluated for the study.

There are drought-resistant crop varieties available in world's 1,500
genebanks, according to Luigi Guarino, Senior Science Coordinator with
the Global Crop Diversity Trust. "Unfortunately, we don't know which
ones they are until they are evaluated. This study [by Lobell et al]
highlights how urgent it is that the contents of genebanks are
evaluated and the resulting information be readily accessible to
breeders in affected countries".

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted that food
production in Africa could halve by 2020, while a 2006 climate change
study coordinated by the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy
in Africa (CEEPA), based in Pretoria, South Africa, warned that
African governments and farmers should anticipate the need to change
crops rather than holding on to traditional crops that often failed.

CEEPA's study report, Crop Selection: Adapting to Climate Change in
Africa, strongly suggests that agricultural analyses of climate change
impacts take crop selection into account. The research was part of a
project implemented in 11 countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana,
Niger and Senegal in West Africa; Egypt in North Africa; Ethiopia and
Kenya in East Africa and South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe in
southern Africa.

Researchers discovered that African farmers adapted crop choice to
climate. "There is every reason to believe that they will continue to
adapt in the future," said authors Pradeep Kurukulasuriya and Robert
Mendelsohn.

The study found that farmers sometimes chose to grow only a single
crop, such as sorghum, cowpea or maize, but often selected a crop
combination that would survive the harsh conditions in Africa, like
maize-beans, cowpea-sorghum, and millet-groundnut. These combinations
gave farmers more flexibility across climates than growing a single
crop.

"Future research into new crops that are more suitable for higher
temperatures could dramatically improve farmers' welfare, especially
in hot locations such as Africa," the study noted. "Although a great
deal of progress has been achieved in making existing crops more
productive, future research efforts need to move towards making them
more resilient to higher temperatures."

According to another study in the CEEPA project, Africa is expected to
lose 4.1 percent of its cropland by 2039 and 18.4 percent is likely to
have disappeared by the end of the century. Cropland loss is likely to
occur at a much faster rate some parts of Africa, with northern and
eastern Africa losing up to 15 percent of their current cropland area
within the next 30 years or so.

A recent survey by Action Aid, a global anti-poverty agency based in
South Africa, found that changes in rainfall patterns have affected
the growing seasons and the type of crops planted in Malawi:
long-season local maize varieties, which take longer to grow, are no
longer a preferred option, and maize normally planted in November is
now being planted in December.

Report online at: http://www.irnnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76652

_______________________

6. World Bank report highlights Swaziland?s investment climate. World
Bank Group - Washington, DC, USA: Mbabane, February 12, 2008.

The World Bank has released the findings of its Investment Climate
Assessment for Swaziland, a report that shows a relatively favourable
situation, though the country faces some challenges, especially when
compared to other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In particular, as in other middle income countries in Southern Africa,
business firms have few complaints about infrastructure and most
aspects of regulation. Objective indicators of the investment climate
are also relatively favourable in these areas?although often less
favourable than in Namibia, South Africa or Botswana.

Both small, medium and large enterprises (SMLEs) and micro enterprises
expressed concern about competition with informal firms, crime
(theft), and access to finance. In addition, Swaziland has the highest
rate of HIV/AIDS (26 percent) in the world which has compounded the
country development challenges. Business appears to respond relatively
vigorously to the problem.

Swaziland is a lower middle-income country with an economy that is
closely linked to that of neighbouring South Africa. Middle-income
economies are those with a gross national income per capita of more
than $875 but less than $10,726. Swaziland GNI per capita was $2430.00
in 2006.

Swaziland currency, the lilangeni, is pegged to the South African Rand
(sixty percent of exports are destined for South Africa, and 80
percent of imports originate there). Swaziland enjoyed high levels of
growth and investment during the apartheid era, with per capita growth
averaging about two percent per year between 1975 and 1994 and foreign
direct investment levels averaging about seven percent of GDP between
1985 and 1994.

Since South Africa?s transition to democracy in 1994, both have fallen
in the absence of compensating reforms by the Swazi authorities.
Between 1994 and 2006, per capita growth averaged about 0.7 percent
per year. Between 1994 and 2000, FDI averaged about five percent of
GDP per year, falling further to about two percent of GDP per year
between 2001 and 2005.

About 66 percent of government expenditures are financed with South
African Customs Union (SACU) receipts. Fiscal deficits have been
financed by draw-downs on government financial assets, which is an
unsustainable source of funding and which risks undermining investor
confidence in the exchange rate parity with South Africa. Improving
the investment climate will attract FDI, improve growth, and increase
government tax revenues.

Investment Climate Assessments are comprehensive country reports that
draw upon the results of Investment Climate Surveys and other
available information. They are used to identify and prioritize
investment climate constraints, benchmark reform progress, provide
cross-country comparisons of investment climate indicators, and help
countries forge broad consensus on priority areas for reform that can
help spur growth and development. These assessments ultimately feed
into World Bank operations and technical assistance.

________________________________________

7. Poor being priced out of food market: UN official. The Canadian
Press, February 12, 2008.

Many of the world's poorest people are unable to buy food because of
soaring prices resulting from severe weather, shorter harvests, higher
oil prices and the increasing use of food crops to produce biofuel,
the head of the UN food agency said.

"We're seeing more people hungry and at greater numbers than before,"
Josette Sheeran, executive director of the Rome-based World Food
Program, said in an interview Monday.

Severe weather is hitting many countries "worse than before" which is
contributing "to soaring food prices, where we're seeing many people
being priced out of the food markets for the first time," she said.
"We're seeing less crop production in many places, shorter harvest
times."

In addition, high oil prices are driving up food prices because oil is
used throughout the food chain - for planting, fertilizer and
delivering food, Sheeran said. "We're also seeing the fact that food
prices are being set at fuel prices," she said. "So, for example, palm
oil in Africa, which is used for biofuel, now it's being priced at the
fuel price which people cannot afford."

"For the world's most vulnerable it's extremely urgent," said Sheeran,
who was at UN headquarters to attend a two-day General Assembly debate
aimed at mobilizing the world to take action to fight global warming
this year.

She held up a cup which WFP used to fill with food for hungry school
children. But WFP today can only afford to fill 60 per cent of the cup
with the same contribution it received in 2002, "so this is shrinking
while people's needs are growing," she said.

"The challenge we're facing among the world's most vulnerable is
they're simply being priced out of the food markets," Sheeran said.
One of the things that needs to be done is to supply food to the most
vulnerable while markets adjust, she said.

"More food will be produced. Farmers will respond and maybe there'll
be investment in the African farmer for the first time, for example,
in many decades," Sheeran said."When that happens, we'll get increased
food in the food supply system but there's a lag so we have people
very vulnerable right now who can't afford the food."

The aim should be to avoid disrupting food supplies, she said.

Sheeran said there are crops that can be used in biofuel production
"that you can't eat and that helps because many of them can be grown
on soil that couldn't be used for food," she said. "This can be a boon
for poor farmers around the world. This can help poor countries."

It would also put more food supplies into the market, she said.

Sheeran said in places being hit by erratic and severe weather, the
world has to make sure basic food needs aren't being disrupted - "and
it is being disrupted now throughout the world."

WFP is currently doing an assessment of 30 countries it deems most
vulnerable, she said. "We know, for example, in Afghanistan there's
been an emergency appeal for US$77 million worth of food because they
simply cannot import the food to fill the shelves," Sheeran said.
"Prices are too high."

WFP is also seeing predictions of shorter harvests in West Africa due
to recent severe flooding, which will mean less money for farmers and
less food in the lean season in May and June, she said. The Sahel
region in West Africa has always been "very hard-hit but more so with
season after season of flooding and drought," Sheeran said.

In southern Africa, Swaziland is in the sixth year of a severe drought
and in Haiti people are eating mudcakes because they cannot afford
food. One of the biggest causes of hunger is instability, Sheeran said.

She said WFP will be closely watching what happens in East Timor where
rebels shot the president and targeted the prime minister. The WFP is
already helping Kenya which has seen widespread post-election fighting
and Mozambique which has been hard-hit by flooding.

_____________________________________


8. Bheki Ntshalintshali, COSATU Deputy General Secretary, 13 February 2008:
March for free elections & democracy in Kenya, Zimbabwe & Swaziland ? 7 March.

COSATU has been requested by the International Solidarity Workshop in
October 2007 to assist the process of co-ordinating international
solidarity activities until the formal launch of the South Africa
International Solidarity Front (SA-ISF). The first Annual Planning
meeting for 2008 Solidarity activities, on 7 February 2008, adopted
the campaign for free elections and democracy in Kenya, Zimbabwe and
Swaziland as one of its major campaigns for the year, in the context
of elections having either been held or about to be held in these
countries, but where there are pointers indicating an environment that
is not conducive to free elections and the practice of democracy.

The first Preparatory meeting of this initiative, held on 13 February
2008, discussed the political situation in these countries, with more
focus on Zimbabwe and Swaziland, as well as the programme of the
progressive forces in these countries, so that we could identify areas
for solidarity focus in 2008.

The meeting agreed that a march will be held in Tshwane (Pretoria) on
7 March, 2008, starting at 10h00. Marchers will gather at Union
Buildings and then proceed to the embassies/High Commissions of the
three countries to deliver a petition.

For more details contact: Bongani Masuku, our International Secretary
at bongani@... or Lucien Segame, SACP International
Secretary at Lucien@...
____________________________________


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