SWAZILAND NEWSLETTER 27
PUBLISHED BY SOUTHERN AFRICA CONTACT (DENMARK)

Please forward the Swaziland Newsletter to friends and colleagues who may
be interested. New readers can subscribe at
SAK-Swazinewsletter-subscribe@...

On the occasion of the recent arrests of members of the democratic
opposition in Swaziland, and of the extremely serious charges raised by
the prosecution, we urge the international community to follow events very
carefully. Reports of mistreatment of those arrested have already emerged.

The most recent development is the arrest of the secretary-general of the
People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), Ignatius Bonginkosi Dlamini.
It must be feared that the Swaziland royal government is intent on
crushing all democratic opposition within the country.
International vigilance is more than ever necessary.

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

1. Charged with high treason over bombings. Reuters/IRIN 4 January 2006 /
Michael Wines, The New York Times, December 24, 2005.

2. Statement on arrest of activists of the democratic movement. Swaziland
Solidarity Network (South Africa), 6 January 2006.

3. Swaziland Facing Tenth Year of Declining Growth. James Hall (IPS), 29
December 2006.

4. New approach to shanty towns gives residents rights and responsibilities
30 December 2005 (IRIN).

5. Selected bibliography. In order to meet a need for further information
on the historical, cultural, social and political development of
Swaziland, we include a selected bibliography in this newsletter.
----------

1. Charged with high treason over bombings. Reuters/IRIN 4 January 2006

If found guilty, members of a banned political party may face the death
penalty after being charged with high treason in connection with a string
of fire bombings against government targets.

The latter half of 2005 saw nearly a dozen bombings that targeted the
homes of police officers, government officials and government buildings.
Damage was minimal and no injuries were sustained, and to date no one has
claimed responsibility.
"We are trying to establish if there is any direct evidence linking the
suspects to the bombings," said Mario Masuku, president of the outlawed
political organisation, People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO).

The 13 arrested men, who allegedly belong to PUDEMO or its youth wing, the
Swaziland Youth Congress, have pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted
murder and malicious damage to government property. Government prosecutors
have requested that the accused be held without bail while investigations
continue. A bail hearing will be held this week.

Organised political opposition groups were banned by royal decree in 1973
by King Sobhuza, father of currently reigning King Mswati III. It is
uncertain whether a new constitution, due to go into effect later this
month, will lift the ban on political parties.

Marches and gatherings of a political nature are also prohibited and
police are uncomfortable with any form of public demonstration. On
Wednesday a march by rural women to protest against local criminal
activity that had led to the death of a school headmistress was banned,
but police did permit the women to hold a prayer meeting for the deceased
instead.

It is not known whether there is any forensic evidence placing the accused
at the sites of the bombings. In court prosecutors produced PUDEMO
pamphlets found in the possession of some of the accused, claiming this
was evidence of a desire to overthrow the government.
The pamphlets conveyed messages calling for freedom, such as: 'If the
people of Africa freed themselves, why not the Swazi? Now is the time',
'People must struggle for their freedom/ The war has just begun' and 'We
need to fight now/ PUDEMO must hit now'.

Police have been under intense pressure to solve the series of bombings,
which targeted the homes of government spokesman Percy Simelane and MP
Gundwane Gamedze, among others. Addressing an assembly of traditional
warriors this week, King Mswati referred to the bombings but downplayed
their political significance, saying: "Even though a few incidents aimed
at derailing the peace occurred, the Swazi nation clearly indicated that
you do not support such things."
-----------
Michael Wines writes in The New York Times, December 24, 2005.

About 10 pipe bombs and gasoline bombs have hit government offices, police
stations, and the homes of police officials and legislators. The evidence
against opposition members that has been made public is sketchy, limited
mostly to Democratic Movement leaflets reported to have been found near
one or two bombing sites.

The opposition has denied any role in the bombings. In an interview on
Friday, Mario Masaku, a businessman from the town of Manzini and the
Democratic Movement's longtime leader, said the party was committed to a
peaceful end to Swaziland's 255-year-old absolute monarchy, the only one
remaining in Africa. He stopped short, however, of rejecting violence
against the government of King Mswati III.

"Our party's principles are that of peaceful resolution of issues," Mr.
Masaku said. "We have only been rewarded with arrogance, harassment and
imprisonment. When we are attacked by the security forces, we retaliate.
That is a principle, a resolution we have passed. Whether it is our
members who did the bombings, it is for the courts to find out. He who
alleges must prove."

Whoever is behind the blasts, few impartial observers would dispute that
they reflect growing popular unhappiness with the monarchy's handling of
Swazi affairs. A tiny nation of 1.2 million people wedged between South
Africa and Mozambique, Swaziland staggers under some of the world's
highest rates for both poverty and H.I.V. infection, and its economy is
close to being at a standstill.

The rule of the 37-year-old king, who assumed the throne in 1986 at age
18, has been mired in controversy. While exhorting his subjects to
practice chastity and delayed marriage as measures against H.I.V., the
king has taken 13 wives, including a young teenager. That marriage
resulted in a fine for violating his own prohibition on marrying underage
partners.
He has also been sharply criticized for building extravagant palaces for
his wives and collecting dozens of luxury cars in a nation where
two-thirds of the population earns less than one dollar per day.

Swaziland has suffered minor unrest for years, and sporadic bombings and
arson attacks on government offices at least since 1995. But the latest
spate of violence appears to many to be more serious. It comes as the
government has placed the final touches on a new constitution, prepared
largely without public comment, which essentially confirms the status of
King Mswati as an absolute ruler and extends a 33-year ban on opposition
parties.

The constitution has given a focus to opposition to the king's rule. The
document allows the formation of nongovernmental organizations under very
limited circumstances, and permits public assemblies and other basic
rights, but only if the government deems them to be in the public interest.
The new constitution will apparently be declared law in February. Civic
organizations and political groups like the Democratic Movement, which has
declared itself legal in the face of a ban on parties, have tried to
organize against its acceptance. But so far they appear to have had little
effect, except for suggestions that the government may hear civic
organizations' criticisms of the document.

"Not just Pudemo, but the trade union movement, the nongovernmental
organizations, whomever you speak to, says that this constitution which
has been unleashed by the king has not been representative," Mr. Masaku
said. "It does not portray the wishes of the people. And therefore, the
people disown this supreme document."
--------------------

Note. According to government-controlled newspaper, 'The Swazi Observer',
those charged are: Mduduzi Mamba of Siphofaneni, Themba Mabuza of
Mbelebeleni, Vusi Shongwe of Sidzakeni, Goodwill du-Pont of Matsetsa,
Sicelo Mkhonta of Matsetsa, Kenneth Mkhonta of Nkwalini, Mfanawenkhosi
Mtshali of Gobholo, Sipho Jele of Mshikishiki, Mfanufikile Nkambule of
Nkwalini, Robert Nzima of Makholokholo, Mduduzi Dlamini of Mhlosheni and
Sipho Hlophe of Gobholo.

Those charged are alleged to have petrol bombed the following sites:
Siteki Station Commander's quarters, Siphofaneni Inkhundla, two houses
belonging to Siphofaneni MP Gundwane Gamedze, the Swazi National Court in
Mbabane, Siteki Swazi National Court, Government Spokesperson Percy
Simelane's quarters, two police flats at Extension three and government
quarters at Sandla.

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

2. Statement on arrest of activists of the democratic movement. Swaziland
Solidarity Network (South Africa), 6 January 2006.

The oppressive royal regime of Swaziland never stops to amaze us with its
undemocratic antics and constant aversion to the real issues affecting
Swaziland. The un-abated royal plunder of people's resources continues
unabated, and its imposed cultural hegemony through the undemocratic royal
Tinkundla system prohibits political freedoms and bans political parties.

The regime is filling its filthy jails with political activists from the
main liberation movement and its youth wing in Swaziland, the Peoples'
United Democratic Movement – PUDEMO.

Over the last years the King Mswati III’s autocracy has derided the
liberation forces with constant harassment and arbitrary arrests on
trumped up charges. Yesterday, the regime added to its litany of errors
and terrible antics by the arrest of comrade I.B. Dlamini, the General
Secretary of PUDEMO, who is currently kept at a place of torture, the
detention station in Lavumisa, in the south of
Swaziland.

All our comrades have been severely tortured since their round-up and
arrest from the beginning of November 2005 on the trumped-up charges of
high treason and sedition. We demand inspection by independent medical
doctors to check on their condition. One of the accused comrade's wife was
also tortured to death this past Wednesday. The methods used are intended
to force the comrades to admit to the charges so as to save their dear
lives.

The people of Swaziland have a right to use whatever means necessary and
possible to destroy their enemy and set themselves free. No restraint can
be measured against a destructive autocracy bent on bringing the country
to a complete crisis, and the only solace the people have is at any cost
to charge against the evils of tyranny and royal slavery with all their
might and power for their own freedom.

We pledge our unwavering support to the oppressed people of Swaziland in
this dreadful hour and have confidence in their course to freedom and
liberty.
We demand the release of our comrades with immediate effect and call on
our government to stop this dangerous tendency and draw back from the road
King Mswati III wants us to travel in Southern Africa. He must be stopped
now before he plunges Swaziland into a full-scale war of retribution.
Swaziland deserves better than autocracy and the mistreatment of political
activists and prisoners.

Isued by the Swaziland Solidarity Network (South Africa).
For more information contact: Lucky Lukhele ssn@...
--------------------

3. Swaziland facing tenth year of declining growth. James Hall (IPS), 29
December 2006.

How is a small country to compete in a global marketplace where size is
rewarded? Case in point is the tiny Southern African country Swaziland,
nestled between the geographic giants South Africa and Mozambique. Its
neighbouring countries also have booming economies, while Swaziland is
mired in its tenth year of declining economic growth.

New thinking must come into play if the little kingdom is to survive as a
viable state.

"Economically, 2005 was defined as either disappointing or downright
disastrous, depending on who is speaking. No one had a positive appraisal.
We learned it can no longer be business as usual, because there is no such
thing as business as usual in a changing world," said Richard Dube, a
public transport company owner.

The two pillars that sustained the country's economy, textiles in the
industrial sector and sugar in the agricultural sector, suffered enormous
losses in 2005, resulting in massive layoffs that reversed the employment
gains of the past five years.

But even ''recession proof'' businesses like Dube's bus company took a
hit, when fares raised, in response to large petroleum price hikes, cut
into passenger numbers.

Also, with nearly half of garment manufacturing companies closed since
2004 and thousands of workers laid off, in the sugar belt, fewer employees
mean fewer riders.

"The trickle down effect of major problems in the economy's leading
sectors, impacting smaller businesses like goods suppliers and services,
is spreading the misery. A new set of priorities to refocus the economy is
required,'' said an economist with the Central Bank of Swaziland.

The Bank reported, ''Official estimates put real GDP (gross domestic
product) growth at 2.1 percent. Given the estimated population growth rate
of 2.9 percent, the unimpressive economic growth implies a deterioration
of the standard of living as measured by per capita income.''

The downward trend in economic performance - last year's GDP growth was
2.9 percent - was attributed to a low growth rate in foreign direct
investment, weaker performance of the manufacturing sector and low
agricultural productivity.

In a country where the livelihoods of 70 percent of Swazis are tied to
agriculture, the industry's contribution to the national economy fell to
8.6 percent from 8.7 percent last year. Mining, manufacturing and
construction also contributed slightly less to GDP.

Swazi exports were less attractive globally, particularly garments
produced by Asian-owned clothing factories that began operations in the
late 1990s to take advantage of Swaziland's favourable trade treaties with
the United States and Europe. The robust South African rand, to which the
Swazi currency, the lilangeni, is linked, made Swazi exports less of the
bargains they once were. The introduction of cheaper Chinese-made garments
prompted the closure of some major clothing factories.

The strong rand also made Swazi sugar less competitive, at a time when the
European Union said it would pay 36 percent less for sugar it is obliged
to purchase from Swaziland through a treaty intended to boost the small
nation's economy.

Agriculture's poor performance, the Central Bank reported, "exacerbated
the already severe problem of high unemployment, income inequality and
poverty".

Government had hoped that the textile companies would lead the way to a
new era of job creation. But the Central Bank found a reversal in the
employment situation that saw tens of thousands of Swazis finding jobs in
garment factories as recently as 2002.

"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. Employment opportunities were
further undermined by limited investment in other labour-intensive
industries. In addition, existing companies continued to shed some workers
and to outsource non-core activities,'' the bank reported.

So, economists and government planners are asking at year's end, what is
to be done?

One initiative that generated optimism this year was a 'Job Summit' called
by King Mswati in July. To brainstorm new ideas, hundreds of
representatives from the nation's largest companies gathered at the
International Trade Fair in Manzini, the commercial hub of Swaziland,
located 35 kilometres east of Mbabane.

What resulted was a consensus that small and medium enterprises should be
''empowered'' through access to capital. In the theory that if successful,
these small Swazi businessmen and women will evolve into titans of
industry, various companies pledged financial assistance.

Only after the rosy hue of good feeling that pervaded the conference had
dimmed did the reality set in that financial institutions were extending
credit only to qualified applicants, as they had always done, and no new
pool of funding was available.

For years, government had sought to wean small landholder farmers away
from strictly subsistence farming to cultivating cash crops to sell at
profit through export. Until the downturn of sugar's fortunes, peasant
farmers were encouraged to form cooperatives to grow sugar cane.

''We learned that over-reliance on a single crop can be disastrous. We
told farmers not to grow just one crop - maize, which is Swazis' staple
food - only to have them rely on another crop, sugar. Now we are
encouraging flexibility, and more sensitivity to market demands. 2006 will
see more fruits and vegetables grown, and cotton in drought-prone areas,''
said Sandile Kunene, an agriculture field officer in the southern
Shiselweni Region.

The same need for diversification now guides industrial growth, while
retaining foreign direct investment already in the country.

"We need to attract new businesses, while keeping those already here,''
said Bhekie Dlamini, chief executive officer of the Swaziland Investment
Promotion Authority (SIPA).

Better road infrastructure, a more reliable power supply, and coming to
grips with AIDS, which is devastating the workforce, are cited as
necessities to lure investors.

''It's a highly competitive world, and the dilemma for all small nations
is to carve a niche for themselves, create a uniqueness, because they
don't have size and lots of resources in their favour,'' said the Central
Bank economist.

For Swaziland, that means capitalising on its own unique identity as a
traditional African kingdom. From tourism (oversees visitors are being
lured by a marketing campaign drawing them to ''the Royal Experience'',)
to finding new uses for indigenous products û a line of cosmetics was
launched by the Queen Mother and to be sold internationally are made from
the local marula fruit.

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

4. New approach to shanty towns gives residents rights and
responsibilities. 30 December 2005 (IRIN).

Rather than bulldozing the countries growing informal settlements, Swazi
authorities plan to give residents property rights and access to services
under a series of new urban development projects.

For the past decade, Mbabane City Council has imposed a building ban on
permanent structures until a plan could be devised to bring order to
Mvakwelitje and other rapidly growing ad-hoc settlements.
"Every rainy season we pray there will not be another cholera outbreak
like the one that claimed lives in 1985. To outsiders and officials who
want to make Mbabane and Manzini [the country's commercial hub 35 km east
of the capital] modern cities, the informal settlements are a blight on
the urban landscape.

But they are no fun for residents, either," said Siphisile Vilakati, a
Manzini healthcare worker.
More than a third of Swazis live below the poverty line, and 40 percent of
all adults out of a population of 1 million are HIV-positive.
Vilakati lists the hardships faced by the settlement residents she assists
through a home-based care project for AIDS patients: "There are few dirt
roads and no paved roads, sometimes not even footpaths; no water, no
sanitary facilities, few or distant schools, stores or clinics, no
landline phone system, no electricity."
The Urban Development Project, under the Ministry of Housing and Urban
Development and partly financed by World Bank loans, is one initiative
launched to address these needs.

In Mbabane it has laid roads, brought in electricity and water, and
surveyed settlements to be upgraded.
"The Urban Development Project does not build houses. It creates
conditions for owners to develop their plots in planned, serviced
communities," said John Lowsby, a consultant with the scheme.
Another, local initiative, the Mbabane Urban Upgrading and Finance
Project, has the same goal: to evict no one, but rather create conditions
that enable residents to own their plots, and improve them.
Many residents of informal settlements on the edges of Mbabane and Manzini
already consider themselves owners of their housing plots, having paid the
traditional gift of a cow to a chief for the right to settle under his
jurisdiction.

The Mbabane plan requires residents to purchase their plots for a second
time, but under conditions that vary according to the homeowners' ability
to pay. The construction suspension would be lifted, and plot owners would
be free to construct rental properties on their land, subject to density
and health considerations, or sub-divide and sell their plots.

Unsafe areas will be excluded from the plan. Informal settlements
established in flood planes will be evacuated, with residents offered
government-built houses in line with a resettlement scheme currently used
for home owners displaced by highway and other public works construction.

While residents and grassroots NGOs applaud the governments' efforts to
bring services and planning to informal settlements, controversy surrounds
the requirement that plot owners eventually pay property taxes and get
billed for their water and electricity consumption.
"Many of the people who live here get their water from springs, or
(communal) neighbourhood standpipes at very low cost. They gather twigs
from around to build fires to cook, so they don't need electricity," said
Nathie Dlamini, an unemployed waiter who lives in the Moneni settlement
east of Manzini, an area surveyed by the Urban Development Project for
upgrading in 2006.

Maria Bulunga, a 74 year-old resident of Mangwaneni settlement in Mbabane,
quoted in a city report on resettlement, said "Many people are happy that
they are getting nice houses - what they don't realise is that in the new
houses they won't be able to use their charcoal or wood stoves. They will
be using only electric source, which will lead to a high electricity bill
that they won't be able to pay. They don't realize that actually they are
getting thrown out of here, and ultimately they will get thrown out of
there too when they can't pay."

Bulunga and other settlement residents are aware of city government's
periodic auctioning of plots whose owners fail to pay property taxes. The
Mbabane survey found that the elderly, who have insufficient or no income
to pay property taxes, were particularly concerned.
Proponents of the taxation system note that this revenue subsidises
improvements required by all residents, such as road construction, street
lighting, garbage collection, sanitation and other infrastructure and
serves to protect the environment.

The Mbabane survey found that residents were far more willing to pay once
the concept was explained to them: "Not one of the families we talked to
had the slightest notion of the purpose of rates, when we explained the
concept they were much more accepting of the fact that rates are a
necessity."
The survey concluded that "the commonly held belief that people are
opposed to or unwilling to pay rates or development costs is largely a
myth."

Staggered or deferred payments, special subsidies for the elderly, and
other schemes to ease the burden on the poor will be folded into the
informal settlement upgrade schemes.
The goal is to create a new group of property owners who will be able to
acquire bank loans for home improvements, have access to city services,
and transform their own communities and quality of life.
-----------

5. Selected bibliography on Swaziland

Monographs:

Bonner, Philip, Kings, commoners and concessionaires: the evolution and
dissolution of the nineteenth-century Swazi state. Cambridge: Cambridge
University
Press,1983 (viii, 315 p.)

Booth, Alan R.,Swaziland: tradition and change in a southern African
kingdom.
Boulder, Colorado: Westview,1983. (xi, 156 s.)

Bowen, Paul N., A longing for land: tradition and change in a Swazi
agricultural
community. Aldershot: Avebury Publishers,1993. (viii, 248 p.)

Grotpeter, John J., Historical dictionary of Swaziland. Metuchen, N.
J.,1975.
(XI. V, 251 p.)

Penn, Helen, Unequal childhoods : young children's lives in poor
countries.
Kazakhstan - Swaziland -- India - Brazil. London : Routledge, 2005. xviii,
219 p.

Rose, Laurel L., The politics of harmony: land dispute strategies in
Swaziland
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1992. (xviii, 234 p.)

Vletter, Fion de, Cappetta, Marlene et al., The Swazi rural homestead.
University of Swaziland. Social Science Research Unit. 1983. (337 p.)

Articles:

Richard Levin, Swaziland's tinkhundla and the myth of Swazi tradition.
Journal of
contemporary African studies. - Vol. 10, no. 2 (1991), pp. 1-23.

Miranda, Miles, Missing women: Reflections on the experiences of Swazi
migrant
women on the Rand, 1920–1970. GeoJournal (Historical Archive), Volume 30,
Number 1, May 1993, pp. 85 - 91.

Miranda Miles, For the sake of the children: coping strategies of women in
Swaziland's
domestic service sector. GeoJournal (Historical Archive), Volume 39,
Number 1, May 1996, pp.81- 88.

Miranda Miles, Jonathan Crush, Personal Narratives as Interactive Texts:
Collecting and Interpreting Migrant Life-Histories. The Professional
Geographer. Vol. 45,
Issue 1, February 1993.

Paul T. Cocks, The King and I: Bronislaw Malinowski, King Sobhuza II of
Swaziland and the vision of culture change in Africa. History of the Human
Sciences,
Vol. 13, No. 4, 25-47 (SAGE Publications 2000).

Jock McCulloch, Dust, Disease and Labour at Havelock Asbestos Mine,
Swaziland.
Journal of Southern African Studies Volume 31, Number 2 / June, 2005, pp.
251-266.

Hugh Macmillan, Swaziland: decolonization and triumph of tradition.
Journal of
Modern African Studies, vol. 23, no. 4 (1985), pp. 643-666.

Matlosa K., Democracy and Conflict in Post-apartheid Southern Africa:
Dilemmas
of Social Change in Small States. International Affairs, Volume 74, Number
2, April
1998, pp. 319-337.

Rose, Laurel L. "Women's Strategies for Customary Land Access in Swaziland
and Malawi: A Comparative Study". Africa Today - Volume 49, Number 2,
Summer
2002, pp. 123-149.Indiana University Press.

Royals and rurals: impasse in Swaziland. Southern Africa Report SAR, 13/3,
May 1998. AfricaFiles Correspondent.

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

SWAZILAND NEWSLETTER is published by Southern Africa Contact (SAC,
Denmark), and appears twice monthly. If there are suggestions as to the
content of the newsletter, please let us know at pmm@...

If you wish either to subscribe or discontinue subscription send a mail
to: SAK-Swazinewsletter-subscribe@...

Earlier issues can be read at
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/SAK-Swazinewsletter

Support the democratic movement in Swaziland. Donations can be made
through the MANDELA FUND: BG Bank, Norre Voldgade 68, 1358 Copenhagen K,
Denmark. SWIFT-BIC: DABADKKK. Registration Number: 0274. Account Number:
3327000. The MANDELA FUND is a registered national collection in Denmark.
==========================================