Swaziland Newsletter 47
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. If you wish to
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1. Nothing has changed say Swazi activists. Independent Online (SA), 8 February
2007.

2. Police union an "act of mutiny" according to Commissioner of Police.
Sabelo Mamba, Weekend Observer (Swaziland), 10 February 2007.

3. Police unionisation bid meets stiff resistance. IRIN, 12 February 2007.

4. AIDS orphans locked out of schools. IRIN/PlusNews, 7 February 2007.

5. Swaziland to establish goat industry, (SAPA) 1 February 2007.

6. Swaziland Research and Policy Forum

Manelisi Genge, Power and Gender in Southern African History: Power Relations in
the Era of Queen Labotsibeni Gwamile Mdluli of Swaziland, ca. 1875-1921.

Christopher Coventry Lowe, Swaziland's Colonial Politics: The Decline of
Progressivist South African Nationalism and the Emergence of Swazi Political
Traditionalism, 1910-1939 (1998).


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1. Nothing has changed say Swazi activists. Independent Online (SA), 8 February
2007.

Exactly a year after Africa's last absolute monarch implemented a new
constitution, Swaziland's disgruntled pro-democracy activists are refusing to
endorse a system which still prohibits political parties.

King Mswati III, ruler of landlocked Swaziland since 1986, inaugurated a new
constitution on February 8 last year which guaranteed basic human rights as
well as enshrining the powers of tribal institutions.

However the king, famous for his 13 wives, retains full executive, legislative
and judicial powers in the constitution which his opponents say has done little
to alter the status quo ahead of general elections in 2008.

"The process was undemocratic, the people (in government) are all chosen by the
head of state and share the same level of thinking. We reject that
constitution," said Swaziland Youth Congress (Swayoco) secretary general Mamba
Mduduzi.

THE ROLE OF THE MONARCHY WILL BE DECIDED

"The fundamental system of government is not participatory, it is a neo-feudal,
neo-capitalist kind of government where all the power rests with the king."

One of government's strongest opponents, the People's United Democratic movement
(Pudemo), is refusing to take part in next year's election which allows only for
independent candidates to take part.

"In this kind of election, we will not take part," said Pudemo president Mario
Masuko.

Despite the criticism, the government says it is pleased with the country's
progress.

"As far as we are concerned it's a 'so far so good' kind of situation. It is
expected that people would criticise our constitution, remember people cannot
agree on one thing at the same time," said government spokesperson Percy
Simelane.

The status surrounding the legality of political parties remains blurred.

Influential moderate political movement Sive Siyinqaba is unofficially
represented in the country's parliament - headed by prime minister Themba
Dlamini - and has declared itself a political party even though the high court
is still grappling with the whole issue.

Simelane said the king had ordered committees from the various tinkhundlas
(traditional style constituencies) to "go and ask the people what they want,"
and they had requested direct representation.

"People want to have direct representation in parliament, not through parties.
Parties tend to cater for their own interests and not people at grassroots
level," said Simelane.

The traditional tinkhundla system replaced the Westminster system after the
country's independence from Britain in 1968, and despite a new bill of rights
which allows for freedom of association, claims of police brutality at
political rallies abound.

Pro-democracy activists say they are fed up with Mswati and the extravagant life
he and his 13 wives lead and want him to adhere to a budget and take his place
as ceremonial head of state.

Swaziland, though peaceful, is wracked by widespread corruption, nepotism,
crippling poverty and one of the highest rates of Aids in the world.

"We will not allow an extravagant institution that vulgarises culture and uses
it as a stepping stone for political gains," said Musuku.

Meanwhile Swayoco has declared 2008 the year of liberation and is prepared to
seek "alternative means of persuading policy".

"The role of the monarchy will be decided by two things - either the monarchy
call us in to some negotiations or the monarchy is pushed to abdicate through
mass insurrection."

A group of disgruntled political parties and labour movements have formed the
National Constituent Assembly, whose negotiations with Mswati to change the
constitution have reached a stalemate, says University of Swaziland analyst
Petro Magagula.

"Definitely public opinion is such that this constitution is not suitable for
present day Swaziland. It will not satisfy people, particularly on the issue of
political parties."

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2. Police union an "act of mutiny" according to Commissioner of Police.
Sabelo Mamba, Weekend Observer (Swaziland), 10 February 2007.

Government has filed a notice of intention to oppose an application brought by
the newly-formed Swaziland Police Union, which wants to be lawfully registered.

The case appeared yesterday before acting Chief Justice Jacobus Annandale.
Seated in the public gallery were a handful of junior police officers. Also
present were police officers from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID),
who were on duty.

In an application filed at the High Court, the union's chairman Buhle Dlamini
denies that they were committing a crime of mutiny as alleged by the
Commissioner of Police Edgar Hillary.

He explained that the purpose of the union was to enable members of the police
force to bargain collectively on all issues affecting their interests at the
work place. Dlamini argued that there was nothing in the law that prevented
members of the police force from forming a police union.

"It is our submission that the provisions of Section 39 (3) of the Constitution
do not by any stretch of the imagination preclude us from forming a union," he
argues.
"It will be submitted that if the section purports to do so, then it should be
given a narrow and restrictive interpretation, as it would conflict with other
provisions in the Bill of Rights."

The union is being represented by Mbabane lawyer Thulani Maseko while Deputy
Attorney General Mzwandile Fakudze is appearing for government.

The union's secretary general Khanyakwezwe Mhlanga, in his affidavit, says the
matter was urgent because police officers were currently afraid to openly
challenge some of the decisions and policies imposed upon them.

"The registration of the union will no doubt give members of the police force
the very necessary and critical bargaining tool to raise issues without fear of
punishment by the police establishment."
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3. Police unionisation bid meets stiff resistance. IRIN, 12 February 2007.

Police and prison guards are meeting stiff opposition from the government in
their attempts to exploit a provision in Swaziland's new constitution, which
the security forces say allows them to form trade unions.

Although the Industrial Relations Act bars security force members from joining
any organised labour grouping, unionists, with the backing of the International
Labour Federation, intend challenging the validity of the legislation in the
high court, on the grounds that it conflicts with the rights of workers under a
constitution signed into law last year by absolute monarch King Mswati III.

"The Industrial Relations Act bars the Labour Commissioner from registering a
group of people from the security forces as a union," a leader in the
unionisation effort, Alpheous Mhlanga, told a press conference recently. "We
hope and trust that the High Court would uphold the supreme law of the land and
put aside the outdated Industrial Relations Act, which completely prevents us
from forming a union as workers."

Resistance by the top echelons of the Royal Swaziland Police Force to prevent
their subordinates from unionising has resulted in Mhlanga, a serving police
officer, being put on indefinite suspension and half-pay for professional
misconduct by Commissioner of Police Edgar Hillary.

Mhlanga cites provisions in the Constitution's Bill of Rights allowing for
workers to form and join trade unions and engage in collective bargaining with
their employers, a claim that Commissioner of Labour Jinnoh Nkambule appeared
to agree with when he told local media recently, "There are laws that are
definitely found wanting in the Constitution [which] by virtue of being the
supreme law of the land supersedes any other law that existed before."

Mhlanga said the union, to be called the Swaziland Police Association (SPA), was
necessary to address police welfare issues, such as working and living
conditions. "We've been through hell for quite a long time, and there is no
better time to liberate ourselves than now. We are fighting for our bread and
butter."

The new constitution has been criticised as being too liberal by supporters of
the country's status quo and not liberal enough by opponents of government, and
has been mired in controversy since it was first proposed in the mid-1990s.
According to analysts, the document signed into law by Mswati in early 2006
indirectly legalised political parties by suspending a 1973 royal decree by the
then reigning monarch, King Sobhuza II, which had effectively banned them.

Swaziland was granted independence in 1968 from Britain, the former colonial
power, and the country had a brief flirtation with a Westminster-style
parliamentary democracy, in which political parties contended for power for
five years. Sobhuza II overturned the agreed constitution and instituted a
state of emergency, still in force, banned opposition political parties and
meetings, and assumed ultimate executive, judicial and legislative authority
for the monarchy.

SPA representatives have been barred from Swaziland's state-owned radio and
television stations, and from putting their case across in the country's second
daily newspaper, the Swazi Observer, owned by the royal conglomerate, Tibiyo
TakaNgwane.

The banned political party, People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), has
taken up the unionists' cause, and reportedly assisted Mhlanga in securing an
interview to publicise their case with a South African radio station that can
also be received in neighbouring Swaziland.

PUDEMO's support for the formation of a union among police ranks has angered the
Swazi police hierarchy, which still considers opposition political parties
illegal and bans political marches and meetings, including meetings of the SPA.

The SPA has received a letter of support from the International Council of
Police Representatives Associations, saying, "All our associations underwent
similar struggles during the early part of the last century to establish the
right to associate and advocate, and we very much appreciate the difficulties
you and your colleagues are facing. Undoubtedly, the police hierarchy and
government will be opposed to such a move, as they were in our own countries."

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Messages of support may be directed to lawyer Thulani Maseko e-mail:
trmaseko@... / +268 404 3516 / +268 602 5165. Fax +268 404 5226.
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4. AIDS orphans locked out of schools. IRIN/PlusNews, 7 February 2007.

Thousands of Swazi AIDS orphans risk being locked out of school at the start of
the new term this week, after the government failed to make good on a promise
to provide scholarships for all those unable to afford school fees.
"I don't know where to turn. The school said I must find someone to pay my fees,
because the government money that was promised never arrived," said Anne, a
secondary school student at St. Mark's High School, in the capital, Mbabane.

She comes from the impoverished Msunduza Township, in the mountains overlooking
the city. Her mother, a former domestic worker, and her father, who made ends
meet with odd jobs, left little behind when they died of AIDS-related
illnesses, and she now lives with relatives who cannot afford her school fees.

Another AIDS orphan at the same school, who asked not to be named, said he was
confident he could find sponsors to allow him into Form III, but only if he
could prove he had passed the previous academic year. His dilemma is that "The
school told me to go home at fetch the money owed from last year," before they
will release his results, and the government has not paid his outstanding fees.

For the past four years the government has tried to make good on its assurance
that the 80,000 pupils who had lost their parents to AIDS would have their fees
covered, but each term thousands are overlooked. Acting Minister of Education
Mtiti Fakudze urged a meeting of headmasters on Wednesday to hold off expelling
students and give the government a chance to sort out the mess.

"The consultation has been prompted by the inability of the budget allocation to
pay school claims in their entirety in the 2006 school year. It was resolved to
review the method of selection of beneficiaries and payment," Fakudze told a
press conference.

In 2003 the government allocated US$2.3 million to cover school fees, which has
steadily risen and by 2006 reached almost US$6.4 million. But the increases
have not kept pace with the growing number of orphans in a country with the
highest HIV prevalence in the world: nearly 40 percent of adults are infected
with the virus.

The United Nation's Children Fund (UNICEF) anticipates there will be 120,000
AIDS orphans by 2010, the equivalent of 10 percent of the population.

"This matter is not going away, and is going to get worse with the rise in AIDS
orphans. But school principals cannot be made the villains - we are educators,
that is our calling," a head teacher in the central Manzini region told
IRIN/PlusNews.

"It is agony to expel a student because of his or her poverty; it is
heartbreaking. Many of our orphans are actually subsidised by other parents.
But all schools operate through school fees, or we shut down. Government made a
noble promise [to pay for all orphans], and it must fulfil it."

To meet the growing need, humanitarian organisations like the Bhaphalali Red
Cross Society have targeted orphans for special assistance. "Our goal is to pay
school fees for 1,000 orphans. We do not discriminate - whether a child is
orphaned by AIDS, or another cause, it does not matter - but most children we
find are AIDS orphans," director Sbongile Hlope told IRIN/PlusNews.

Hlope said a better listing of eligible children and improved accounting for
funds was required to put an end to the perennial crisis of orphans barred from
school each year.


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5. Swaziland to establish goat industry, (SAPA) 1 February 2007.

Swaziland is looking at establishing a commercial goat industry based on the
model implemented in the Northern Cape of South Africa for emerging farmers,
the province's agricultural department says.

"The successful experience of the Northern Cape in establishing over 86 goat
co-operatives constituted by emerging farmers will act as a catalyst in
stimulating the replication of a similar model in the Kingdom of Swaziland,"
says departmental spokesman Thabo Mothibi.

This follows a four-day fact-finding visit by officials of Swaziland's Ministry
of Enterprise and Employment to the Northern Cape's Commercialisation of Goats
Programme.

Mothibi said on Wednesday that a framework was created for the creation of a
collaborative working arrangement in the areas of training, research,
production, marketing and export readiness.

Northern Cape officials would visit the Kingdom of Swaziland to make a
scientific and economic assessment of the present status of goat production in
the kingdom.

"It would pave the way for a detailed feasibility study and business plan to be
developed."

Mothibi said talks would also be held for possible co-operation in the areas of
herb and medicinal plant processing.

Swaziland officials visited the department's Koopmansfontein research station to
assess the training and research aspects of the programme.

The Northern Cape commercial goat project came about as a nodal project for
emerging farmers in the Kalahari region.

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6. The Swaziland Research and Policy Forum will here republish materials
(articles, abstracts) reflecting the history of Swaziland research. Here
follow summaries of dissertations by Christopher Lowe and Manelisi Genge.

Manelisi Genge, Power and Gender in Southern African History: Power Relations in
the Era of Queen Labotsibeni Gwamile Mdluli of Swaziland, ca. 1875-1921 (1999).

This dissertation examines the history of the Swazi leadership's dealing with
the colonization of Swaziland by the governments of Great Britain and the
Transvaal Boer Republic (South African Republic) from the 1880s to 1921.

The first colonial power to establish its rule in Swaziland was the Transvaal
with the help of the British from 1890 to 1899. However, the British did not
allow the Transvaal to have an absolute colonial control on Swaziland. The
British kept the Transvaal on check, both for the protection of British
economic interests in Swaziland and for the preservation of the semi-autonomous
status of the Swazi under a colonial rule. Thus, instead of an outright Boer
colonial authority in Swaziland, the British and the Boer governments had
entered into an intricate series of Conventions beginning from 1881 by which
they pledged to safeguard the independence of the emaSwati.

The terms of the Conventions were exclusively initiated and finalized by the
governments of Britain and the Transvaal (Anglo-Transvaal), and were only
presented to the Swazi leaders as fait accompli. Therefore such Conventions
formed the basis of what I term the hidden transcript of these powers in their
dealings with the Swazi leaders. According to the arrangements of such
Conventions the Transvaal government established a protectorate administration,
itself an ambiguous colonial rule, over Swaziland, while Britain was on the
sideline ready to call a foul anytime the Transvaal administrators transgressed
the terms of the Conventions which created the latter's rule in the country.

The Boer administration was contested by Swazi leaders from its inception in
1890 until October 1899 when it ended with the outbreak of the South African
War between the Boers and the British. From October 1889 when King Mbandzeni
died, Swaziland was ruled by women leaders, Queen Regent Tibati Nkambule and
Queen Mother Labotsibeni. Thus it was their leadership which resisted
colonialism.

Labotsibeni had a long history of involvement in Swazi politics since the days
of her husband, King Mbandzeni, who consulted her on important state affairs.
From 1895 to 1899 Labotsibeni ruled the emaSwati as co-leader with her son
Paramount Chief Bhunu. Bhunu died in 1899. From 1899 to 1921 Labotsibeni became
the sole leader of the emaSwati in her capacity as the Queen Regent.

After the South African War the British established their colonial rule in
Swaziland in August 1902. From August 1902 to 1921 Labotsibeni devoted her
energy challenging the British colonial state on various issues ranging from
land to legal jurisdiction over the emaSwati. In this dissertation I explore
some of her encounters with the Boer and British colonial regimes. The power
relations I deal with in this work were triangular: Swazi-British-Boers.
However, after the war in 1902 the power relations became bipolar, i.e., Swazi
leaders versus the British colonial state. In this study I have shown that
Swazi royal women have played significant and multifaceted roles in Swazi
politics than they are appreciated in the existing historiography of Swaziland.

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Christopher Coventry Lowe, Swaziland's Colonial Politics: The Decline of
Progressivist South African Nationalism and the Emergence of Swazi Political
Traditionalism, 1910-1939 (1998).

Political traditionalism for decades has been the dominant idiom of Swazi
politics. Recent studies argue that despite traditionalist claims, much
ostensible Swazi tradition was invented in response to capitalism and British
colonial rule. Spurious authenticity claims about tradition have justified
repressive politics in Swaziland since the 1970s.

This study agrees that Swazi royal political traditionalism has specific
historical origins, in the late 1920s, when King Sobhuza II began molding and
promoting it in response to capitalist and colonial discontinuities. Part One
specifies key elements of discontinuity by reinterpreting existing ethnography
and early colonial historiography. Part Two explores Swazi royal support for
the early South African Native National Congress' (SANNC's) "progressive"
nationalist strategy in the 1910s of opposing land expropriations and
segregationism via alliance of modern and traditional elites.

By the mid-1920s the British rejected Swazi progressivist appeals and cut
Sobhuza II off from financial resources needed to pursue progressivist
politics, throwing him back on ascribed cultural resources, "tradition."

The failure of SANNC progressivism is situated in relation to South African
urban growth, segregationism, and indirect rule ideas. Yet the invention of
tradition framework employs self-contradictory criteria of authenticity, and
inaccurately depicts traditionalist arguments about continuity and innovation.
Excessive stress on the 'invention of tradition' obstructs understanding of
popular support for political traditionalism, and the contradictory popular
interests which political traditionalism addressed.

In contrast to elitist "progressive" pan-ethnic South African nationalism,
Sobhuza's political traditionalism was a vehicle for conservative populist
Swazi nationalism. As colonial ideology linked "modernity" and "progress" to
land expropriation, authoritarian labour discipline and racial segregationism,
Swazi political traditionalism became a modernizing anti-modernism, tying elite
accumulation projects to defence of worker-peasant rural community and land
resources.

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