Swaziland@Newsletter 40
Published by Southern Africa Contact (Denmark)

Make sure you receive the newsletter, subscribe at:SAK-Swazinewsletter-subscribe@...
Previous issues can be read at:http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/SAK-Swazinewsletter

Swaziland@Newsletter is distributed to more than 1100 national and international organisations, research institutes, universities, trade unions and labour movements, political parties, church organisations, print and electronic media, governments, diplomatic missions, members of parliament, parliamentary committees and private individuals in Southern Africa, Europe and the United
States of America.

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

1. Media warned against criticising king. Media Institute of Southern Africa (Windhoek), August 29, 2006.

2. Swazi bomb suspects arrested on new charges. Independent Online (IOL/SA), September 9, 2006.

3. Small business training undermined by fraud. (IRIN) September 4, 2006.

4. Swazi lawmakers urge king to keep ban on political parties (Reuters), August 26, 2006.

5. Umlanga or Reed Dance: Culture versus exploitation. Swaziland Solidarity Network (Canada), September 4, 2006.

6. Focus on patterns of female sexual activity. UN Integrated Regional Information Networks, August 28, 2006.

7. Collapsing health system. Empty shelves in hospitals. UN Integrated Regional Information Networks, September 5, 2006.

8. "This constitution is a recipe for national strife..." People's United
Democratic Movement letter to African Human Rights Commission, read at http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/SAK-Swazinewsletter

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

1. Media warned against criticising king. Media Institute of Southern Africa (Windhoek), August 29, 2006

(T)he minister for public service and information, Themba Msibi, (has) warned the Swazi media against criticising the king, instilling further fear into an already timid press which cannot freely operate due to a perpetually hostile environment that continues to prevail despite the kingdom's new Constitution which guarantees freedom of expression.

The minister's threats followed a live radio programme of news and current affairs in which a human rights lawyer criticised the king's sweeping constitutional powers. Aired on the state broadcaster, the Swaziland Broadcasting and Information Services (SBIS), the human rights lawyer, Thulani Maseko, had been asked to comment on a visit by an African Union (AU) human rights team which was on a fact-finding mission to Swaziland during the week of 21 August.

In response, Maseko said that, as human rights activists, they had concerns about the king's sweeping constitutional powers and the fact that he the king was wrongfully placed above the Constitution. He said they were going to bring this and other human rights violations to the attention of the AU delegation.

Not pleased with the broadcast, the government was quick to respond. Msibi spoke on air the following day to sternly warn the media against criticising the king. He said the media should exercise respect and avoid issues that seek to question the king or his powers.

The minister said his message was not directed only to radio but to all media, both private and government-owned. He said that in government they had noticed that there was growing trend in the media to criticise the king when he should be above criticism and public scrutiny.

Management of the radio station was further called aside and told to "toe the line" or the government would be forced to "pull the plug" on programmes that are "wayward". A senior journalist at the radio station told MISA Swaziland: "Censorship is an everyday occurrence here. As a government medium, there is very little we can do. We just have to survive under the circumstances" ...

--------------------------------------
2. Swazi bomb suspects arrested on new charges. Independent Online (IOL/SA), September 9, 2006.

Four men accused of taking part in a string of bomb attacks in Swaziland last year have been arrested on separate charges of damage to property, police said.

Police say the suspects took part on Thursday in a protest by at least 1 000 University of Swaziland students, in which police vehicles were vandalised.

The protest was sparked by anger over scholarship fees that some students say have not been paid out to them.

Brian Shaw, Sipho Hlophe, Mfanawenkhosi Mntshali and Kenneth Mkhonta were out onbail, granted to them in the bombing case where they face charges of sedition.

They are all members of the banned People's United Democratic Movement party and have been outspoken critics of what they view as political intolerance in sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarchy.

The men were arrested at the Mbabane police station on Friday as they arrived for their regular reports, in keeping with their bail conditions.


---------------------------------------
3. Small business training undermined by fraud. (IRIN) September 4, 2006.

An initiative to kick-start Swaziland's struggling economy resulted in the government coffers being defrauded of R50 million (US$7 million).

A small business training scheme designed to nurture Swazi entrepreneurs has instead seen parliament appoint a commission of inquiry to trace the missing millions and test its recently declared anti-corruption drive.

The commission heard that the initial sum for the courses ballooned five-fold to R50 million ($7 million) without the authority of the finance ministry, despite two cabinet ministers being aware of the cost inflation, and several well-connected people becoming "overnight millionaires".

Some individuals and companies awarded tenders to conduct the training sessions were unqualified to do so, while others inflated the number of students attending the courses, and one company claimed R1.5 million ($214,000) for training what amounted to "ghost students".

The government committed R10 million ($1.4 million) to training people to run businesses after King Mswati III set a goal of stimulating the economy by creating a class of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Swaziland's economy has been in a steep decline for the past three years. Tens of thousands of jobs in the garment industry have disappeared and an annual growth rate of 3.6 percent has dropped to 1 percent. Once a net exporter of food to the region, two-thirds of its one million people now live below the poverty line, according to the United Nations Development Programme.

Musa Fakudze, Principal Secretary for the Ministry of Finance, said political pressure had forced her to release additional funds, even when these surpassed the allotted R10 million ($1.4 million), because parliamentarians were anxious to show they were doing something to create businesspeople in their
constituencies.

At a job summit last year, financial institutions backed the king's call to develop entrepreneurs and pledged to make R1.6 billion ($200 million) available as loans to small and medium entrepreneurs after they qualified. The trainees, mostly from rural areas, received certificates after the crash course, which they believed would entitle them to bank loans.

Stanley Maphalala, a director of Swazi Bank, told the commission that men armed with traditional fighting sticks had descended on branches of the financial institution demanding loans. "They said it was the 'king's money', and they were entitled to it."

However, Central bank governor Martin Dlamini told the commission that "the programme was not in line with what banks required from entrepreneurs", and normal banking practices had to be followed, such as collateral for loans and business plans, before money could be borrowed.

The scandal is seen as a litmus test of Prime Minister Themba Dlamini's stated "zero tolerance" for corruption. According to one businessman, "The culprits are known. If prosecutions are not forthcoming from the commission of inquiry's investigations, this will send a strong signal that 'it's business as usual'."
--------------------------------------

4. Swazi lawmakers urge king to keep ban on political parties(Reuters), August 26, 2006.

Swazi lawmakers urged the tiny country's king to maintain a ban on political parties in a rare debate this week on political reform in sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarchy.

Swathed in traditional red garments bearing King Mswati's image, more than half of Swaziland's 95 parliamentarians spoke out against political parties in a discussion late on Thursday, while only three said allowing parties was a good idea.

"All those who say they want political change ... should be put in an aeroplane and taken to the Democratic Republic of the Congo for a week," MP Maria Ntshangase said. "On their return, we will see whether they still harbour any thoughts of change." He was referring to the vast central African nation which just held inconclusive
elections marred by clashes between the main presidential rivals.

Swaziland introduced a new constitution earlier this year which makes no mention of whether political parties are allowed in the country tucked between South Africa and Mozambique, which is ruled by King Mswati III.

Swaziland holds elections but many of the parliamentarians are hand-picked by the king. The new constitution removes a reference to a ban on political parties but does not spell out whether they are allowed to exist or contest elections.

The underground People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) has called for international pressure on Swaziland to allow political parties to challenge the monarchy, but it remains marginal in this deeply traditional country that values the king as a symbol of national unity.

Two MPs have recently started fledgling political parties - one of them purely to test whether political parties are allowed under the new constitution. Their colleagues urged the king on Thursday to punish them.

"There are no political parties in the country as the constitution does not allow them," said MP Moi Moi Masilela, a former advisor to the monarch.

Swaziland is racked by poverty and has the world's highest rate of HIV, with some 40% of adults believed infected.

Some analysts say the king has deterred foreign investors and stunted economic growth by failing to embrace democracy. Aid workers say he encourages the spread of HIV by wedding multiple young brides.
--------------------------------------

5. Umlanga or The Reed Dance: Culture versus exploitation. Swaziland Solidarity Network (Canada), September 4, 2006.

Last week the king called all the flowers of the nation. In traditional Swazi culture people are divided into regiments according to age and the Imbali, the flowers, are teenage girls. Each year king Mswati looks over his 14 to 18 year old subjects and chooses yet one more female to give birth to his off-spring, the privileged ones.

The 'Flowers' from all over the nation gather to sing and dance - orphaned daughters who take care of their siblings, girls who enter the sex trade due to poverty, educated girls, and uneducated girls who can not attend school because of compulsory fees. A family can be fined if they do not send their daughters to the Reed Dance.

The girls may catch a glimpse of a princess or two wearing designer sun glasses and one inch artificial finger nails. It's hard to imagine them eating a traditional Swazi meal of pap and lakusha (porridge and greens) using their hands! This is not Swazi culture - it is aristocratic greed.

After the dance and festivities, the girls all go home and continue to be the most vulnerable in their society. Children and youth are often abused in Swaziland and reading through daily papers indicates how girls are perceived. Rape is reported on a regular basis, unbearable stories of fathers raping daughters, uncles raping nieces, men raping children and step-brothers raping their step-sisters. There are organizations which seek to help these victims of
abuse yet the government will not provide a safe society for young girls and women.

When basic rights are neglected how can a culture of exploitation be praised?

See http://swazilandsolidaritynetworkcanada.wikispaces.com/

--------------------------------------
6. Focus on patterns of female sexual activity. UN Integrated Regional Information Networks, August 28, 2006.

Swazi women have more sexual partners than men, a new study has found, but critics of the controversial report say this is driven by poverty.

Sixty percent of sexually active women said they had had at least two sexual partners in the past three months - 18 percent higher than men.

Although the survey tested the assumption that male sexual behaviour was the primary cause for Swaziland having the world's highest rate of HIV/AIDS infections, it did not absolve men, HIV/AIDS advocacy groups said in reaction to the report. About 33 percent of Swaziland's sexually active adults are HIV positive, according to this year's UNAids report.

The survey, which studied several hundred sexually active men, women and teenagers, was commissioned by World Vision, a developmental and humanitarian assistance advocacy group, in the impoverished southern Shiselweni region, where young women engaged in sex with multiple partners out of economic need.
"They start dating as early as eleven years [old], and they can date even more than four people at a time," said one participant.

Hannie Dlamini, who heads the AIDS support group, Deeply Concerned People Against HIV/AIDS, said the report was factually inaccurate. "What I know is that here in Swaziland, it is the men who propose to the women. The men are the predators, not the women".

Girls engaged in sex for money and the glamour that adult sexual relations bestowed on them, rather than love and marriage. "These young women are particularly vulnerable to unsafe sexual activities within transactional sexual relationships due to their weaker bargaining position relative to their male partners," the study commented.

HIV/AIDS activist Chris Mavuso said, "It's no longer black and white - sexually out of control Swazi men infecting powerless wives or rape victims - the study shows there is a grey area when it comes to behaviour, and blame enough to spread around."

World Vision suggested that the fight against HIV/AIDS stay focused on male sexual behaviour, because older men were usually the affluent lovers of younger girls. "Men must be agents of change in a culture where women do not have a voice."

However, this was unlikely to occur until Swazis were more open about sexuality. The report recommended that parents receive guidance on how to talk to their children about sensitive issues such as sex, sexuality and gender.

One young female member of a focus group commented, "It is not easy to talk about sexuality and HIV with our parents, especially because we are young and they do not expect us to engage in sex."

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

7. Collapsing health system. Empty shelves in hospitals. UN Integrated Regional Information Networks, September 5, 2006.

Hospital pharmacy shelves remain barren two weeks after Swaziland's government vowed to supply essential drugs that have been unavailable for months.

Parliament and the local press have clamoured for an explanation from the health ministry as to why drugs for emergencies and other conditions have not been procured, while patients are left with the option of purchasing medicines from retail pharmacies or private clinics, or go without.

People have been denied treatment at clinics and even the nation's largest referral hospital, the Mbabane Government Hospital, where senior medical officer Dr Austin Ezeogu described the situation as "chaotic". Operations in theatre have become problematic due to an absence of essential medicines, such as intravenous drips and resuscitation medication, while drugs to treat hypertension, diabetes and asthma are hard to come by.

The local press has ascribed the unavailability of drugs to a "petty squabble" between the health ministry and the Central Tender Board, which awards contracts to drug companies.
"It is embarrassing that after 37 years of independence we still cannot award a tender for the supply of hospital drugs for the whole year. The ministry of health stopped the awarding of tenders," said Elliot Sihlonganyane, chairman of the tender board.

He said no tenders for hospital drugs were awarded for 2005-06 because of health ministry foot-dragging, which he blamed on the personal interests of an official he declined to name.

The health ministry has had three ministers at its helm in the past 12 months, none of whom have addressed the acute shortage. The current health minister, Njabulo Mabuza, recently told parliament that the tender board was to blame for the delay, as well as the need to import all pharmaceuticals, mostly from neighbouring South Africa.

Swaziland has the world's highest HIV/AIDS infection rate - about 33 percent - and two-thirds of its one million people live below the poverty line, according to the United Nations Development Programme. Member of Parliament Moi Moi Masitsela has called on King Mswati III to intervene in the health crisis.

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

See photo section on the land, life and struggle of the Swazi people:http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/SAK-Swazinewsletter

Click on photos in each album to see enlarged version. Send digital material for inclusion in the photo archive to pmm@...

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.