Swaziland Newsletter 45
Published by Southern Africa Contact (Denmark)

Earlier issues can be read at
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/SAK-Swazinewsletter together with documents
and other materials not included in the regular newsletter. To subscribe to the
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1. Prime Minister: Swaziland's increasingly negative international image is
cause for concern. Reuters/AlertNet, 10 January 2007.

2. King stands on black bull and has intercourse in the bushes in ceremony
celebrating harvest and power. Associated Press, 6 January 2007.

3. Criticism of Swaziland media for neglecting real issues. James Hall,
IRIN/PLUSNEWS, 14 December 2006.

4. Donation eases food crisis. $900,000 to Swaziland. Still huge shortfall in
funds to feed southern Africa. Reuters, 11 January 2007.

5. Apparent contradiction between poor food security and obesity rates.
Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), 4 January 2007.

6. Sanctions against the ruling regime in Swaziland. For full text of resolution
adopted by the People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) 6th General
Congress held in South Africa, December, 2006, see
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/SAK-Swazinewsletter

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1. Prime Minister: Swaziland's increasingly negative international image is
cause for concern. Reuters/AlertNet 10 January 2007.

Prime Minister Themba Dlamini's optimistic expectations of Swaziland's growth
and development in 2006 have been dismissed by banned political parties and the
country's largest labour federation as "words speaking louder than actions".

In his message, broadcast on the government's radio station and carried in the
local press, Dlamini, an appointee of executive monarch King Mswati III,
asserted that "following improvements in the economy in 2005, the GDP growth is
expected to rise to 2.8 percent in 2006, as manufacturing output improves as
well."

The upbeat forecast found little support from the Swaziland Federation of Trade
Unions (SFTU), which is seeking democratic reform in a country ruled by
sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch. SFTU secretary-general Jan Sithole
commented, "The economy is on the decline trail. Projections rate that
Swaziland will be one of the lowest growing economies in the Southern Africa
Development Community region, and it is estimated that it will grow to the tune
of 1.5 percent, as opposed to the 2.8 percent as presented by the premier."

In its annual report covering 2005, delivered to parliament in October 2006, the
Central Bank of Swaziland said at least 2.9 percent economic growth would be
required to match population growth and keep the standard of living of the
majority of Swazis from declining further. Two-thirds of the country's roughly
1 million people live on US$2 or less day, and the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS
has reached 34.2 percent among people aged 15 to 49, the highest in the world.

Foreign investment stagnant

Dlamini conceded in his message that Swaziland's increasingly negative
international image was cause for concern: foreign direct investment was
stagnant in 2006. He said this would be counteracted by "image building" and
the development of a "proactive rather than reactive" communications strategy
to ensure that the country received more favourable publicity in the world
press, but did not elaborate on how this would be achieved.

According to the prime minister, food insecurity would be addressed by
encouraging farmers to grow more fruit and vegetables; corruption would be
tackled, but to date no one has been charged. Although government has
consistently shied away from letting go of its monopoly of the electronic
media, he said the radio and television broadcasting environment would be
liberalised.

Dlamini's message carries little weight and is more an indication of what
direction Mswati will take when he opens parliament next month. Swaziland's
parliament does not create laws, but debates and approves laws tabled by
Cabinet, while Mswati sets down government policy at the opening of parliament
every February.

The government was committed to improving healthcare services, the premier said,
specifically mentioning a national deworming exercise and the 91 percent
coverage achieved in the immunisation campaign for schoolgoing children.
Dlamini called for a new regulatory framework for the procurement of drugs to
address the shortage that afflicted hospitals and clinics in 2006, attributed
to government's failure to award drug tenders.

"The phrase 'government is committed' is now a regular slogan, which,
unfortunately, does not become a reality in most cases. As citizens, we are
expecting a statement of fact, ensuring adequate supply, availability and
accessibility of drugs in public health centres," said the SFTU's Sithole.

Mangaliso Nkomonde, secretary-general of the Inhlava Forum, a 'political party'
formed last year despite political opposition parties still being banned, said,
"It would seem the PM [prime minister] believes that words speak louder than
actions. One need not even go into details about how pathetic our health system
is, and has been in the past, and is becoming worse by the day."

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2. King stands on black bull and has intercourse in the bushes in ceremony
celebrating harvest and power. Life expectancy in Swaziland: 33 years.
Associated Press, 6 January 2007.


King Mswati III had invisibility spells cast upon him and took part in ritual
bathing while standing on top of a sacred bull Saturday at the height of
annual, folklore-filled festivities to celebrate harvest.

The so-called Incwala ceremony, which also involves the king's having sexual
intercourse with one of his 12 wives and jumping over flames, illustrates the
strength of traditional values in Africa's last remaining absolute monarchy,
which has withstood pressure for democratic change.

Mswati remains popular even though he has refused to allow political parties and
has built luxurious palaces for all his wives - chosen every year at the annual
"Reed Dance" - while one-quarter of the 1 million people is dependent on food
aid.

But the ceremony, which is the highlight of Swaziland's calendar, is also
shrouded in controversy, reportedly causing a split between two of the
kingdom's most powerful families and being described by some church leaders as
demonic.

In the run-up to this year's ceremony, pastors of the Pentecostal church said
the Incwala celebrations were based on principles of witchcraft.

This was denied by Swazi leaders, who described the ceremony as the Swazi
nation's "prayer." Prime Minister Themba Dlamini, who claims to be a devout
Christian, said the event promoted national unity and defined the Swazi
culture. "Incwala is an important tradition, where every Swazi is expected to
take part and pray for the year ahead. This is our culture; you modernized
people have demonized it," said Jahe'dzala Dlamini, another follower.

Much of Saturday's ceremony was held in secret, although its contents are common
knowledge and were confirmed to The Associated Press by a number of sources. It
culminated in public singing and dancing attended by some 15,000 people,
including tourists. But traditional authorities banned the use of mobile phones
and electronic broadcasting equipment during the dance.

At the crack of dawn, in a private ceremony, an assembly of powerful traditional
leaders or "juju-men," some from neighbouring Mozambique, cast a spell on Mswati
to make him "invisible" for ordinary people and to allow them to invigorate his
powers in accordance with tradition.

As part of the cleansing ceremony, the monarch had intercourse with one of his
wives inside an enclosure constructed out of shrubs - cut by men who have never
fathered a child - inside a cattle kraal at the queen mother's royal residence,
just outside the capital, Mbabane.

During the ritual, Mswati also had to jump seven times over flames and inhale
incense made of various herbs as part of his rejuvenation for the year ahead.
The monarch then had to bathe with a concoction of herbs while standing on top
of a sacred black bull (Incwamba), during a closely guarded ritual witnessed
only by his brothers and close members of the royal family. The ceremony is
meant to rejuvenate the powers of the king, who is symbolized as the lion.

The collection of the bathing waters from the Indian Ocean is an elaborate
ritual, which also entails collection of soil, cow dung and plants from all the
chiefdoms, according to members of the Mkhatshwa clan responsible for the task.

However, one royal source, who asked for anonymity, said there was a rift
between the Mkhatshwa clan and queen mother's family clan over the traditional
privilege of preparing the cleansing concoctions of the monarch.

The queen mother's clan wanted to take over responsibility for preparing the
concoctions, whilst the Mkhatshwa clan insisted the potions are based on
ancient knowledge inherited from their forefathers, the source said.

Even before the latest tensions, problems accompanied recent ceremonies. Several
years ago, the sacred bull was stolen on the eve of the ceremony, and last year
the king's special regalia was stolen and sold.

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3. Criticism of Swaziland media for neglecting real issues. James Hall,
IRIN/PLUSNEWS, 14 December 2006.

Despite Swaziland's humanitarian crisis, local newspapers are largely ignoring
issues such as poverty, food shortages and HIV/AIDS in favour of reports about
crime and bickering amongst political personalities, according to The Media
Institute of Southern Africa (MISA).

MISA's Media Monitoring Project report, 'What makes news, and is the news
professionally reported?', funded by the Open Society Initiative for Southern
Africa (OSISA) and released on Wednesday, also found that news stories were
largely restricted to covering one area of the country, and poorly reflected
gender diversity.

"It is very hard for us to get a story about what is really happening to the
Swazi people on the ground in the local media - they just want to report
political gossip; the MISA report reflects that," said Thandi Ndwandwe, a
public relations officer for a food aid NGO based in the central commercial
town of Manzini.

Politics not poverty

The report surveyed news content during a two-week period in October 2006 and
found that national politics dominated content in the country's two daily
newspapers, the independent Times of Swaziland and the Swazi Observer, owned by
the royal conglomerate, Tibiyo TakaNgwane.

Most of the stories - 26 percent - covered local politics. The second largest
category was crime, the subject of 18 percent of stories. Despite Swaziland
having the highest HIV prevalence rate worldwide - about 33.4 percent of
sexually active adults are infected - just one percent of stories were devoted
to HIV/AIDS.

Orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) will constitute 10 percent of the
population by 2010, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF),
and their welfare is an escalating crisis in the impoverished country.
Nonetheless, OVC and children merited only one percent of stories in the Swazi
press.

Judging by local newspaper coverage, Swazis seem to have little interest in the
world around them. During the two-week period reviewed, "There were just five
stories relating to events outside Swaziland - four from other African
countries and one from outside Africa," the report commented. International
news was relegated to page seven in both papers, a "world news ghetto", in the
words of one Swazi reporter.


Staying close to home

The offices of both newspapers are located in the capital, Mbabane, in the
northern Hhohho Region, and more than half of all news stories in the two
publications originated there.

Humanitarian NGOs have tried different strategies to lure reporters to
Swaziland's three other regions, particularly the drought-stricken eastern
Lubombo Region and the AIDS-ravished southern Shiselweni Region, to give
humanitarian issues a higher profile in the national consciousness: only 5
percent of news stories originated in the Shiselweni Region, and 4 percent from
Lubombo Region.

Sensationalist gossip

Swazi journalism will have to rise above its emphasis on gossip about local
personalities - even political stories usually concern attacks by one
politician against another, or a politician's scandalous behaviour, rather than
substantive reportage on political or governance issues.

The study found that most stories (51 percent) only had one source, breaking a
basic rule of journalism that requires at least two sources to ensure balance
and accuracy, and safeguard against bias.

MISA deemed 13 articles "unfit reporting", in which "almost half of the
violations occurred in stories about child abuse or gender-based violence,
where the report failed to protect the victim, and/or trivialised the event".

Women's rights groups complained of poor reporting on gender-based violence, and
this was substantiated by the report, which found "the stories that violated
principle clearly trivialised child abuse or gender-based violence. In the case
of gender-based violence, the stories were often depicted as lovers' tiffs, with
no acknowledgement of the criminal nature of the abuse. It was common for the
stories to be told through the eyes of the perpetrator, in such a way as to
portray him as a victim, without mentioning the illegality of the alleged
actions."

The report also found a corresponding absence of women's voices in news reports
- female sources were absent in most news stories under review - and in news
reporting and editing.
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4. Donation eases food crisis. $900,000 to Swaziland. Still huge shortfall in
funds to feed southern Africa. Reuters, 11 January 2007.

A Japanese donation of $5.2 million has helped ease a food crisis in southern
Africa, but more is needed to address persistent food problems, the United
Nations food agency said on Thursday.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said in October millions in the region were
threatened by food shortages after rich countries failed to meet aid pledges,
creating a $60 million shortfall in funds to feed southern Africa.

But the food agency said the money from Japan meant it could now purchase staple
maize, maize meal and corn-soy blend to feed hundreds of thousands.
"This contribution will help to ensure that hungry families, orphans and people
living with HIV/AIDS in southern Africa continue to receive food assistance in
the increasingly difficult months leading up to the next harvest in April,"
Amir Abdulla, WFP Regional Director for Southern Africa, said in a statement.

The group said uneven rainfall and the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS had left
the region vulnerable despite healthy harvests.

WFP said it planned to feed 4.3 million people in southern Africa in 2007 but
needed a further $117 million in funds.

"... many households could not grow enough food for the full year due to a
combination of erratic weather and the impact of HIV/AIDS. Others spent all
their assets on food or medicines and are now struggling to feed themselves,"
the statement said.

"Meanwhile, the number of orphans and vulnerable children keeps increasing. All
of these groups face a particularly harsh 'lean season' and require some degree
of food assistance to help them cope until the April harvest and in many cases
afterwards as well."

The Japanese aid will be divided among Malawi ($1.7 million), Swaziland
($900,000), Zambia ($1.3 million) and Zimbabwe ($1.3 million).


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5. Apparent contradiction between poor food security and obesity rates.
Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), 4 January 2007.

Despite chronic food shortages afflicting all parts of Swaziland, a national
survey has discovered that 55 percent of Swazi women are overweight or obese.

"The likelihood of a woman being overweight (pre-obese) or obese increased with
age: 70 percent of women 40 to 49 years of age were overweight or obese," said
the recently published survey by the health ministry's Vulnerability Assessment
Committee (VAC), while about one-third of women aged 30 to 39 years were
classified as overweight or obese.

The survey of about 1,000 households focused on Swazi women and children,
including 700 women who were not pregnant, and classified women who were
pre-obese as those having a body mass index (BMI) above 25, or obese if their
BMI was above 30. A BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered healthy.

In the eastern Lubombo region, hard hit by drought since 2001, and the
underdeveloped Shiselweni region in the south of the country, which is also
drought prone, two percent of women were undernourished.

About a quarter of Swaziland's roughly one million people rely on some form of
emergency food relief as a result of prolonged drought and the impact of
HIV/AIDS on the agricultural workforce: the prevalence rate is 34.2 percent
among people aged 15 to 49, the highest in the world.

The apparent contradiction between poor food security and obesity rates can, in
part, be attributed to local custom, according to Samuel Ndwandwe, a physical
therapist in Manzini, the country's commercial hub 35km east of the capital,
Mbabane.

"Swazi women and middle-aged men grow fat. It's in our genes, put there as a way
to survive the next famine, and then made into a fashion by the attitude that
people who are fat are healthy," Ndwandwe told IRIN.

Anthropologist Hilda Kuper said for centuries, fat was seen as insurance against
periods of food shortages, which were a way of life for Swazis until recent
times, with the early summer months known as the times of hunger, when the crop
surplus from the previous year had been finished and the next harvest had not
yet been gathered.

By tradition, men and women in their 40s became elders and the VAC survey found
this was also the time when obesity in women increased, but life expectancy in
Swaziland currently stands at 33 years because of the impact of the HIV/AIDS
pandemic.

Obesity among the three-quarters of the population unaffected by food scarcity
has led to an increase in "ailments of affluence", such as diabetes and heart
disease.

Although many adults seem to have more than enough to eat, the survey found that
throughout Swaziland, children were malnourished. During the VAC survey, 1,200
selected children aged between 0 and 59 months were weighed and the figures
compared to those considered normal for children's ages and heights. The
results indicated that 29 percent of children suffered medium malnutrition, 39
percent were seriously malnourished, and boys were more likely to be
underweight than girls.

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