SWAZILAND NEWSLETTER 28
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@...
-----------------

1. Swazi king crushes political opponents. Basildon Peta (Johannesburg).
The Independent (online edition), 13 January 2006.

2. King Mswati's time is up. Sunday Times (Johannesburg) EDITORIAL. 15
January 2006.

3. Press statement released by the National Executive Committee of PUDEMO
(Prople's United Democratc Movement), 12 January 2006.

4. Government to launch publicity campaign for new constitution (IRIN
Report), 11 January 2006.

5. Newsletter Background:
History of Swaziland: The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. 2005,
Columbia University Press.
----------------

1. Swazi king crushes political opponents. Basildon Peta (Johannesburg).
The Independent (online edition), 13 January 2006.

King Mswati III, the ruler of Swaziland, has outraged his critics by
arresting and jailing dozens of political activists, accusing them of
destabilising his regime. King Mswati's government claims the arrests are
linked to petrol bombings during protests last year against the Swazi
dictatorship. Critics said the arrests were aimed at crushing dissent in
Africa's last absolute monarchy.

More than 20 opponents of the monarchy have been arrested and charged with
high treason. If found guilty, they will be sentenced to death. All the
detainees are civic society activists and members of the banned opposition
party Pudemo, their lawyer Leo Gama said yesterday.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), a coalition partner
in South African President Thabo Mbeki's ruling alliance, has criticised
the arrests in Swaziland and urged African leaders to introduce sanctions
to pressure King Mswati into introducing political reforms.
Cosatu said the New Partnership for Economic Development, a project
initiated by the African Union to promote good governance in exchange for
economic aid from the West, would never be taken seriously unless African
governments took measures against dictators such as the Zimbabwean
President, Robert Mugabe, and King Mswati.

There was no comment from the South African government, which has been
challenged to take the lead in confronting King Mswati. Swaziland's
economy is entirely dependent on its neighbour.
King Mswati, 33, has become notorious for his lavish spending habits in a
country where a third of the 1.2 million population live in chronic
poverty. In 2003 he provoked outrage by attempting to use international
donations to buy a jet.
--------------------

2. King Mswati's time is up. Sunday Times (Johannesburg) EDITORIAL.
January 15, 2006.

TO MANY on the outside, King Mswati III is just a curiosity - a youngster
with an overcharged libido and the political power to feed it. The world
laughs at his quirks and his extravagances. When the Western press reports
on his excesses, they blithely refer to him as "Africa's last absolute
monarch".

But to the people of Swaziland, Mswati is a painful reality. In recent
weeks they have come face to face with that as Mswati's security forces
rounded up pro-democracy activists. Unable to solve a string of petrol
bomb attacks on government properties, the Swazi authorities are alleged
to have tortured the activists in a bid to extract confessions. Some have
been charged with sedition and high treason and face the death penalty or
life terms.

This latest attack on pro-democracy activists is nothing new in Swaziland,
a country where Mswati and his coterie of feudal traditionalists brook no
dissent. With most of the continent increasingly embracing democratic
norms, Mswati has shown no appetite for human rights. He continues to rule
by the law of decree, which his late father, King Sobhuza, instituted in
1973 when he scrapped the constitution and outlawed political parties.

South Africans need to awake to the horrors being perpetrated in the
little kingdom, and force Pretoria to act.
And when Mswati turns up for the African Union summit in Sudan next week,
those leaders who are committed to democratic ideals must let him know
that he is an unwelcome oddity in modern Africa.

-----------------
3. Press statement released by the National Executive Committee of PUDEMO
(Prople's United Democratc Movement), 12 January 2006.

1. The Political Environment in Swaziland.

We are saddened to see the state to which political conditions in our
country have deteriorated. The atmosphere we now live in is worse than in
a police state where people live in fear and uncertainty of both present
and future. We remind our fellow citizens of the king’s Proclamation of
12th April 1973, where the present king’s father unleashed a state of
emergency, took control of the security forces and outlawed political
freedom. We urge all Swazis to be calm, to view the authorities as the
dictatorship and aristocracy they are. We shall, no matter what, overcome!

PUDEMO acknowledges that there has, in the last few months in particular,
been a spate of bombings around the country. We regard these as signs and
voices of a people tired of the tinkhundla regime. Because the state has
reacted in the way it has, we will not judge the suspects. Suffice it to
say that all of them are members of the peoples’ organization and of our
youth league, SWAYOCO. There is, at this stage, no evidence of their
involvement in activities as outlined in the charges stated in the
indictments, and we believe that the state is merely intent on
destabilizing PUDEMO and its structures. The aim is to intimidate the
suspects, members of their families, employers, institutions of education,
and the communities they live in.

2. Our Solidarity with the Comrades.
No matter the circumstances, the leadership of PUDEMO, the entire
membership in our structures and Swazi citizens at large pledge our
unconditional solidarity with these martyrs. To this end we are providing
the best legal representation available at the organization’s expense for
ALL the accused. We, in addition, visit them wherever they are
incarcerated to ensure that they are in good health and spiritual
condition.

3. The Passing Away of LaFakudze – wife to Mduduzi Mamba.

We condemn in the strongest terms possible the death of comrade Mduduzi
Manba’s wife, LaFakudze, who passed away immediately after interrogation
and suspected torture by no less than eight members of the king’s royal
police force on the 29th December 2005 at Siphofaneni. The medical report
says a lot about the possible cause of death. The police, led by the
barbaric and notorious Khethokwakhe Ndlangamandla have said she was
‘uncooperative’ in their interrogations. How arrogant!

Further investigations and inquests shall be conducted to ascertain the
actual cause of her death.

4. Conclusion.

Under normal situations in a democratic country, one of whose hallmarks is
an independent judiciary, we would have hoped that the smooth wheels of
justice would take their course. This is, however, not the case in
Swaziland where the executive and the head of state are notorious for a
history of interference with the judiciary. The Zena Mahlangu, Macetjeni
and kaMkhweli matters are but a few examples of this.

This is a political case where the intention is to crush and to silence
the opposition in a state where the voices of the opposition is silenced
even by the so-called new constitution. PUDEMO will continue to be the
voice of the voiceless and oppressed, and calls for a proper national
dialogue towards a truly democratic dispensation and the final liberation
of our country. This we will carry out by all means at our disposal. We
also call on the SADC, AU and the international community to sternly judge
if our demands are unfounded. We, finally, call on our fellow citizens to
rally behind their organization, making every school, church, workplace
and community a site of struggle for our eventual liberation and the
transfer of power to the people. Amandla!
--------------------

4. Government to launch publicity campaign for new constitution (IRIN
Report), 11 January 2006.

MBABANE, 11 Jan 2006 (IRIN) - The Swazi government will start 2006 with a
publicity campaign for its new constitution, a document that has been at
the centre of much controversy, but which few people have actually seen.

Signed in July by Swaziland's absolute monarch, King Mswati III, the
constitution comes into force later this month. But legal commentators are
still unsure whether its wording can be interpreted to legalise opposition
political organisations.

Throughout 2 005, analysts noted the constitution's split personality: the
document is socially progressive, overturning centuries-old Swazi customs
to permit equality for women, while on the other hand it is politically
conservative, making no specific mention of the right of political parties
to exist, and the absolute powers of the king, first assumed by Mswati's
father in 1973, are also retained.

"What does it change politically? That is the main question," said Paul
Shilubane, president of the Swaziland Law Society.

The king will continue to appoint the prime minister and cabinet,
principal secretaries, chiefs and high court judges, and can dissolve
parliament. A Bill of Rights mentions freedom of speech and assembly, but
there is a caveat - all rights bestowed upon the Swazi people in the
constitution can be abrogated by the king if he considers them to be in
conflict with the public interest.

King Mswati, Prime Minister Themba Dlamini and other officials noted
during the year that if faults were found in the constitution they could
be handled through amendments. But for now, the government insists that
the majority of Swazis like being ruled by a king and distrust political
parties.

"We have every reason to be optimistic about the future under the new
constitution, which was signed by His Majesty King Mswati III. The 'rule
of law crisis' is over," asserted government spokesman Percy Simelane,
referring to the king's refusal to accept earlier legal rulings aimed at
limiting his powers.

Some special interest groups representing business, women, children and
the elderly are sanguine about life under the new national law. "We look
forward to the enactment of the constitution - women will be able to own
property, take out bank loans, sign contracts and assume the rights of
adulthood for the first time," said Thab'sile Khumalo, a women's rights
activist in the commercial city of Manzini.

Inclusion of the death penalty in the new constitution, at a time when
neighbouring South Africa and Mozambique have abolished capital
punishment, has drawn objections from human rights groups.

But the business community is happy with the constitution's protection of
private property rights.
"This will be good for foreign investment in the country. We in business
need such assurances," said a Swazi entrepreneur who works in the capital,
Mbabane, but preferred not to divulge his name because he is part of a
consortium that includes international partners and is planning to invest
in the country's mining sector.

The contentious issue of mineral rights, which has put the issuing of
mining and prospecting licenses on hold for years, is addressed in the
constitution, potentially unlocking the nation's iron ore and diamond
deposits. Tens of thousands of Swazi mine workers were retrenched in South
Africa during recent years, and reopened mines would help ease an
unemployment rate that climbed to 45 percent in 2005.

Despite the positive aspects of the document, Swaziland's pro-democracy
movement was unrelenting in its hostility to the constitution, and the
nine-year drafting process.

The Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civil Organisations, an umbrella
group of labour, human rights, legal and pro-democracy groups, described
the constitution-making process as a palace-run operation that excluded
input from progressive political forces.

But no "alternative constitution" was presented to the Swazi nation,
though one was promised. "We will test the constitution by street action
and court challenges," said Jan Sithole, Secretary-General of the
Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU).

The federation failed to enlist the cooperation of its members, much less
the general public, when it called for a national strike in January 2005
to protest the constitutional process.

A march on Lozitha Palace, 25 km east of Mbabane, was called in November
by SFTU and its civil coalition partners, but organisers cancelled the
demonstration when another poor turnout looked likely, and police warned
that marchers would not be permitted anywhere near the palace.

"People are afraid of getting beaten and gassed by the police, and why
shouldn't they be? What does it achieve?" said a student at the University
of Swaziland, located near Lozitha Palace. The police had unleashed
club-wielding Special Forces on students the month before, when they
marched to the education ministry in Mbabane demanding the resumption of
bursaries.

If 2005 saw no successful anti-government action on the part of
pro-democracy groups, pro-government public displays were also absent.
Commentators say Swazis are more concerned with the crises in their own
lives: two-thirds of Swazis live in chronic poverty, according to UNDP;
the health ministry acknowledges that over 40 percent of sexually active
Swazi adults are HIV positive; the number of orphans created after AIDS
kills their parents will rise by at least 10 percent this year, according
to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).

"For most people, these were the issues of 2005, and they are the issues
of 2006," commented a pastor, Albert Nxumalo. "Politics takes a back seat
to survival for most Swazis today."

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

5. Newsletter service:
History of Swaziland: The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. 2005,
Columbia University Press.

The ancestors of the Swazi probably moved into the Mozambique area from
the north prior to the 16th cent. Fleeing Zulu attacks in the early 19th
cent., they settled in present-day Swaziland. During the 1800s, Europeans
entered the area to seek concessions, and in 1894, Swaziland became a
protectorate of the Transvaal.

In 1906, Swaziland became a High Commission Territory ruled by a British
commissioner. Limited self-government was not granted until 1963, and four
years later Swaziland became a kingdom under a new constitution. On Sept.
6, 1968, Swaziland achieved complete independence but retained membership
in the Commonwealth of Nations. The king became the head of state,
administering through a cabinet and a prime minister chosen by parliament.

In 1973, King Sobhuza II (reigned 1921–82) abrogated the constitution and
assumed personal rule. The Swazi people continued to find a common cause
in resistance to incorporation into South Africa, which was favored by the
country's Afrikaner minority. The original constitution was formally
abolished in 1976. A new constitution was adopted in 1978, but it so
diluted the vote that the king ruled nearly absolutely.

In 1982, South Africa and Swaziland formally agreed to defend each other's
security interests, with Swaziland promising to deport African National
Congress (ANC) members back to South Africa. After 61 years as monarch,
Sobhuza died and Prince Makhosetive Dlamini was selected as his successor
in 1982; he was crowned King Mswati III in 1986.

The late 1980s were marked by periodic raids by South African troops
searching for ANC dissidents operating from Swaziland. In 1992, severe
drought conditions put Swaziland in danger of famine. During the 1990s a
series of protest actions by prodemocracy dissidents put increasing
pressure on the king. The country's first parliamentary elections were
held in 1993, but candidates for the lower house had to be nonpartisan and
were nominated by local councils (the upper house is largely appointed by
the king). Elections were also held in 1998.

The king still holds most power, and political parties remain officially
banned, although many operate illegally.
The early 21st cent. has seen increased pressure from opposition groups
for limitation of the powers of the king, who has been criticized for
abuse of power and personal indulgence, and for establishment of a
democratically elected parliament, but the king has steadfastly resisted
making any changes. A new constitution that the king approved in July,
2005, did not diminish the king's ultimate hold on power. The same month
the African Union's human rights commission criticized Swaziland for
failing to conform with the African Charter and gave the government six
months to rectify the situation.


-------------------
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.
==========================================