SWAZILAND NEWSLETTER 16


1. Politics in Swaziland: Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock. By Moyiga Nduru
(Johannesburg), 21 July 2005 (IPS)

2. Swaziland: The Clock Is Ticking. 14 July 2005. International Crisis
Group - Belgium. Website: http://www.crisisgroup.org

3. Media threatened: Zoé Titus, Regional Programme Specialist: Media
Freedom Monitoring. MISA Regional Secretariat. 25 July 2005

4. King signs constitution into law: The new constitution still bans
political parties and prevents the High Court from presiding over cases
that have a bearing on the institution of the monarchy. 26 July 2005
Sapa-AP

5. Document: Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO)
Programme of Action 2005-2006. Adopted by the Annual Conference April
2005 in Pongola

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1. Politics in Swaziland: Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock. By Moyiga Nduru.
Johannesburg, 21 July 2005 (IPS)

- ”We don't want Swaziland to explode like Rwanda, Burundi or Sierra
Leone,” says Gabriel Mkhumane, founder of the outlawed People's United
Democratic Movement -- a Swazi opposition party.

”The people of Swaziland cannot rise and take arms -- that is out of the
question: the Cold War has ended. We just need international pressure for
political reforms in Swaziland,” he told IPS.

But even as he rejects the notion of violence, Mkhumane -- who lives in
exile in neighbouring South Africa -- fears that a lack of progress
towards democracy may yet compel frustrated Swazis to take matters into
their own hands.

Last week the International Crisis Group (ICG), a Brussels-based
think-tank, voiced similar sentiments, calling for steps to prevent
confrontation in Swaziland.

”More outside pressure is needed to help pro-reform elements inside the
country bring back a constitutional monarchy and genuine democracy -- the
best guarantees that Swazi volatility will not eventually infect the
region,” said the ICG in a report entitled 'Swaziland: The Clock Is
Ticking'.

”Opposition to the absolute monarchy in recent years has included strikes
and demonstrations by trade unions, students, religious groups and youth
movements, as well as periodic waves of arson and bombings against
government buildings,” the document noted.

The report also quoted Peter Kagwanja, ICG Southern Africa project
director, as saying: ”African institutions, the European Union (EU) and
key countries like South Africa and the U.S. have thus far been too
willing to accept the royalists' line that change must come very slowly.”

”The longer Swaziland takes to return to constitutional monarchy, however,
the greater the risk of instability,” he added.

Activists from the Southern African state find it hard to persuade the
international community to act on Swaziland. This is partly because the
country, despite its problems, is considered mostly stable.

”The only thing you hear about Swaziland is when the king is building,
say, a mansion,” Claude Kabemba, a researcher at the Johannesburg-based
Electoral Institute of Southern Africa, told IPS.

Sandwiched between South Africa and Mozambique, Swaziland gained
independence from Britain in 1968; it is Africa's last absolute monarchy.
In 1973, King Sobhuza introduced a state of emergency, banned political
parties and suspended the country's constitution. A new draft constitution
-- dismissed by democracy campaigners -- was recently passed by
parliament, but is now undergoing further debate.

Sobhuza was succeeded by his son, Mswati the Third. The 37-year-old
monarch has hit headlines for his penchant for luxury sedans, some of
which have been bought for his wives: to date, the king has married 12
times.

His lavish lifestyle is at odds with Swaziland's unemployment rate, which
stands at 40 percent. About 70 percent of the kingdom's one million
inhabitants live on less than a dollar a day, while HIV prevalence is
estimated at about 40 percent, according to the Joint United Nations
Programme on HIV/AIDS.

Activists say a lack of external funding has further undermined their
attempts to restore democracy in Swaziland. ”Funding for political
struggle has dried up internationally following the end of the Cold War,”
said Bongani Masuku, secretary general of the South Africa-based Swaziland
Solidarity Network: an umbrella body for pro-democracy activists.

Liberation movements in Southern Africa that fought for independence in
Namibia, Angola, Mozambique and South Africa benefited from international
support -- particularly from Scandinavian countries.

Now, ”Donors only support civil societies which, unfortunately, lack
capacity to effect reforms in Swaziland,” Mkhumane notes.

Without international support, observed Masuku, campaigners cannot do
much. ”We are fighting a regime which is militarily, economically and
politically well resourced,” he told IPS.

Perhaps inevitably, comparisons are drawn between Swaziland and nearby
Zimbabwe, where years of political and economic instability -- and
restrictions on civil liberties -- have sparked intense debate.

”We find it hypocritical for Mswati to travel all over Europe and then
(President Robert) Mugabe (of Zimbabwe) is banned,” Masuku said. ”It shows
that Europe is playing a double standard.”

Swaziland's government has been quoted in the media as saying the country
is making efforts to address its problems -- and that external
intervention is not necessary.

Suliman Baldo, director of the ICG's Africa programme, says such efforts
cannot come rapidly enough.

”The monarchy can still save itself if it moves quickly to support
meaningful limits on its powers,” he observes, ”but both the royal family
and the international community have to realize that the days of
absolutism are numbered in Swaziland.”

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

2. Swaziland: The Clock Is Ticking. 14 July 2005. International Crisis
Group - Belgium. Website: http://www.crisisgroup.org

Pretoria/Brussels, 14 July 2005: Frustration is building inSwaziland,
risking violence unless the international community helps push for
political reforms.

Swaziland: The Clock Is Ticking,* the latest report from the International
Crisis Group, examines the country's long, steady slide toward implosion.
More outside pressure is needed to help pro-reform elements inside the
country bring back a constitutional monarchy and genuine democracy -- the
best guarantees that Swazi volatility will not eventually infect the
region.

"African institutions, the EU and key countries like South Africa and the
U.S. have thus far been too willing to accept the royalists' line that
change must come very slowly", says Peter Kagwanja, Crisis Group's
Southern Africa Project Director. "The longer Swaziland takes to return to
constitutional monarchy, however, the greater the risk of instability".

Swaziland has been an absolute monarchy for more than 30 years, with a
royal leadership that ignores worsening social ills and a small elite that
is often openly corrupt. A new constitution that further codifies broad
royal powers and privileges is in the final stages of preparation.
Dissatisfaction with the failure of the new constitution to provide for a
return to democracy and to constitutional monarchy of the sort Swaziland
enjoyed from independence until 1973 is likely to deepen existing
discontent.

Opposition to the absolute monarchy in recent years has included strikes
and demonstrations by trade unions, students, religious groups and youth
movements, as well as periodic waves of arson and bombings against
government buildings. The country faces huge humanitarian problems --
including the HIV/AIDS pandemic, massive unemployment (over 40 per cent),
and a need for extensive food aid -- but political parties are still under
a ban, so there are no peaceful avenues for the release of political and
social tensions.

The country needs a new political arrangement that harmonises the history,
culture and traditions of its people with a democracy based on universal
suffrage and popular participation. A constitutional monarchy should be
introduced that eliminates all vestiges of the 1973 state of emergency;
legalises political parties; establishes a directly elected House of
Assembly with oversight of royal spending and an elected prime minister as
head of government; and provides civilian oversight of professional
security services.

"The monarchy can still save itself if it moves quickly to support
meaningful limits on its powers, but both the royal family and the
international community have to realise that the days of absolutism are
numbered in Swaziland", says Suliman Baldo, Director of Crisis Group's
Africa Program.

Read the full Crisis Group briefing on: http:// www.crisisgroup.org

------------------------------------------
3. Media threatened: Zoé Titus, Regional Programme Specialist: Media
Freedom Monitoring. MISA Regional Secretariat. July 25, 2005

On July 21 2005, Swaziland's Minister of Public Service and Information
Themba Msibi, issued a statement that the Swazi government was considering
reviving its Media Council Bill of 1997 if the media failed to put in
place
a self-regulatory body within the coming two weeks. Msibi made the
statement
during a meeting of journalists in Sidvokodvo (Riders' Ranch) outside
Manzini.

Both the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)-Swaziland and the
Swaziland National Association of Journalists (SNAJ) are concerned about
the
minister's utterances, particularly as he is well aware of the media's
continuing efforts to establish a self regulatory body.

"We are very disturbed about this since the ministry is aware of the
reasons
for the delay in the process (of establishing a self-regulatory body and
complaints mechanism in Swaziland)", MISA Swaziland said.

"In fact the very ministry has contributed to the state of affairs because
it has not accepted and endorsed some of the proposals that were forwarded
to it", MISA Swaziland said.

MISA-Swaziland further condemned in the strongest terms such candid moves
by
Government and calls for more time to be given to enable media owners to
endorse the process before it is finalized.

"It should be said loud and clear that the Ministry is aware of the
challenges that media stakeholders are facing in their attempts to
implement
such a body. There is no need to invoke fear in the media or attempt to
derail the current process", MISA Swaziland said.

----------------------------------------------------
4. King signs constitution into law: The new constitution still bans
political parties and prevents the High Court from presiding over cases
that have a bearing on the institution of the monarchy. 26 July 2005
Sapa-AP

King Mswati III, Africa's last absolute monarch, signed the kingdom's new
constitution into law Tuesday, ending a process that took eight years of
consultations.

About 5,000 Swazis gathered to watch the king sign the constitution inside
a cattle kraal, or corral, at the Queen Mother's residence. The king, who
waved the signed document for all to see, said the constitution would come
into force in six months.

The new constitution, which has been adopted by Parliament, seeks to meld
centuries-old traditions with Western democratic principles.

King Mswati said the constitution would come into force in six months and
that Parliamentary elections would have to be convened as provided for in
the new supreme law.

"Let the constitution be a unifying factor for all Swazis. I have
previously endorsed laws alone, this time I felt that the nation should
join me and witness this historic milestone," the king said.

Mswati has been under international pressure to bring reform to the
kingdom of about 1 million people. Swaziland has been ruled by royal
decree since 1973, when Mswati's father, King Sobhuza II, banned political
parties.

The new constitution still bans political parties and prevents the High
Court from presiding over cases that have a bearing on the institution of
the monarch and other Swazi law and custom issues.

The king agreed to sign the document after Parliament added amendments on
religion and taxing his family.

A council of Roman Catholic, Anglican and Protestant churches have
denounced the new constitution, saying it was produced under repressive
laws.

The church council said Tuesday that groups were not allowed to make
collective submissions and that political parties remained banned.

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

5. Document:Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO)
Programme of Action 2005-2006, adopted by the Annual Conference
April 2005 in Pongola

The conference was tasked to concretize resolutions of PUDEMO (People’s
United Democratic Movement) conference and develop a plan of action to
advance the struggle while reviewing the progress in the implementation of
our resolutions from the 7th General Congress held in Matsulu the previous
year. The following key areas were agreed upon and compel leadership and
all structures of SWAYOCO to pay focus and maximum attention to:

1. Advancing the programme of action of PUDEMO for the liberation of the
Swazi people. This seeks to advance our strategic objective of the
struggle for the transformation of our society into a democratic and
united Swazi nation with prosperity and dignity of all the people of
Swaziland.

Key areas in this regard involve preparing the Movement as an alternative
government and advancing PUDEMO's aspirations of people’s unlimited
rithts to:
- education
- housing
- health
- water
- electricity
- democratic government structures
- freedom and political emancipation of the historically oppressed.

2. Intensify mobilization of the masses in all sectors and intensify
political work within the motive forces of our struggle through mass
education, propaganda and agitation. This will advance our programme of
building a strong PUDEMO on the ground.
- recruiting intensively
- organising political activities
- building community structures and street committees

3. Intensify the international solidarity campaign on all fronts and
explore the fertile ground that exists within the SADC region and former
liberation movements.

- lobby for the termination of the Swazi regime’s membership status in the
democratic governmental bodies of the region and the continent.

4. Advance cadreship training and equip cadres with the relevant skills to
advance the struggle at this moment. This will create a spirit of
unlimited sacrifice in our cadres for the cause of the people.

5. Vitalize the campaign for a Constituent Assembly towards a
constitutional, multiparty, democratic Swaziland. This seeks to advance
the way forward of the
movement as endorsed at the Manzini Conference of PUDEMO in March 2005.

- organize people’s forum to run the campaign
- build cadreship to advance the campaign in all sectors of society and in
communities as an integral process of building structures and rooting the
movement in society.

6. Render the country ungovernable
- undermine the regime in all its efforts of perpetual oppression of the
majority by the minority
- organize people’s resistance structures to defend the people’s course at
all times in order to defend the gains of the revolution
- fight all elements and individuals who block the way towards the
liberation agenda.

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Patrick Mac Manus
Southern Africa Contact - Denmark
Wesselsgade 4kld - DK2200 Copenhagen N - Denmark
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Phone: (+45) 35 35 92 32 (SAC) or
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