SWAZILAND NEWSLETTER 22
Published by Southern Africa Contact (Denmark)

1. Seven members of Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO) arrested. Mathokoza
Thwala, The Swazi Observer, 4 October 2005.

2. Rivers and springs dry up: threatening water disaster. 6 October 2005
(IRIN).

3. Swazi economic growth knocked by cheap imports. Business Day (SA), 5
October 2005.

4. Demonstration planned at end of month to protest the king's powers.
Andrew Meldrum, Guardian (UK), October 7, 2005.

5. Swaziland is burning, and like Rwanda the world community is an
uninterested spectator. Statement by Ignatius Bonginkosi Dlamini, General
Secretary, People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), 7 October 2005
(Excerpt). Full statement can be read at www.sydafrika.dk

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1. Seven members of Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO) arrested. Mathokoza
Thwala, The Swazi Observer, 4 October 2005.

Seven men, suspected to be members of the Swaziland Youth Congress
(SWAYOCO), were on Saturday arrested after a skirmish with police.The
organisation’s chairperson, Alex Langwenya, is among those locked up.
Police acting Public Relations Officer Inspector Sabelo Dlamini confirmed
the incident.

He said the men yesterday appeared at the Manzini Magistrates' Court,
where they were each offered a E1 500 bail. It could not be ascertained
whether or not they had paid the bail by late yesterday.

The members are said to have joined a peaceful churches march and
attempted to ‘steal’ the platform to discuss politics, but were
unsuccessful.

The group is said to have initiated a separate march at Ngwane Park near
Lidwala shopping complex, blocking the street with stones while chanting
political slogans. Motorists are said to have immediately alerted police,
after which the seven were apprehended. Chaos reportedly erupted as soon
as police arrived to disperse the crowd. Eyewitnesses said police vehicles
were pelted with stones.

However, the police mouthpiece assured that no one was injured. He said it
was only the police vehicles which were damaged.

Dlamini clarified that the seven were not linked to the recent bombings of
the Mbabane National Court and government spokesperson Percy Simelane’s
house.

Contacted for comment, SWAYOCO National Organising Secretary Kenny Kunene
said the organisation recently convened a General Council meeting, where a
lot of issues were deliberated on.

“The rally was aimed at delivering the outcome of the General Council to
the community in the hope that the news would easily spread to other
communities. What was discussed during the Council included issues of
unemployment, abolishment of school fees and grants for the unemployed,”
he stated.

Kunene added that they were largely worried about their members currently
behind bars.

Asked whether the rally was legal or not, he said: “You know that we are
not recognised here in Swaziland.”

People’s United Democratic Movement’s General Secretary Bonginkosi Dlamini
said a lawyer was working on the issue, and reserved his comment.

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2. Rivers and springs dry up: threatening water disaster. 6 October 2005
(IRIN).

Swaziland's Water Services Board is gearing up to truck six million litres
of water to drought-stricken areas along the border with Mozambique as the
country grapples with a serious water crisis.

The southern and eastern lowveld regions of the country appear to be
entering their sixth year of drought: rivers and ground-fed springs that
once supplied small amounts of water have dried up during an extended heat
wave that began in late winter and has continued through spring.

Ben Nsibandze, director of the National Disaster Task Force Early Warning
Unit, said Swaziland might appeal to international donors for assistance
in trucking water to drought-hit communities. The national water board's
donation of six million litres is a scaled-up version of a government
programme that currently supplies water to some schools.

Two schools in the hard-hit area near the Lomahasha border post in the
northeast have not received water, and have run out of funds to purchase
it at R300 (US $46) per 5,000 litres. The schools informed their
constituency representative, MP Menjeni Mahlalela, that they would have to
close down before students could sit for exams if no relief was
forthcoming.

Residents of bone-dry, poverty-stricken Malindza, 40 km west of the
border, had to pay up to R5 for 100 litres of water from farms with
boreholes, and some residents reportedly travelled 20 kilometres to buy
water.

At Lomahasha border post, residents who used to draw water from a natural
spring now find it dry during the daylight hours. "We have to go to the
spring in the middle of the night, about 2 a.m., when the water starts
flowing again. Before dawn, what little water there is has been
exhausted," one resident reported.

In other areas of the lowveld, cattle and humans shared the remaining
watering holes, prompting health officials to express concerns about the
spread of disease.
The central Manzini region, the agricultural heartland of the country, has
had hardly any rain in months. Gunmetal skies over the commercial hub of
Manzini town have failed to yield measurable rain in four weeks.

In its newly published report on the national economy, the Central Bank of
Swaziland blamed drought conditions for a growing nationwide food
shortage. A source at the bank told IRIN that weather predictions by the
National Meteorological Service indicated poor rainfall during the
planting season, which usually begins in October.

"Clearly, we will continue to see an underperformance in the weather-
dependent agricultural sector if the rain patterns of the past years
persist," the source commented. However, MPs from drought-stricken areas
say food is not the only concern - their constituents are becoming
increasingly desperate over their inability to secure water for drinking,
washing and cooking.
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3. Economic growth further weakened. Business Day (SA), 5 October 2005.

Cheap Chinese textile imports, a drought and the national currency’s peg
to the robust rand combined to weaken Swaziland’s economic growth last
year, its central bank said on Monday.

In its annual report for the 2004 financial year ending March 2005, the
Central Bank of Swaziland said slowing gross domestic product (GDP) growth
had increased poverty in the kingdom, which is struggling to attract
foreign investment.

“Official estimates put real GDP growth at 2,1% in 2004. Given the
estimated population growth rate of 2,9%, the unimpressive economic growth
implies a deterioration of the standard of living as measured by per
capita income,” it said.

GDP growth in the previous year was 2,9%.
Inflation eased to 3,4% in 2004 from 7,2% the previous year.

Swazi unemployment, which reflects a chronic jobs shortage across southern
Africa, worsened with only 62700 jobs registered in the formal sector —
down 2% on 2003 — in a country of 1-million people. There are no official
estimates for the jobless rate.

“Accounting for the decline in job opportunities was the loss of
competitiveness of Swazi products in world markets, which resulted in the
closure of a number of textile companies,” the central bank said.

Swaziland’s lilangeni currency is tied at parity to the rand, which
reached a 6,5- year peak against the dollar in late 2004 after three years
of steady gains.

About 70% of Swazis’ livelihoods are tied to the land, but the spread of
HIV/ AIDS, drought and falling agricultural production have left a quarter
of the population dependent on foreign food aid.

Two in every five adults are estimated to be HIV positive.

Production and exports of sugar, canned fruit and citrus fell in 2004 and
meat production was down by half.
Overall agricultural production slipped to 8,6% of GDP from 8,7% the
previous year.

The agricultural product to see a gain was paper pulp, production of which
rose to 180590 metric tons in 2004 from 167734 metric tons in 2003.

The central bank said declining agricultural production had “exacerbated
the already severe problem of high unemployment, income inequality and
poverty”.

But property prices rose, particularly in the upmarket neighbourhoods of
the capital Mbabane, which one economist said reflected a growing divide
between rich and poor. Reuters

----------------------------


4. Demonstration planned to protest the king's powers. Andrew Meldrum,
Guardian (UK), 7 October 2005.

A long simmering struggle between Swaziland's King Mswati III and groups
calling for constitutional reform threatens to come to a head at the end
of this month with a demonstration planned to protest the king's powers.
Swazi trade unions, church groups and civic organisations announced today
that they will hold a march urging democratic rights in the capital,
Mbabane, on October 28.
The civic coalition is protesting against a new constitution put forward
by the king, which they say will entrench the king's absolute powers and
smother democracy.

The banned opposition party, the People's United Democratic Movement
(Pudemo) supports similar goals, but is forbidden from holding public
gatherings.
The government, which is controlled by the king, warned that it will use
force to block any anti-government protest. In mid-September the police
used tear gas and water cannon to break up a march by university students
seeking a resumption of government scholarships.
"We are determined to go ahead despite the government's threats," said Jan
Sithole, the leader of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions. "There is
no price tag to our freedom. We simply want to march peacefully. If our
simple call for dialogue about our constitution causes a spillage of blood
by the authorities, it would be most unfortunate."
Mr Sithole said a national prayer meeting will be held on October 22 by
the Swaziland Council of Churches in preparation for the protest march.
The civic groups call for a new constitution that will curb the king's
powers, and they urge greater rights for women. Adult Swazi women remain
minors under the current law and do not have the right to hold bank
accounts in their own name or sign legally binding contracts.
"We are calling for all parts of Swazi society to be involved in the
drawing up the constitution. We are calling for a clear separation of
powers, full legal rights for women, fundamental rights for all citizens
and rights for political parties," Mr Sithole said.
Tensions have risen in the picturesque mountain kingdom, a tiny enclave of
1.1 million people sandwiched between South Africa and Mozambique. At the
end of September two firebombs exploded at government targets. One was
detonated at the home of government spokesman Percy Simelane, and another
went off in the Swazi national court building in Mbabane a few hours
later. No one was hurt in either explosion.
The Swazi prime minister, Themba Dlamini, branded the bombings "terrorist
attacks" and police said they suspected Pudemo because a pamphlet by the
group was found at the courthouse.
Pudemo's president, Mario Masuku, categorically denies involvement.
"We had nothing to do with those bombs. It is an outrageous and flimsy
charge. We will always be peaceful, even though the government has
absolutely denied us all opportunities for dialogue."
Mr Masuku and 10 other Pudemo members were acquitted of high treason in
1990. In 2003 he was acquitted of sedition. Pudemo has been the strongest
critic of King Mswati's new constitution, which is designed to replace the
one his father annulled in 1973.
King Mswati, 37, is Africa's last absolute monarch. He is criticised for
spending lavishly on palaces and fast cars and for advocating polygamy in
the country with the world's highest HIV/Aids rate. In late September he
chose a 17-year-old girl as his 13th bride a week after watching more than
50,000 bare-breasted virgins in the annual reed dance.
Mr Masuku and other critics charge that the king sets a bad example in a
country where an estimated 40% of adults are HIV-positive, and they
criticise his spending while 66% of the population live on less than a
dollar a day and a third of the people are reliant upon international food
aid.
Yet the genial king is generally well liked. "The king is popular, there
is no doubt about that," said Mr Sithole. "We are not saying to do away
with the king. We would like to see the monarchy placed above reproach and
out of day-to-day politics. We would like a constitutional monarchy."
The influential International Crisis Group (ICG) said Swaziland will only
begin to pull itself out of rural poverty once it jettisons the absolute
rule enjoyed by King Mswati and strengthens its democracy.
The ICG report, entitled Swaziland: The Clock is Ticking, warns of growing
conflict between democratic forces and the monarchy and concludes: "The
country needs a new political dispensation that harmonises the history,
culture and traditions of its people with a democracy based on universal
suffrage and popular participation. The monarchy can still save itself if
it moves quickly to support meaningful limits on its powers."

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5. Swaziland is burning, and like Rwanda the world community is an
uninterested spectator. Statement by Ignatius Bonginkosi Dlamini, General
Secretary, People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), 7. October 2005
(Excerpt). Full statement can be read at www.sydafrika.dk

In the last weeks Swaziland has experienced spate of bombings. The
government motor mouth, the ultra conservative Percy Simelane’s house was
visited at night. There was no damage of note. Then there were the
offices, which are used to enforce conservative and archaic doctrines
called a national court, which was not that lucky. It was severely burnt.
Prior to that there was limited damage to centres of oppression, the
Tinkhundla offices.

The extent of the damage to these symbols of oppression is not important.
What is significant is that the enemy of the people is under siege. As
expected, the Dlamini family is blaming the peoples’ movement, PUDEMO, for
the latest development. But there is nothing further from the truth; the
Dlamini family is itself to blame.
….
Various sectors of the people are not happy with the king and his family.
This unhappiness arises from the state of the economy, poverty, lack of
educational support, slave wages. A lot of people do not approve of the
way they are governed. When a regime is as oppressive as the one in
Swaziland, it is not abnormal for the people to react in different ways.
In short, anyone in Swaziland can have planted the bombs. To blame PUDEMO
as if the problems faced by the people of Swaziland are selective to
members of the Movement is mischievous and should be dismissed with the
contempt it deserves.

However, it is clear that wherever people are oppressed, such incidents of
violence will take place.

To the king, we say allow the people their freedom and Swaziland will be
saved from self-destruction.

King Mswati will be remembered as the King who failed the people of
Swaziland. He will be remembered as a last king who allowed the country to
engage in a bitter civil war that destroyed this tiny African state at a
time when the rest of the region was embracing democracy and progressing
forward.

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