SWAZILAND NEWSLETTER 24
Published by Southern Africa Contact (Denmark)


1. The frustrating fight against absolute power. By Stephanie Nolen, Globe
and Mail (Canada), 14 November 2005.

2. New law proposes death penalty to child rapists, 9 November 2005 (IRIN).

3. A tiny kingdom with a big problem. Interview with Bongani Masuku,
Secretary General of the Swaziland Solidarity Network, an umbrella body of
groups working for democracy in Swaziland. Pambazuka News, 4 November 2005.

4. Win beauty contest, and get 10 cows from the king. Nhlanhla Mathunjwa ,
The Swazi Observer (government-controlled), 10 November 2005.

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1. The frustrating fight against absolute power. By Stephanie Nolen, Globe
and Mail (Canada), 14 November 2005.

The bishop's phone does not ring. And truth be told, he has rather given
up hoping the call will come.
In May, Meshack Mabuza, the Anglican Bishop of Swaziland, led church,
union and civil-society leaders in submitting a petition to their King,
the last absolute monarch in Africa, asking that he reconsider the
adoption of a new constitution that consolidates power in the monarch's
hands. They made the same request to parliament and they have repeatedly
asked for meetings with the King, cabinet or the Prime Minister.
But there was no summons to the palace, no response call on the bishop's
phone, which the bishop is sure is tapped.
Instead, the situation in this small southern African kingdom continues to
deteriorate. A series of pipe bombings by unknown protesters have targeted
government and security-service offices. Unemployment continues to grow
and the AIDS infection rate climbs.

King Mswati III, meanwhile, has just taken another teenage bride and
quashed all public debate about his extravagances. And the country's small
band of democracy activists, frustrated but worried about the gradual
trend to violence, wonders how bad things can get.
"We're at a point where we are praying and imploring the government
authorities to talk to people they don't want to talk to," Bishop Mabuza
said. "We say dialogue is the answer, and the bombings and so on lately,
we don't take that lightly. Swaziland is a small country and if you have
to set it ablaze before you seriously consider dialogue and
reconciliation, you may find that nothing is left to reconstruct."
Swaziland's 1968 independence constitution set the country out as a
multiparty democracy. But in 1972, a new political party won three seats
from the royal Imbokodvo party, which had swept all previous contests.
Infuriated, the then king, Sobhuza II, banned political parties and
repealed the constitution.
But Sobhuza was not a total autocrat, and through the next years of his
rule he took cautious steps to open up politics in the country. He was
frugal and heavily concerned with international opinion.
But his son, Mswati (one of 210 children) was chosen to succeed Sobhuza
after his death in 1982. The young man was surrounded by royal advisers
with little intention of forgoing power, and Swaziland set out on a steady
decline.

The current King has shown himself to be a figure of almost hysterical
profligacy. His car collection numbers in the dozens, with the latest
acquisition a $500,000 (U.S.) Maybach 62. In the country with the world's
highest rate of HIV infection at 43 per cent of adults -- a prevalence
tightly connected to strong cultural approval for men to have multiple
partners, while women are shut out of sexual decision-making -- the King
persists in taking a new teenage bride every year, adding to a collection
that now numbers 13.

Just as unemployment hit 50 per cent a couple of years ago, the King
announced he planned to use public funds to buy a $45-million (U.S.) jet
from Bombardier. The combination of drought and AIDS has left his country
desperately short of food, but the King spent an estimated $1.7-million on
a party to mark his 37th birthday this year.
"He was filthy rich and also powerful [when he ascended to the throne in
1986]," said Musa Hlophe, who heads the Coalition of Concerned Civic
Organizations, which is campaigning for dialogue on democratization. "He
knows democracy will render him irrelevant."
Through the 1990s, dissent began to build slowly in Swaziland. Trade
unions started to speak out about the deterioration of the economy, and a
loose alliance of labour, the church, intellectuals and members of the
banned political opposition formed, all of them frustrated by the King's
expenditures and tightening grip on power.
In response, the King announced almost a decade ago that he was forming a
commission to draft a new constitution. He stacked the commission with his
loyalists, and to no one's surprise, they produced a document that left
virtually all power in his hands.
The constitution, which the King will likely proclaim as law in February,
gives him the right to veto bills passed in parliament and to dissolve the
assembly. It protects him from any investigation by government or any
obligation to respond to petitions in court.
"In terms of Swazi custom, you don't question the King, and the
constitution protects the king from being brought to the public arena to
answer," the bishop said. "If he can't be questioned or brought to a
public arena to answer, the constitution makes him a dictator, actually."
The spate of fire-bombings in recent months has raised the level of
tension. They have caused no injuries, but they have hit targets such as
the National Courts and the home of a government spokesman. Police have
made no arrests but suggested that the outlawed People's Democratic
Movement (PUDEMO) could be behind them, a charge denied by the group's
president, Mario Mausku.
"Obviously I do not know who has done it," he said. "But people need to
know that people are angry in Swaziland. It could be a starving person or
a desperate person and it could be that these angry people are members of
PUDEMO."
Like the bishop, Mr. Masuku says state security agents regularly follow
him and PUDEMO's meetings have been broken up by police wielding
truncheons.
The coalition plans to challenge the constitution in court, to appeal to
regional bodies such as the African Union, and to try to mobilize popular
protest in Swaziland, but that is no easy task. Civic education is
effectively illegal, because it is interpreted as criticism of the King.
Three-quarters of the people in this country are subsistence farmers, with
limited access to media and even less education, and a loyalty to
traditional culture, symbolized in the monarch.
Siphiwe Hlophe, one of the country's leading activists for people with
HIV-AIDS, said rural people's lack of knowledge of their rights is a huge
problem. "Automatically they will say yes. People are not informed, and if
the King says, 'Do you agree?' They say, 'Yebo' [yes]," she said.
The coalition's Musa Hlophe (no relation) said the lack of popular
uprising is understandable. "People connect bad governance with poverty
and the lack of schools and hospitals, but they won't go to the street to
protest because, at the end of the day, they have to go back to their
respective huts and to the chief who sees their faces in pictures or
footage of any protest -- and that's seen as an attack on the King, not on
the issue of his expenditures or his cars."
Under Swazi customary law, all land is owned by the King. Anyone seen as
challenging a chief (all of whom are appointed by the King) can be
expelled from his or her property, losing home and land.
"Humans are humans, you can't keep them in perpetual slavery," Bishop
Mabuza said. "They at some point or another come to ask, 'Why are we
hungry? Why are we poor?' "

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

2. New law proposes death penalty to child rapists, 9 November 2005 (IRIN).

In response to growing alarm over Swaziland's HIV infection rate, a draft
law proposing the death penalty for child rape and the intentional
transmission of the virus was released this week.
"Any person who is convicted of rape under this bill is liable to the
death penalty if the victim is below the age of 14 years, or to the death
penalty if HIV and AIDS are an aggravating factor, or to the death penalty
where such person has parental power over the child," reads the Sexual
Offences and Domestic Violence Bill of 2005.
The death penalty proposed in the bill for fathers or guardians who rape
and infect children in their charge with HIV is in response to widely
reported incidents of AIDS-related incest.
Attempts by health workers to disabuse HIV-positive men of the myth that
sleeping with a virgin cures them of the virus have not been entirely
successful. Swaziland has the world's highest HIV infection rate estimated
at around 40 percent of adults.
Consensual sex may also become a capital crime if an HIV-positive person
does not use condoms.
"A person who is HIV positive or has a life threatening sexually
transmitted disease who engages in unprotected sex with another person and
intentionally transmits such disease to such a person is guilty of an
offence and liable on conviction to the death penalty," the draft
legislation states.
The bill, drawn up by the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs,
emerged after consultations with health and social welfare groups, and the
general public.
But Amnesty International has criticised the retention of the death
penalty in Swaziland.
"We know from a human rights point of view that the death penalty could be
challenged. But people's views were unwavering on this subject. The logic
behind the bill is clear; it is known that sexual abuse survivors infected
with HIV are condemned to death," said Nonhlanhla Dlamini, director of the
NGO Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse.
The sexual offences bill echoes the new national constitution, due to come
into force next year, which permits cultural practices like "wife
inheritance" only if a woman consents.
If a woman is unwilling, those who force her into customs like virginity
testing or traditional marriage are liable to a minimum prison term of 10
years.
"Wife inheritance is one customary practice that can only be voluntary. In
Swazi culture, a widow goes to live with her dead husband's brother, and
becomes one of his wives. This has become a violation of a woman's rights
today if she is unwilling, and it has become a public health issue. The
practice has been cited as a contributor to the spread of HIV," said AIDS
counsellor Alice Fakudze.
Already outlawed, the bill further criminalises prostitution and abortion.
The new draft legislation also proposes the death penalty for anybody
convicted of trafficking girls aged under 16.
Abortion can earn a woman a minimum prison term of seven years, and a fine
of E20,000 (US $3,000), which is about a year's net salary for a low-grade
government worker.

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

3. A tiny kingdom with a big problem. Interview with Bongani Masuku,
Secretary General of the Swaziland Solidarity Network, an umbrella body of
groups working for democracy in Swaziland. Pambazuka News, 4 November 2005.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: What's the mood like in Swaziland these days with regards
to electoral reform and democracy?

BONGANI MASUKU: A mood of both despair and anger is the only way I can try
to interpret the situation on the ground. The people feel a sense of
despair, because they, for the meantime, are not able to stop the royal
regime bulldozing and imposing its interests on the whole nation, knowing
well that it has at its disposal all the instruments of force, whilst the
progressive voices have no adequate support to mount a sustained offensive
against this, at least for now. The international community is vocal
elsewhere - where its own interests are at stake - and silent on
Swaziland, where it is not interested or where its interests are best
secured by the current regime, which is part of the double standards we
see everyday in realpolitik.

The anger is informed by the fact that when all nations of the world are
discussing serious ways to develop themselves and confront major issues
like poverty, HIV and AIDS, unemployment, human security, sustainable
livelihoods, participation of women and economic justice through
redistribution, we have a situation in our country where the opposite is
true. We are still rooted in backward and primitive ways that safeguard
the selfish and greedy interests of a royal minority and their friends,
all in the name of culture. We are still unable to enjoy even the most
basic rights that other people elsewhere are beginning to take for granted
as given and inevitable, such as the right to form and belong to an
organisation of your choice, particularly on the basis of shared political
opinion.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: A post-9/11 anti-terrorism bill has been tabled again in
the Swazi parliament in the wake of two recent fire bombings in the
capital, Mbabane. Opposition groups are worried that King Mswati III might
use the legislation to stifle dissent. Are there grounds for this concern?

BONGANI MASUKU: Concerns around the Anti-terrorism Bill relate to the fact
that the definition of terrorism is not legitimate, neither is it broadly
agreed to, but is rather an attempt to stain the legitimate activities of
the progressive movement. PUDEMO, together with its youth wing, SWAYOCO,
have been the main victims in the past of this label, for obvious reasons.
In this regard, the regime is still looking for ways to legitimise its
illegitimate attack on the activities of the progressive movement, which
have become understood by every democracy-loving person all over the
world. It is trying to secure a space in the global atmosphere
characterised by insecurity, as a partner in the search for peace, but in
the process it is also seeking to use that space to crush the democratic
movement. It has used such acts for years, such as the definition of
political activities as criminal activities or outlawed/illegal
activities. These are the crude methods it has used to maintain itself in
power, hence the obvious fact that this is not meant to target some
terrorist somewhere, but the "terrorist", as defined by the royal regime.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: The government branded the firebomb attacks as
"terrorism". Were they?

BONGANI MASUKU: While we are not sure about the firebomb, we can only
assume that these are the legitimate expressions of accumulated anger by
the people and their response to the sustained wave of violence, state
terror and naked brutality being meted out by the regime against the
people. The people are not limited in the way they respond to
state-enforced terror, they respond in the manner they deem appropriate to
defend the cause they stand and believe in.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Swaziland's parliament consists of a 65-seat House of
Assembly, 10 of whose members are appointed by the king, and a 30-seat
Senate. All the senators are appointed, either by the House of Assembly or
the king. In this context, there have been calls for electoral reform.
What progress has or is being made in this area?

BONGANI MASUKU: With regard to the reformation of parliament and general
electoral reform, what we have seen are attempts to subvert legitimate
demands or calls for electoral reform through diversion, confusion and
reconfiguration of the people's legitimate intentions to suit the purpose
of the regime in seeking to maintain the fundamental base of the system,
but interfere with some of its manifestations in such a way that it
appears that there has been a change. In other words, the regime announces
change, but resists change in actual fact. It changes the gowns of the
rapists and not the character of the rapist, but parades the rapist as a
new person. This includes the fact that multiparty democracy is still
illegal, the media is still royal-controlled, the judiciary is still
royal-stage-managed and all structures of society are still coerced,
through overt and covert or subtle means.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: What is the path suggested by the Swaziland Solidarity
Network in terms of moving the country forward?

BONGANI MASUKU: The Swaziland Solidarity Network suggests a process that
could move the country forward underpinned by the following factors (our
perspectives are underpinned by the historic PUDEMO document, entitled
‘Way forward towards a Constituent Assembly through a negotiated
settlement’). In summary they state that:

a) There must be a commitment by the monarchy to a genuine process of
fundamental transformation in the form of a memorandum of intent; and to a
process underwritten by a credible international organisation to safeguard
against the tendency of the royal regime to renege on commitments;

b) This must be followed by a preliminary process, which shall be
inclusive of all formations in the country, which is popularly known as
the talks about talks on the critical issues facing our country. It is at
this stage that there will be formal removal of all laws that militate
against democratic progress and free political participation;

c) The next stage should be a negotiation stage, where the actual
negotiations about the kind of society Swaziland should be must take place
and all stakeholders must agree to a clearly defined process of
transformation in political and constitutional terms. The outcome of this
process shall include the draft constitution which shall guide the
elections of a Constituent Assembly;

d) The Constituent Assembly is the democratically elected body of
political representatives, mandated to formally write a constitution for
the country;

In broad political terms, this is part of the critical process needed to
drive forward the constitutional debate out of the current political
quagmire and structural dilemma into which years of royal misrule has
plunged our country. However, we also need a clear and workable
alternative political process, which seeks to unite all the progressive
organisations around a clear and viable framework for fundamental change
in Swaziland.

This requires leadership of stature, advanced political and organisational
foresight, mass mobilisation and a properly co-ordinated international
solidarity movement, to support the genuine cause of the struggling people
of Swaziland.

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

4. Win beauty contest, and get 10 cows from the king. Nhlanhla Mathunjwa ,
The Swazi Observer (government-controlled), 10 November 2005.

His Majesty King Mswati III has pledged 10 head of cattle should Miss
Swaziland Zinhle Magongo scoop the coveted Miss World title.
Bidding farewell to Magongo on behalf of the King was Minister of Home
Affairs Prince Gabheni at the Ministry's conference room yesterday.

Magongo, crowned August this year, leaves the country this morning to take
part in the Miss World Beauty Contest scheduled for the 10th of next month
at Sanya, China.
The minister stated that the King asked him to give Magongo a green light
to the contest.
“His Majesty and the whole Swazi nation are supporting you as you go out
to represent the country. You have proved to be the best and can be the
best in the contest in which you will be participating,” stated the
minister.
Prince Gabheni mentioned that His Majesty had sent him to remind Magongo
to retain the respect she had shown after being crowned Miss Swaziland.
“One thing you should retain is the respect you have. It is important that
you uphold such good behaviour even when you are away in China. That might
work for you during the contest,” he stated.
The King stated that he would be happy to learn that Magongo had won, and
the nation would celebrate the victory.
“It would be good for the nation to celebrate Magongo’s victory at the
Somhlolo National Stadium with all the10 head of cattle slaughtered during
the celebration. We hope she will make it,” he stated.
Prince Gabheni also invited the nation to pray for the beauty queen as she
leaves the country this morning.


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