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A personal letter to the media:

Bongani Masuku: King Mswati?s double standards ? Playing to the world gallery!


According to a Southern African Development Community (SADC)
communiqué, the SADC troika of the Organ on Politics, Defence and
Security Co-operation met on the 25th June, 2008 at Lozitha Palace,
Swaziland at the invitation of King Mswati 111 of the kingdom of
Swaziland and Deputy Chairperson of the Organ, who chaired the meeting
which was also attended by the President of the United Republic of
Tanzania, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, in the absence of the chairperson,
Eduardo Jose Dos Santos.

The troika is comprised of Angola, the Chairperson, Swaziland, the
Deputy Chairperson and Tanzania, a member. The summit was convened
following the recommendations of the Ministerial Troika of the Organ,
which held a meeting in Malawi, on 17th June, 2008. In its meeting the
Ministerial troika adopted particular recommendations, which were then
reiterated by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs on June 23rd, 2008 at
their 29th Session of the Inter State Politics and Diplomacy Committee
of the Organ.

Correctly, the summit, though chaired by the fierce opponent of
democracy king Mswati, noted that the political and security situation
in Zimbabwe appears not to be permissive for holding the run-off
election in a manner that would be deemed free and fair, further
indicating that holding the elections under the current circumstances
may undermine the credibility and legitimacy of its outcome.

It went on to appeal to the authorities in Zimbabwe to consider
postponing the election to a later date. The Organ Summit feels
strongly that because of the current charged atmosphere the parties
and people of Zimbabwe deserve a cooling off period.

During the period of postponement of the election and before holding
the next election, the parties should engage in talks with the aim of
finding best possible ways of resolving their differences and creating
a conducive environment for holding the election and managing the
affairs of their country thereafter.

Finally, the Organ Troika Summit indicated that it believes the people
of Zimbabwe are capable of charting their country?s future in peace
and harmony and that SADC shall avail its support whenever necessary,
and further affirming that it will always remain seized of the
situation in Zimbabwe and Malawi.

The points noted above are interesting not because of their
substantive posture, but because of the arrogant and extreme display
of double standards by the parties involved.

Here is a man who bans political parties and all forms of political
activity from his country, he has appointed himself the goliath of
Swazi political affairs and has, through brutal bully tactics,
outlawed and persecuted political opposition in his country, presiding
over a major political discussion to determine the plight of an
election and what environment is necessary for that election to be
deemed free and fair or democratic enough for the effective and full
participation of the peoples of our sister country, Zimbabwe.

He has no shame, whatsoever, that his guilt would haunt him about the
very situation in his backyard, where as he chaired the very
proceedings, political parties remained banned, all forms of protest
remain criminalized and decisions about the country?s future lies with
him and a bunch of his rotten sycophants and cheerleaders.

For him, the situation of the Zimbabwean people is a distant reality
that has no relevant bearing to the immediate conditions of his own
home yard. It is about some people far away in space, whose
fundamental concerns are not about living beings, similar to those
who, for years, have been subjected to the most extreme forms of royal
oppression, using state of emergency decreed in 1973 by himself.

In a typical Machiavellian style, Mswati is guilty of the same crimes
he has, hypocritically, put on the doorstep of his colleague, Mugabe.

What are the conditions prevailing in Swaziland that the ?benevolent?
Mswati would like us to believe he does not condone or he condemns in
Zimbabwe; political parties remain banned, rights to organize and
speak freely are outlawed and only the royal family has a right to
monopoly over public political life and all institutions that have
failed the people of Zimbabwe, such as the media, judiciary and all
the supposed safeguards of a democratic society, which are virtually a
sham, if not a total royal mirage in Swaziland, serving to massage the
fragile ego of the corrupt monarchy.

In a desperate attempt to bail out his discredited image, following
his disgraceful elections controversy and political shambles into
which he has driven the country, Mswati needed something that would
divert his attention away from his mess and this scenario presented
that opportunity. He did not tell the world that he is guilty of the
same crimes, he did not tell the world that he has vehemently opposed
all forms of democratic attempt by the struggling peoples of Swaziland
and he did not indicate that he has always been cheering his role
model, Daniel Arap Moi for a long time in his brutal crusade against
the people of Kenya for a long time, even sending his most trusted
lieutenants to study them in that country.

When university students were brutally murdered at UNISWA in 1990 in
what has come to be known as the Black Wednesday, it was Moi who
advised Mswati on arrival for the then Preferential Trade Area (PTA)
summit. For years, till today, the university has become a beehive of
secret military and intelligence control, that has literally ensured
that for every five students one is a state security spy, with some
having not even properly qualified to enter the university as was the
case with one Promise Msibi, with whom I once shared a class and his
academic performance was such a disaster until he changed the course,
the rest is history, particularly pertaining to how students dealt
with him and how he became exposed in the first place.

One wonders whether SADC will ever wake up to the reality of the need
for credible, consistent and democratic leadership. George Bush
certainly cant tell any other head of state to resolve conflicts
peacefully, in the same breadth and vein that Mswati can never tell
any other head of state to hold democratic and free elections much
against his record.

Swaziland is going for ?royal elections? soon, however conditions for
free elections are not anywhere nearer. The constitution affirms the
historic ban on political parties, criminalization of free political
activities, suppressing of all institutions of justice and
information, and continued monopoly leverage by the royal family over
public affairs. What will the newly found preacher of democracy tell
the world about his own conduct and lessons from the Zimbabwean
situation?

Mswati must be exposed and so should be SADC. The Mswati scenario
corresponds with the fact that Marwick Khumalo, the head of the Pan
African Parliament is allowed to lead a delegation supposedly to
monitor multiparty elections and determines whether they are free and
fair or otherwise, yet he is a member of the Swazi royalty and has
been in the forefront for years, even using traditional weapons
against political activists, spearheading the call for democracy. He
is such a shame, yet an angel from a distance. These are the realities
of allowing hypocrites to seek an image facelift at a time when their
credibility is in crisis, SADC or the PAP would always be happy to
assist them divert issues or global attention from their own crisis in
their backyards to elsewhere. Marwick and Mswati must also tell us
about Swazi elections!


Bongani Masuku (International Relations Secretary)
Congress of South African Trade Unions
1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Streets
Braamfontein, 2017
Johannesburg
E-Mail: bongani@...


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