Swaziland@Newsletter 60
Published by Africa Contact (Denmark)

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Children. Men of the land. The struggle for democracy. Images of a
democratic movement.

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1. Swaziland is a ticking time bomb: Swazi Media Commentary. Richard
Roney, March 25, 2008.

2. 40 textile workers hospitalised. Fanyana Mabuza. Weekend Observer,
March 22, 2008.

3. Swaziland textile strike met with threats and violence. Eugene
Puryear. Party for Socialism and Liberation, March 23, 2008.

4. Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO)
Statement, 20 March 2008.

5. Police being used as a political tool. Mbabane, 19 March 2008 (IRIN).

6. Swaziland Solidarity Network: The people of Swaziland are Speaking
??.Is the world listening?
18 March, 2008.

7. COSATU condemns Swazi police brutality. Patrick Craven, COSATU
National Spokesperson, 17 March 2008.

8. "Leadership doesn't act like it is a crisis". James Hall (Mbabane),
IPS-Inter Press Service, 11. March 2008.

9. Enough is enough, say nurses. UN Integrated Regional Information
Networks (Mbabane) 11 March 2008.

10. Reviewing ?emergencies? for Swaziland. Shifting the paradigm in a
new era. Alan Whiteside, Amy Whalley. Edited by Scott Naysmith, 2007.

11. 'Times of Swaziland' newspaper sued by speaker of the House of
Assembly for alleged defamation. Media Institute of Southern Africa
(Windhoek). Press release, 18 March 2008.

_____________________________

1. Swaziland is a ticking time bomb: Swazi Media Commentary. Richard
Roney, March 25, 2008.
Link http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2008/03/swaziland-ticking-time-bomb.html

Swaziland is a ticking time bomb as the Swazi army prepares to set
up military bases across the kingdom.

People will not stand for it and will push for democracy in the
kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, according to the editor of one of
Swaziland?s few independent newspapers who is predicting ?evil people?
are going to turn the kingdom ?into one that is ungovernable?.

Mbongeni Mbingo, editor of the Times Sunday, said the deployment of
the army across Swaziland might provoke people to demand democracy.

Writing in his own newspaper on Sunday (23 March 2008) Mbingo said,

?It is now clear that there are people who are out to destroy this
country. These are evil people who have their evil dreams of turning
this country into one that is ungovernable. And you wonder what it is
they will achieve when the country is in the ruins!?

He added, ?And it is not the people from PUDEMO [a banned political
party] or other progressive formations we have to fear now, it is the
people who worm themselves around the king and proclaim undying love
for him. They are a danger to our peace and prosperity.

But they must be warned that their action will not serve anything but
to destroy this country - and that time is nigh.

On the previous Monday (17 Mach 2008), protesting bus drivers and
conductors had blocked off the centre of Manzini - Swaziland?s second
city. Police used brutal force against protestors.

Mbingo wrote,

- The patience of the people, as witnessed on Monday with the protests
at the Manzini bus rank when Manzini came to a standstill, is wearing
thin, and now it will not take long before things really get out of
hand.

- The danger about this protest on Monday is that those people have
realised they can take matters into their own hands and win. It must
not be perceived that it was the bus conductors and drivers who are
lawless people who did this, but these are people in our society who
believe they have been pushed to the edge, and could not take it any
longer.

It is a warning that sooner or later, this whole country will ground
to a standstill.

But somehow, miraculously even, people do not realise this, or are
intentionally pushing the people to revolt, because they have their
own selfish ends to meet.-

Mbingo went on, The protests on Monday are a big warning to everyone
that this generation of people is not going to allow things to be run
as they were, and these people will no longer accept being treated as
subjects, but they are people who have their rights that need to be
protected ? and respected.

Mbingo went on to say there was no reason to deploy the army since
there was no national emergency at present. If there were to be a
state of emergency some time soon it would be caused by the army.

Unfortunately, this is a bad move that will backfire badly, because
if anything the army on our streets does not do anything to scare any
more, rather it pushes the people to realising that a full democracy
is on the horizon, Mbingo said.

If government and the ruling elite do nott take action or indeed
notice, the tide will turn in time and this country will seriously get
into ruin.

It has been an accident waiting to happen, but now I get the feeling it
is only a matter of time.
_______________________

2. 40 textile workers hospitalised. Fanyana Mabuza. Weekend Observer,
March 22, 2008.

In a gesture of solidarity with the textile workers who got caught up
in the crossfire with police during their recent strike, the four
public sector unions have forked out a sum of E4 000, to be used in
the purchase of medical supplies for the injured workers.

Latest figures showed that 40 textile workers were hospitalised during
skirmishes with the police at the height of the industrial action,
while 11 were seriously injured such that they have not even returned
to work.

Making the presentation at the SNAT Centre in Manzini, SNAT President
Simon Makhanya expressed his disappointment at the police who opted to
silence the strikers with the nozzle of the gun, while they were
engaged in a legal strike.

Makhanya was in the presence of officials from the other public sector
unions officials, namely the Swaziland National Association of
Teachers (SNAT), Swaziland National Association of Government
Accounting Professionals (SNAGAP), the Swaziland National Association
of Civil Servants (SNACS) and the Swaziland Nurses Union, (SNA).

They all slammed the recent police's heavy handedness when dealing
with strikers.

"It is making us wary and jittery. We will also be going to the table
to negotiate on behalf of our members soon. Does this mean that if we
fail to agree and our members opt to engage in industrial action we
will also be given the same medicine the textile strikers were forced
to taste?"

This, they added, was because they would be demanding a much higher
percentage from government than what the textile workers had been
demanding, and would it be a guarantee that they will have their heads
bashed by the police in the name of enforcing law and order if they
strike?

"Coming to think of it, we collectively lead over 30 000 people. Now
if such a huge number could agree on industrial action after failure
of the talks with government, then the police would have their work
cut out for them. It then means they should prepare for a tiring time
ahead."

Makhanya continued that violence begot more violence and the police's
latest strategy of using guns indiscriminately was against the lore of
nation building. "The textile strikers were simply demanding a living
wage, which was within their rights as the cost of living in the
country is extra-ordinarily high. It should be noted that commodity
prices are on a permanent rise in the country. Petrol, bread and bus
fares are always hiking up, yet the textile workers are expected to
survive on the pittance they get at the factories. When they demand
better salaries police are deployed to bash them up. Is this a ploy to
silence the masses? If it is, sadly for them, it will never work,"
they all vowed. They then extended their sympathies to those who got
injured and hoped the money they were offering would go a long way in
easing the pains of those who were brutalised by their fellow
countrymen, as they crusaded for their rights. "But most of all, we
are still astounded at the sudden passion police have developed for
using their guns, and it is very dangerous and will not promote
national unity and nation building," they warned.
___________________________

3. Swaziland textile strike met with threats and violence. Eugene
Puryear. Party for Socialism and Liberation, March 23, 2008.
http://www.pslweb.org/


Thousands of Swazi textile workers have gone on strike for better pay
and work conditions.

There has been almost no reporting in March of militant workers?
struggles in the tiny landlocked Kingdom of Swaziland. In what some
are calling the worst labour unrest in a decade, the country has been
the scene of protests and strikes by tens of thousands of textile
workers and workplace actions by Swaziland nurses.

Beginning March 3, 16,000 Swazi textile workers went out on strike
demanding better pay and conditions. Workers face humiliating
treatment from managers and owners and receive dismal wages. They are
seeking a 12 percent raise.

Cynthia Ndwandwe, a mother of five, told a U.N. news agency, "My
take-home pay is R300 (US$38) a fortnight." A fortnight is two weeks.

The textile industry is the center of Swazi manufacturing. It has been
paralyzed by the strike, prompting threats from factory owners. The
bosses say they will fire workers if they do not immediately return to
work.

Striking workers were subjected to beatings and tear gas from
authorities at protests on March 3 and March 5 and at other smaller
protests.

The workers have remained undaunted. Alex Fakudze, leader of the
Swaziland Manufacturing and Allied Workers Union, told the Sunday
Times, "Even if it means earning zero at the end of the month, we do
not mind because we want what is due to us."

Nurses in Swaziland have also protested low pay and working
conditions. They face dismal wages, physical attacks and a lack of
basic sanitary and medical equipment.

The main hospital in the capital, Mbabane, was declared unfit for
human occupation earlier this year. Nurses have decided to work no
overtime until conditions are improved in the country?s hospitals and
clinics.

Swaziland and neo-colonialism

Swaziland is a perfect example of the extreme economic polarization
wrought by colonialism and neo-colonialism.

The country is ruled by monarch King Mswati III. The king appoints the
prime minister and all members of parliament.

The economy is dominated by the king and a small elite affiliated with
the royal family. The king owns 60 percent of the land in the country
and significant portions of the other 40 percent through the
government and a company owned by the royal family.

Roughly 69 percent of the country lives in poverty. Most of those in
rural areas are frequently ravaged by natural disaster, which creates
widespread hunger. The International Monetary Fund reports that at
least 25 percent of the population requires some sort of food
assistance.

Swaziland suffers from the highest rate of HIV/AIDS in the world, with
38.6 percent of the population infected. As a result, life expectancy
has fallen to 39 years of age.

While most agriculture is oriented toward subsistence, Swaziland has a
sizable sugar industry. Coca-Cola?s concentrate production plant is
located in the country. King Mswati frequently visits with the CEO of
Coke in Atlanta.

The manufacturing sector is almost totally dominated by foreign
investment capital. Swaziland is partner to the African Growth and
Opportunity Act. AGOA is a "free trade" deal African countries have
signed with the United States.

In most cases in Africa, there is no indigenous capital of any scale.
Monopoly companies, mostly from Taiwan, open factories in the host
country. They put labels such as "Made in Swaziland" on products and
ship them to the United States for massive profits.

Swaziland?s government encourages Taiwanese investment in the textile
sector, hoping to benefit from the overall economic boom. This
arrangement boosts production for transnational corporations such as
Wal-Mart, not for the Swazi people.

Under conditions such as these, both urban and rural workers will
continue to struggle for improvements in their living standards and
for the right to control the political destiny of their country.

Progressives in the United States should play close attention to the
struggles waged by workers in Africa. They are fighting against
tremendous poverty, government repression and the very same
transnational corporations that workers are battling in the United
States.

_________________________

4. Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO)
Statement, 20 March 2008.


The Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations wishes a holy
and peaceful Easter time to all the people of Swaziland. We hope that
the Easter break will be used by all people to reflect on the true
natures of peace and justice. In what has been a troubled time in the
Kingdom, we call on all parties in any dispute to treat each other
with respect and to accord each person the dignity of their rights to
hold opposing positions. We call on all the people involved in the
current disputes to put their arguments forcefully and clearly, to
listen intently, to negotiate honestly and above all to behave
peacefully and justly.

Peace is not the mere absence of violence, but the ability to live a
full and free life without undue restraint and to obtain, fulfillment,
growth and development.

Justice is not about law but about being treated as an equal, being
accorded dignity and being respected for who we are and what our views
are. It allows fair access to the things we need to enable us to
fulfill our dreams and desires.

As Swazis we do not handle diversity of opinion and conflict very
well. Conflict is a necessary and vital part of our lives, we have
all been given free will and it is ours to do with as we choose.
Therefore it is natural and it is healthy to differ, to discuss, to
compromise and to identify and solve problems. Handling disputes in
an open, honest, restrained and constructive manner is one of the
hallmarks of a mature society and these are skills that we all must
learn.

We support the rights of the strikers to lawful strike. We support
their rights to a peaceful picket. We equally support the police in
their efforts to promote and retain law and order. We have been
consistent in these views since the Coalition was formed. We do not
advocate, support or condone the use of violence from any quarter. It
is outside the definitions of democracy, freedom of thought and action
and respect for others. We support people?s rights to nonviolent
protests and expect those rights to be respected.

We note with dismay the attacks on the police force by some
protesters, however we also note that there have been occasions where
the police have been extremely provocative. The purpose of this
provocation seems to be with the intent that it will give them an
excuse to react with massively disproportionate force. We are yet to
see an incident where the police have used tactics to calm down and
diffuse a situation or to refuse to overreact to minor and even verbal
taunts. Our support for strikers is conditional on their ability and
discipline to protest peacefully. Our support for the police force is
conditional on their ability and desire to display professionalism and
understand and respect our and their human rights. We have seen
police bullying tactics used at football matches, at the university,
against strikers, and with the kombi drivers. It is rarely the
intended targets that get hit or gassed but the young, the old, the
slow, the vulnerable and the weak. These tactics are
counterproductive and just escalate and continue the cycle of
violence. Many police forces across the world have learned new
methods of crowd control that are more effective and less brutal.
Please, please, please Commissioner Hillary do as King Sobuza II
instructed, Bad and useless indigenous customs should be given up,
and good, meaningful and successful ones from foreigners should be
taken over and adapted. We again put out our offer to work with RSP
and international partners to abolish these destructive and divisive
tactics.

The real tragedy in this, is that the terms and conditions under which
the women at the factories work under are no longer what is important.
The violence has become the story. The fact that the women work for
long hours at low pay in dirty and dangerous conditions and cannot
make ends meet without resorting to offering sex for money is a
shocking indictment on our society. It is this oppressive and
demeaning environment in which the scandal of the foetuses in the dam
was born.

We are coming into an election year, the nature of elections are that
they are competitive and that they are divisive. There will be
winners and losers. If they are held properly then we should respect
the result. His Majesty has called on potential candidates not to
rely on muti, traditional killings and traditional practices to help
secure parliamentary seats. We, of course, echo his call but also ask
the authorities to go further and not to undertake, order or condone
other less traditional practices in our elections, blatant use of the
army and police force to break up peaceful and lawful public meetings,
rigging of election processes so that alternative and unusual
candidates cannot get onto the ballot sheet, using the powers of
traditional authorities to hamper canvassing, disrupt voter education
and influence voters decisions.

We are profoundly discomfortable with the make up of the election and
boundaries commission and do not see in it much evidence of
independence, fairness or expertise. However, we call upon it to be
thorough, balanced and respectful of international standards of
democracy and election management.

Under the Tinkhundla system we may be able to only vote for
parliamentarians rather than a government but let us elect the best
parliamentarians we possibly can.

We urge people to consider not only the candidate?s character and
their gender but more importantly to consider what their favoured
policies are regarding the great and multiple crises that face our
nation. Starvation, death, poverty, ignorance, injustice, inequality
and rampant corruption. We cannot lavishly spend our ways out of
these problems, nor can we ignore them. We must come together in a
new parliament with a new mindset. Parliamentarians, Business, Civil
Society, International Partners, the Government and even the
Traditional Authorities: we must all change our attitudes and find a
way of working together.

It is a definition of pure madness to keep doing the same things as
before and to expect the results to be different. Let us all work to
heal the wounds of the past. Let us use the message of Easter to
forgive the sins of our brothers and sisters and to pledge ourselves
to working towards a peaceful, inclusive and just nation. One that
respects each other as human beings, as members of our communities, as
colleagues and as Swazis. We must not fear change, we need not fear
diversity. We cannot hope to develop without them both.

May the peace that comes with the message of Easter be upon everyone.

Statement issued by His Lordship Bishop M B Mabuza +
Chairperson, Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations
SCCCO web site is at: http://www.swazicoalition.org.sz/



___________________________________

5. Police being used as a political tool. Mbabane, 19 March 2008 (IRIN).


The Swazi police has been accused of using excessive force and the
army has been deployed for domestic policing after a rare episode of
political unrest in the mountain kingdom.

As Swazi policemen clamped down on yet another protest action this
week, concerns that the security force was being used as a political
tool have been raised by non-governmental organisations.

Public transport workers were tear gassed at the downtown bus station
in the central commercial town of Manzini on 17 March. Manzini, the
country's transport hub, was shut down by mini-bus operators to show
solidarity with textile workers, who have been on strike since 3 March.

Dozens of shops were vandalised and the bus station's entrance was
barricaded in this week's protest. Members of banned political parties
had also urged onlookers to participate in the strike action. The
police responded with rubber bullets and six people were hospitalised
with gunshot wounds.

Earlier this month, Swazi textile workers, who have been on strike to
demand better salaries, were tear gassed and beaten by police. At
least a dozen workers were reportedly injured following attacks on
peaceful marchers by the police on the first day of the strike. More
than 16,000 workers, most of them women, have been affected by the
strike action. The Swazi press characterised police violence against
strikers as unjustified.

"Too dangerous" to continue

So intense have the police attacks become that members of the
Swaziland Manufacturing and Allied Workers Unions agreed with its
leadership that it was "too dangerous" to continue the strike. The
textile workers voted to suspend the strike action over the Easter
holidays, and to resume their protest next week if no progress had
been made with the employers, the Swaziland Textile Exporters
Association.

In a statement, the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic
Organisations (SCCCO) condemned the "continued abuse of the Royal
Swazi Police and Umbutfo Swaziland Defence Force [the Swazi army] to
achieve partisan and politically motivated actions".

The SCCCO noted with particular concern the use of teargas and rubber
bullets on "unarmed" women textile workers. "Police officers have been
heard telling the women to 'get back to work.' What is their role here
- protection of law and order or politically motivated
strikebreaking?" read the statement, signed by Anglican Bishop Meshack
Mabuza, the coalition chairman.

Police spokesman Vusi Masuku said the police moved in to stop isolated
acts of vandalism, and used "minimal force". He defended the police
action, saying some marchers had attempted to stop other textile
workers from going to work.

Jason Simelane, a member of the banned political organisation, Peoples
United Democratic Front (PUDEMO), said, "The police are a politicised
force. They are under orders to silence dissent. The new
constitutional guarantees about freedom of speech and assembly are
meaningless."

Organised political opposition groups were banned by royal decree in
1973 by King Sobhuza, father of current monarch, Mswati III. A new
constitution signed into law by Mswati in 2005 provided for freedom of
assembly but did not legalise political parties.

While the police was being used to suppress political activity,
demonstrators needed to show restraint, commented a political analyst
based at the University of Swaziland. "The Swazi union movement has
been aligned with pro-democracy groups for decades...the authorities
view any strike action as a pretext for anti-government
demonstrations...but their [authorities] job is made easy because the
anti-government groups engage in violence and vandalism. If police
need to show restraint, so do demonstrators."

Army deployed for civilian policing

Meanwhile, the army is being deployed to conduct random checks in
homes and set up roadblocks. "As an army, our job is not only to guard
the frontier, but it is also to look after the people who are in the
country. We have realised that there are a lot of illegal things
[guns, weapons and consumer goods] which are circulating in the
country and we want to combat that," said Khanya Dlamini, spokesman
for the Umbutfo Swaziland Defense Force.

He said army camps would be set up across the country, and denied that
the deployment of troops for civilian policing was politically
motivated.

PUDEMO strongholds of Madlangemphisi in northern Swaziland, Bulembu,
50km southeast of the capital, Mbabane, and the rural towns,
Manjengeni and Sihhoye are some of the sites of the new army camps.
"At the moment we will not be focusing on political activities. This
is not meant for the national elections [to be held in November]. It
is just a clean-up campaign," said Dlamini.

The army's response was "very guarded", said Charles Mhlindza, a
political commentator. "The army spokesman's statement... left open
the option of overt involvement in future. The question of why an army
that has never been involved in internal domestic policing activities
should do so now is an issue Swazis need to raise and debate."

_________________________________________

6. Swaziland Solidarity Network: The people of Swaziland are Speaking
- Is the world listening? 18 March, 2008.

The Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) condemns with strongest
possible terms the thurgerish behavior of the Royal Swaziland Police
for their brutality against striking textile workers who have been on
strike since March 3 for better working conditions. The strike is led
by the Swaziland Manufacturing and Allied Workers Union (SMAWU). We
are however not surprised by this ruthlessness as brutality has been
institutionalized by the Swazi government for years led by the
despotic dictator King Mswati. This is happening while the Swaziland
government is preparing for its exclusive election this year largely
funded by the commonwealth and the British Government while's
Political parties remain banned, banning of the most basic rights and
freedoms to associate, organize and speak, as well as all forms of
political activity and proclamation of a perpetual state of emergency,
which is effective to date by the way, it is the oldest state of
emergency in the whole Southern African region, if not in Africa, at
35years.

In solidarity with the people of Swaziland we will doubled our efforts
in mobilization of this year's Boarder Blockade in all border gates
linking Swaziland and South Africa to be held on the 12th April 2008.

We will also make sure that we mobilize all resources for the
NO-ELECTION Campaign led by PUDEMO to ensure that these exclusive
elections do not take place. Tinkhundla exclusive elections are non
democratic in their very nature and are designed to perpetuate the
prevailing royal oppression of the Swazi people. As PUDEMO has put it
"PUDEMO can only participate in democratic elections which have a
bench mark. Tinkhundla elections failed the test of democratic and
free/fair elections even by the standards of the very same
Commonwealth which funded the 'Swaziland Constitution'. What a
contradiction".

SSN calls on all internationalists around the world to join the
solidarity campaign to be kick started by the 12th April, 2008 boarder
blockade. We also call on the South African government, SADC, AU,
COMONWEALTH, to condemn and Isolate the Swaziland government in all
international bodies.

Issued by the SSN National Chairperson South Africa Chapter comrade
Solly Mapaila.

_________________________

7. COSATU condemns Swazi police brutality. Patrick Craven, COSATU
National Spokesperson, 17 March 2008.

COSATU has angrily condemned the Swazi police for their brutality
against striking textile workers who have been on strike since 3
March. The Swaziland Manufacturing and Allied Workers Union (SMAWU)
has informed the Minister of Enterprise and Employment that because
the strike has now turned violent through brutality by the police
force, they are now forced to suspend it.

COSATU understands that police have not only been indiscriminately
been opening fire on strikers? demonstrations but have been visiting
the houses of people in the vicinity of the textile factories, beating
any people who are on strike and forcing them to agree to return to
work and threatening them with death if they fail to do so.

According to the Swazi Media Commentary, heavily armed police shot an
innocent woman bystander in the back as they attacked striking textile
workers during a legal picket and shot five workers by the end of the
unprovoked violence. In total 16 workers and one policeman were
hospitalised. Police fired indiscriminately and some people who were
not textile workers were also attacked.

Even the Weekend Observer - perhaps the newspaper most loyal to the
non-democratic Swazi regime - described the scene as a "war zone", in
which there was a "heavy smell of teargas and gunfire". The Swazi News
likened the scene to something from Iraq, with police ?armed to the
teeth?.

The violence happened after striking workers met to listen to their
union leader. After he finished speaking police pounced on the
unsuspecting workers and immediately fired teargas canisters without
uttering a word, according to the Weekend Observer. "That marked the
beginning of complete mayhem as the police assaulted every worker on
sight with batons".

The Weekend Observer quoted a woman eyewitness saying: We ran
helter-skelter as the police had a field day on us. Some workers
sought shelter in nearby shops but were removed and further assaulted.
I have never seen such brutality in my life. They were heavily armed
and were scattered all over the industrial area. They were literally
running after us, obviously enjoying what they were doing.

The Swazi News reported that a women vendor who was not involved in
the strike was shot in the back, saying, I just saw a police car
speeding towards us and while it was moving I was shot in the back. I
just don?t know why they shot me when I am just a vendor selling ice
blocks, biscuits and fish.

The Weekend Observer interviewed a man who said police deliberately
fired into his knee and quoted him saying: They came and started
assaulting us and asked why we were not at work. One officer pulled
out a gun and fired at my knee. I fell down and several of them
started assaulting me with batons all over the body, with blood oozing
from the gunshot wound.

The fact that the pro-government media is reporting all this is a
positive development, as they have been under pressure from the police
to report nothing about the strike. SMAWU President Alex Fakudze has
told COSATU that the state-controlled broadcaster, the Swazi
Broadcasting and Information Services, phoned him to say that they
could not broadcast a statement he had given them because police had
instructed them not to report anything about the strike. The fact that
some of the print media have defied similar threats is significant.

Another positive development - which shows the potential for a broad
movement of opposition to the Brutal monarchist dictatorship - was the
solidarity action by bus operators at the Manzini Bus terminal, which
came to a stand-still as bus operators joined the textile workers
strike, saying that because of the strike and the brutality workers
are facing they are losing business, as textile workers are their
major customers. The operators have blocked the roads leading to the
bus rank and buses are parked, none going out and none going in.

The strikers have been beaten back to work, in complete contravention
of international labour conventions. COSATU, together with the Swazi
unions, is to report the matter to the International Labour
Organisation and will intensify its campaign of solidarity with the
workers of Swaziland and in support of the fight for democracy and
respect for human rights.

COSATU also calls on all its affiliates and trade unions around the
world to join the solidarity campaign.

_____________________________

8. "Leadership doesn't act like it is a crisis". James Hall (Mbabane),
IPS-Inter Press Service, 11. March 2008.

A substantial increase in the number of Swazis requiring food aid has
raised questions in this Southern African country. Why the rise, and
how long are the higher numbers likely to prevail? More fundamentally,
what has caused such widespread and enduring hunger to begin with?

"We need to dig deeper for answers, particularly when we hear donor
fatigue may cut into the emergency contributions that are now keeping
Swazis alive," said Charles Dlamini, a food aid distribution manager
in the central Manzini region.

In his annual budget speech, delivered to parliament recently, Finance
Minister Majozi Sithole noted that 665,000 Swazis out of a total
population of 953,000 now require food assistance.

Only a few months ago, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)
had projected that 407,000 people would need food aid by this time.
Rains since the start of the planting season in November had even
raised hopes of fewer dependants.

In interviews with government and humanitarian officials, and with
persons on small farms and in urban settlements affected by food
shortages, IPS came across a variety of explanations for the current
situation.

"I have been urging for months that people take advantage of the rains
and plant crops like in other years. The back of last year's drought
has been broken. But some people are wary of planting; they remember
how the rains stopped falling in the past and all their work went for
nothing," said Ben Nsibandze, chairman of the National Emergency
Management Committee.

Last year's drought was historic: up to 80 percent of crops failed in
formerly productive areas, while harvests were absent in hardest hit
regions. The international community stepped in to assist.

"Unfortunately, the lesson learned by some people is that they don't
have to worry if they have no crops. They will be given food. They
will be provided for. This laziness has led to dependency, and it is
why many fields were not ploughed this year," said Dlamini.

Fears about a culture of dependency have also been voiced by others.

Nsibandze has warned against it, as has legislator Trusty Gina. "The
dependency syndrome is killing the nation," he told parliament recently.

Some 80 percent of Swazis live as subsistence farmers on land overseen
by chiefs, existing much as generations of their ancestors did. When
rains cease, people require food aid to avoid starvation.

"Government hoped that rural men working for the agricultural
plantations could support their families on their wages," said an
economist with a bank in the capital, Mbabane, in reference to estates
where export crops such as sugar cane and citrus are grown. "But wages
are low, and inflation is high."

The Ministry of Agriculture mounted an agriculture summit last August
to seek answers to Swaziland's perennial food shortage problems. In
addition to government, the private sector, U.N. groups and farmers
participated. But to date no report of the summit's outcome has been
released, and no suggestions offered on how to return Swaziland to the
position it occupied in the 1970s of being a net food exporter.

AIDS is another contributing factor to the dearth of food in this
country; at 33.4 percent, the country's adult HIV prevalence rate is
the highest in the world.

"There are no able bodied people to tend the farms; the surviving
elderly people and children can't do it," said Nonhlanhla Simelane, an
HIV counsellor in Mbabane. "Wage earners in town used to come back to
the farm to tend the crops, but we see less of that because AIDS
mortality is as high in urban areas as in the countryside."

AIDS groups see the nation's food shortage very much as a health
issue, and they doubt that production will return to normal before the
pandemic has been brought under control.

Greed may also be playing a role.

According to Sipho Shongwe, minister of regional development and youth
affairs, the numbers of people in need of food aid have been inflated
by local authorities seeking to sell supplies for cash. Similarly,
school principals are accused of trying to profit from aid claimed for
AIDS orphans.

"One wonders what lessons on morality our children will learn from
principals who are guilty of deliberately increasing the number of
orphans in their schools?" asks Shongwe. Himself a Swazi chief, he
also accuses other chiefs of fraud in connection with food aid.

Yet, there are no hard figures showing the extent of the alleged
misappropriation, and food aid organisations contacted by IPS doubt
this appreciably raises the total of aid recipients.

"I don't think that cheating is raising the overall number of
recipients that much. They say officials want to sell the food. Sell
to who? Sixty percent of the local population lives in absolute
poverty, and part of the food crisis is (that) they cannot purchase
basic foodstuffs," said a programme officer with a U.N. agency.

The WFP office in Mbabane told IPS that the agency's food distribution
system is based on information from local community committees which
canvas homes to establish need. The same holds true for children's
care points in urban and rural areas, where local committees send
orphans and vulnerable children for hot meals provided by WFP
contributors, primarily the United States.

What, then, will it take for Swaziland to cease being a country in
perpetual want?

"I think most importantly we need the political will to find
solutions. I think the national leadership has become comfortable with
food dependency as well," said Dlamini. "As long as the international
community is giving, why bother?"

Even with much of the nation requiring food aid, "...leadership
doesn't act like it is a crisis...I think that is why the emergency
agriculture summit never amounted to anything."
______________________________________


9. Enough is enough, say nurses. UN Integrated Regional Information
Networks (Mbabane) 11 March 2008.

Tired of being taken for granted, Swaziland's nurses have opted for
industrial action after the government ignored a deadline to improve
conditions of service.

After marching to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in the
capital, Mbabane, on Friday to deliver their ultimatum, Swaziland's
nurses registered their anger with an overtime ban beginning on Monday
to protest delayed pay, unsafe working conditions, and crumbling
facilities.

"We must start somewhere, so we've chosen the overtime issue," said
Sibusiso Lushaba, secretary-general of the Swaziland Nurses
Association (SNA). "As workers we have decided not to work the extra
hours, as it is our right not to do so. This is not a strike; we have
played our part as workers, but the employer does not want to meet
their obligation."

Nurse Patricia Dlamini expressed some of the anger health workers
feel. "Swaziland's nurses are a demoralised lot, and this comes from
having so much to offer and so much knowledge and, I would say, love
of the profession, but not being given the recognition we deserve. If
we are unable to carry out our duties people suffer, people die. Why
is that so hard for the authorities to understand?"

Beyond pay, issues of security are a real concern, especially for
nurses working in remote clinics. "Nurses fear for their lives. We are
not protected; there is no security in some clinics in the rural
areas, no lights and no transport. Nurses are bludgeoned, robbed and
raped. It makes you want to cry," said Nelsiwe Thwala, a nurse posted
to a clinic in the rural Manzini region of central Swaziland.

Dangers of nursing

SNA released a table of 12 hospitals and clinics where nurses'
quarters were burglarised, nurses assaulted and rapes committed. Top
of the list was Hlatikhulu Government Hospital in Shiselweni, in the
south of the country, where 20 nurses have suffered some form of
criminal attack.

"The question that keeps on coming into our minds is: 'How many nurses
should die before government takes us seriously?'" said Lushaba. A
spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare told IRIN
the ministry had no comment on the nurses' complaints.

The 2,016 nurses registered by the SNA, who have stayed in Swaziland
rather than going abroad to work, have watched the deterioration of
hospitals and clinics with dismay. Earlier this year, the Health
Inspector of Mbabane declared the city's hospital, the largest in the
country, unfit for human habitation.

In rural clinics an issue is a lack of water - the most basic of
requirements. Often, none is available in the nurses' quarters or the
clinics. It then becomes the nurse's duty to trek to streams to fetch
containers of water for patients' use, cleaning and to operate toilets.

"When nurses complain they are ill-treated, and they thus are thinking
of quitting the public service, it is because of this," said Lushaba.
_______________________________________

10. Reviewing "emergencies" for Swaziland. Shifting the paradigm in a
new era. Alan Whiteside, Amy Whalley. Edited by Scott Naysmith, 2007.

Executive Summary

The world?s highest HIV prevalence and the increasing number of deaths
due to AIDS is having unprecedented impact on Swaziland.Worryingly,
with a generation of orphans and rapidly escalating poverty, this
desperate situation is being accepted as "normal".

HIV/AIDS in Swaziland has been characterized by a slow onset of
impacts that have failed to command an emergency response. With
insufficient resource allocation and a lack of capacity, slow onset
events can become emergencies. The absence of an agreed definition of
"disaster" or "emergency" has helped to sustain this characterisation.
The nature of these terms is changing. The case of Swaziland
emphasizes that they can be long-term, complex, widespread events that
evolve over years. Swaziland is experiencing a generalized epidemic.

National sero-sentinel surveillance prevalence increased from 3.9% in
1992 to 42.6% in 2004 (MOHSW, 2006). HIV prevalence is estimated at
19% among the entire population and 26% among productive adults (CSO,
2007). Currently, there are around 220,000 people living with HIV.At
similar prevalence rates, this would equate to 56 million and 92
million infected individuals in the USA and EU respectively.
Prevalence is similar in rural and urban areas, and all districts.

Unless the trajectory changes, AIDS may claim the lives of two thirds
of all 15 year olds (UNAIDS, 2000).
______________________________________


11. 'Times of Swaziland' newspaper sued by speaker of the House of
Assembly for alleged defamation. Media Institute of Southern Africa
(Windhoek). Press release, 18 March 2008.


The privately-owned "Times of Swaziland" newspaper is being sued by
the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Prince Guduza, for 2,000,000
Euros for alleged defamation. Guduza is brother to King Mswati III.

The lawsuit follows recent reports linking the Speaker to an import
and export company allegedly involved in illegal trade. Following the
reports, the Speaker faced extreme pressure in Parliament, with MPs
seeking to remove him from his position. The Speaker had to defend
himself, stating that he resigned from the company.


The company, Tanya Investments, is currently involved in a court
battle with the government after its consignment of cigarettes, worth
17 million Euros, imported from overseas was impounded by the
Department of Customs and Excise.

In a letter to the "Times" sent through his lawyers, the Speaker
claims that he was defamed by a series of articles and commentaries in
various editions of the "Times" and its sister newspapers.

The Speaker's attorneys state that the first article, published on 26
February 2008, was issued without affording their client an
opportunity to comment or reply to the allegations against him "as
required in law and recognized good journalistic practice."

"The cigarettes in question did not belong to our client but a
separate legal entity known as Tanya Investment (Pty) Limited. The
publication of the aforesaid article set the tone for further articles
and commentaries in the newspaper in which our client was accused of
being a liar, unfit to be Speaker of Parliament, abusing his position
as Speaker, abuse of power in general and being corrupt and engaging
in a generally corrupt relationship with the police."

The lawyers argue that the articles were published recklessly without
regard to the accuracy of the information relied upon. They further
stated that the Speaker, before he resigned from the company, was a
non-Executive Director and as such he was not involved in the
company's operational matters.

"We may mention the fact that the company, which our client resigned
from as a director on February 2, 2008, had not been found guilty of
any wrong-doing by any court of law," the lawyers added.

The "Times" is yet to respond to the lawyers' letter of demand.

Background:

This is one of many lawsuits currently facing the Swazi media,
particularly the "Times". Another privately-owned media house, "The
Nation" magazine, is currently in court battling a 2.5 million Euro
lawsuit by a government official who is suing the magazine for alleged
defamation. The official had recently won 120,000 Euros in damages
after "The Nation" failed to appear in court to defend the case. But
"The Nation" later won an order for stay of execution and the case is
yet to be argued in court.

For further information on a previous lawsuit against the "Times of
Swaziland", see: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/81602/

For further information on "The Nation" case, see:
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/91185


____________________________________________________


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