Swaziland@Newsletter 52
Published by Africa Contact (Denmark)

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_____________________________________


1. Urban youth slipping through the cracks. James Hall, Mbabane,
Inter Press Service (Johannesburg), 10 January 2008.

2. Long on policies, short on implementation. UN Integrated Regional
Information Networks. Mbabane, 10 January 2008.

3. Southern Africa needs to get tough on graft. Legalbrief Forensic.
10 January 2008.

4. Taiwan makes last-ditch effort. Rejected in Malawi, stays in
Swaziland EarthTimes.org. DPA 8 January 2008.

5. Government to overhaul taxation system. Bongile Mavuso. Swazi
Observer 4.January 2008.

6. Swazi shop workers take wildcat strike action. World Socialist Web
Site www.wsws.org. Workers Struggles: 4 January 2008.

7. SD fails to meet EU beef quota. Swazi Observer, 10 January 2007.

8. Risky business: report sheds new light on sex trade (PlusNews) 14
December 2007.

9. Artists concern for HIV and Aids. International declaration. The
Herald (Harare), 9 January 2008.

10. Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report. January 2, 2008

11. Message of the Bishop to the people. Looking back on last year and
forward on 2007. Bishop M B Mabuza, Chairperson SCCCO (Swaziland
Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations).

12. Africa at large: Economic growth hits snag. The Monitor (Uganda),
by Martin Luther Oketch, 8 January 2008.
_______________________________________


1. Urban youth slipping through the cracks. James Hall, Mbabane,
Inter Press Service (Johannesburg), 10 January 2008.

As the new school year begins here many destitute or orphaned children
are in need of assistance to pay for their educations. An unknown
number of urban youngsters, however, are slipping through the social
welfare net.
"Impoverished children in the country's urban areas might run into the
thousands," Juanita Mkhonta, a social welfare worker in the central
commercial town Manzini, told IPS.

"It occurred to me during the Christmas holidays, when there were
several news stories about urban orphans receiving food gift baskets,"
Mkhonta said. "I thought, if they were discovered by philanthropic
individuals without the knowledge of the food aid organizations, how
many of these uncounted kids are also lost to the school aid
assistance system?"

"The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food
Programme (WFP) did a crop assessment survey in May, and when the
teams went from house to house we also did a survey of OVC (orphans
and vulnerable children)," said Abdoulaye Balde, WFP Country
Representative for Swaziland.

"The informal settlements at Swaziland's towns were left out of the
survey because the populations were considered transitory," noted
Mkhonta.

"There are no traditional authorities there or community committees
for NGOs to work with. That is why there were so many poor children
who received the food donations we read about in the press during the
holidays. They said they had no food at home. My thought: If no one
has made provisions for their meals, who is looking after their
education?" she stressed.

"These kids have been lost in a societal change. Swaziland's
government is geared toward traditional rural life. The U.N. agencies
and NGOs are also primarily targeting rural areas for assistance. It's
as if the towns do not exist," said Mkhonta.

The U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), for instance, works with
traditional rural leaders to assist rural-based orphans and vulnerable
children at schools and at neighbourhood care points.

"We really do not do town neighbourhood care points. The food aid we
coordinate is primarily for rural schools," Pelucy Ntambirweki, a
programme coordinator for UNICEF, told IPS.
The reason is a lack of data, which usually is only available in rural
areas where persons in need can be reliably counted.

"Historically, Swazis reside under chiefs in rural areas. Towns are
just places you go for jobs, and then the Swazi returns to the
parental homestead when work is done," said Albert Dlamini, a
'runner', or clerk, for one of Swaziland's 350 hereditary chiefs.

Even Swazis who own homes in towns are considered subjects of rural
chiefs, whose names are affixed to official documents like passports
and tax forms.
"So, when people are counted it is at the chiefdoms," Dlamini told IPS.
UNICEF and other social welfare NGOS have enlisted chiefs to assess
the number of children in need.

The National Emergency Task Force also employs community committees
appointed by chiefs to tabulate orphans and people in need of
emergency food assistance. Such committees locate child-headed
households in their areas, which are proliferating as HIV/AIDS ravages
families.

The data is then used to bring assistance to vulnerable children and
place them back in classrooms they left when family finances made
payment of school fees unaffordable, or parents died of AIDS, leaving
children destitute.

"In rural areas, the children can be known. But in towns, who counts
them in the township slums?" noted Dlamini.

Population information collection was extensive in 2007. Not only was
last year the time for Swaziland's once a decade national census, but
also the worst drought in modern history cut crop production by 80
percent, and a count of people requiring food assistance was necessary
to avoid famine.

The health ministry also undertook its first household health survey
in 2007 to determine an accurate picture of the country's AIDS
situation. It found that more than a quarter of sexually active adults
are HIV positive -- the world's highest prevalence rate.

With AIDS deaths proliferating because of a slow rollout of
anti-retroviral drugs, more children are destined to become orphans.

Swaziland's charitable organizations, be they faith-based or NGOs,
open their doors to anyone in need, but tend to rely on recipients to
come to them.

With data unavailable on the scope of children who may be left out of
the education system when schools open this month, an informal survey
was attempted by IPS. It is not hard to find informal settlements in
Manzini, a small town of 30,000 that is Swaziland's largest urban
centre because of such informal settlements, with populations that
exceed 60,000.

A visit to a cluster of shacks half hidden by reeds along a small and
fetid stream west of the town centre turned up dozens of shy,
ill-clothed children. Listless from hunger, they were emboldened by a
visitor's gift of bread and milk to say they were not going to school.
Some had never attended class.

"It is because of money. There is none," said Thandi, a ten-year-old
girl without parents. She spoke vaguely of relatives in the area.

Would the children like to go to school, they were asked? They all
nodded their heads affirmatively, though with apparent apprehension at
the prospect of mingling with more experienced and properly dressed
children.

Is school what they wished for more than anything else? Answers were
negative, "We are hungry all the time. We want food," the children said.

IPS returned the next day with a nurse from the Red Cross, who
promised to bring the children to the attention of child welfare
workers in the city. By this time, however, Thandi had disappeared.
None of the other children had seen her since the previous day.

"That's the problem. These children come and go. All we know is their
numbers are increasing as the economy gets worse and the AIDS deaths
mount," said the nurse.

Outgoing Principal Secretary at the Ministry of Education Goodman
Kunene says that the government is meeting its promise to finance the
educations of all known orphans and vulnerable children.

"About a third of the nation's school children - about 100,000 - are
OVC and getting government assistance. That is a massive amount, and
it shows a great commitment on government's part to ensure that all
children receive at least primary education from Grade One to Standard
Five," he said.

Kunene says urban schools' headmasters provide information to the
education ministry on the number and whereabouts of their pupils in
need of assistance.

However, a source with the Swaziland National Association of Teachers
-- which is often at odds with government over matters of education
policy and financing -- questions the reliability of data collection
on urban OVC in need of education.

"School headmasters only know their enrolled students, and so it
follows that they can report to the education ministry only those
students who drop out for financial reasons. A headmaster is not going
to know how many kids in the townships should be attending his school
but are not. He would not know about unregistered children who may be
camped out in a shack right outside the school premises. It's not his
job to do that type of investigation. That is what makes the slums so
insidious -- the way persons get lost there even to social welfare
helpers," he said.
_________________________________

2. Long on policies, short on implementation. UN Integrated Regional
Information Networks. Mbabane, 10 January 2008.

Swaziland's ability to cope with its ongoing humanitarian crisis will
not improve until its under-performing economy picks up, social
welfare activists and the government agree.
In a policy speech this week, outlining the government's goals for the
year ahead, Prime Minister Themba Dlamini frankly acknowledged the
country's economic woes, which are hampering efforts to roll back food
shortages, AIDS and poverty.

Citing Swaziland's current problems as "drought, wild fires, issues of
orphans and vulnerable children, drug shortages, poverty and slow
growth of our economy", the premier said real gross domestic product
per capita "still remains the lowest among the Southern African
Customs Union (SACU) countries". SACU is a five-member trade
organisation.
Economic growth averaged just 2 percent over the past five years, well
below the annual population increase of 3.6 percent. Although growth
nudged 2.8 percent last year, the Central Bank of Swaziland noted that
the performance still represented "an overall decline in the quality
of life for the average Swazi".

Nervous labour

Even labour is skittish about mounting industrial actions at a time
when overall unemployment hovers around 30 percent, and has reached 40
percent for school leavers. After past crackdowns by the authorities
there were no significant industrial actions in 2007. Workers ignored
a strike call in June by the labour movement to press for political
reform.

"There will not be economic improvement until there is a transparent,
accountable and democratic government to set economic policy," a
source with the Swaziland Federation of Labour told IRIN. "Investors
are staying away, but we are faced with a chicken-and-egg situation in
the labour movement: workers need to raise their voices and be united,
but they are afraid to take a risk because of widespread joblessness."

Swaziland is surrounded by large and affluent South Africa, and a
revitalised Mozambique with economic growth in double digits. Foreign
direct investors are preferring other regional economies to the small
kingdom that has few natural resources, and a declining population of
less than a million as a result of AIDS.

"Swaziland's response to our humanitarian crisis is hobbled by lack of
money. There's no government revenue because of two reasons: a poor
economy and corruption," said Sipiwe Simelane, a director of the HIV
support organisation, People For Positive Living.
Government strategy is to pour money into expanding the Matsapha
Industrial Estate outside the central commercial hub, Manzini, and the
creation of new industrial parks in the far southern and western parts
of the country. The approach is: "if we build the facilities, the
investors will come", remarked Maxwell Shongwe of the Ministry of
Economic Planning and Development.

The Prime Minister seemed to acknowledge foreign investors' lackluster
interest in Swaziland in his policy message, and said the government's
priority would be to encourage Swazis to start small and medium-sized
businesses.

"The problem with this strategy is that local businesses depend on the
domestic market for success - these are small traders, not exporters.
Because of the economy, there are fewer consumers able to support new
businesses," said Charles Mthetfwa, who is struggling to keep his
plumbing business afloat in Manzini.

Government prescriptions

Swaziland's response to our humanitarian crisis is hobbled by lack of
money. There's no government revenue because of two reasons: a poor
economy and corruption
Government may not have cash, but it is flush with policies. On the
heels of a new National Health Policy, Dlamini announced cabinet
approval this week of a Comprehensive Agricultural Sector Policy and a
National Food Security Policy.

"Government also likes to set goals without telling how these are to
be achieved. Goals are announced as if they are done deals, and the
politicians congratulate themselves, knowing that a few years down the
road, when nothing is accomplished, they will be out of government,"
an economist at a bank in the capital, Mbabane, told IRIN.

The Prime Minister announced a target of halving the poverty rate -
estimated at 69 percent of people living on less than one US dollar a
day - within seven years, and eliminating poverty altogether by 2022.

"The end of poverty by 2022 was set 10 years ago in a National
Development Strategy [NDS], and government still acts like this is
destined to happen, simply because the goal is government policy, but
there are more people living in poverty today than when the NDS was
passed. The goal is worthy, but how is it to be achieved?" the
economist wondered.

The government insists that improvements in social welfare are slowly
being realised. The number of elderly beneficiaries of government
grants, for example, rose by 40 percent last year, from 33,000 to
47,252. But health workers note that problems around accessing
pensions and guarding against corruption persist in the system.

_______________________________________

3. Southern Africa needs to get tough on graft. Published in:
Legalbrief Forensic. 10 January 2008.


The fight against corruption in Southern Africa needs tougher laws
against bribery and fraud, more transparent political financing,
cleaner public procurement and a stronger judiciary, according to
seven studies just conducted across the region in the second half of
2007.

To assess the situation at the national level, Transparency
International (TI) undertook National Integrity System (NIS) country
studies in Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mauritius,
Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. A regional overview study
provides a summary of regional trends. Transparency International?s
concept of the National Integrity System (NIS) consists of the key
institutions, laws and practices that contribute to integrity,
transparency and accountability in a society.

The fight against corruption in southern Africa needs tougher laws
against bribery and fraud, more transparent political financing,
cleaner public procurement and a stronger judiciary, according to
seven studies conducted across the region in the second half of 2007.

To assess the situation at the national level, Transparency
International (TI) undertook National Integrity System (NIS) country
studies in Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mauritius,
Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. A regional overview study
provides a summary of regional trends. TI?s concept of the NIS
consists of the key institutions, laws and practices that contribute
to integrity, transparency and accountability in a society.

?These in-depth reports pinpoint the weaknesses and strengths of the
institutions that make a society function to its potential,? said
Casey Kelso, Regional Director for Africa and the Middle East at TI.
?There is a lot of anti-corruption activity in many of these countries
but implementation is virtually non-existent.?

Corruption is illegal everywhere in Africa, but is costing the
continent nearly $150bn a year, according to the AU. ?Though advances
have been made, corruption is still deeply woven into the fabric of
every-day life in Southern Africa,? added Kelso.

Some of the findings in Swaziland show that the impact of traditional
culture on the socio-economic and political landscape is legendary. It
permeates all facets of life. For example, nepotism, and its
associated ills, is not necessarily considered untoward, considering
the fact that, with a relatively small population of just over one
million, there is a network of consanguine and affinity relations that
compel loyalty to family that any bureaucratic system of governance
often can accommodate.

Traditional authority permeates every pillar, sector and section of
Swazi society. Addressing traditional authority and culture is
therefore fundamental in ensuring integrity and in the prevention of
corruption.

For Full Transparency International report, NIS studies and country
studies contact Job Ogonda +49-30-34 38 20-21,
jogonda@... or see www.transparency.org

________________________________________

4. Taiwan makes last-ditch effort. Rejected in Malawi, stays in Swaziland
EarthTimes.org. DPA 8 January 2008.

Taiwan urged Malawi to give serious thought to maintaining diplomatic
ties with the island, reminding it of the "warm and cordial" bilateral
relations in the past four decades. Taiwanese Foreign Minister James
Huang, who returned to Taiwan Tuesday after a failed mission to
convince the south-east African state to keep ties with the island,
said Taiwan greatly valued and treasured the friendship between the
two sides.

Taiwan's long-standing ties with Malawi have been threatened by
reports that the African state would soon switch diplomatic
recognition from Taipei to Beijing, a rival of Taiwan since the end of
the Chinese civil war in 1949.

China reportedly has offered 6 billion US dollars to win over Malawi,
an amount Taiwan has said it would never be able to match.

Huang headed to Malawi last week for a last-ditch effort to save
relations, but midway through, Malawi told him that its president was
unable to receive him because he was on vacation, while the Malawian
foreign minister was also out of town.
Huang was forced to turn to Swaziland, instead, waiting in vain for a
change of mind from Malawi.

________________________________________

5. Government to overhaul taxation system. Bongile Mavuso. Swazi
Observer 4.1.2008.

Swaziland is to launch an ambitious new action plan which aims to
eradicate extreme poverty within the next decade-and-a-half. According
to the plan being launched early next year, government wants to
overhaul a taxation system which has led to major wealth disparities,
particularly at the expense of rural areas.

"The central objective of government is to substantially reduce the
levels of poverty and encourage the implementation of the measures
that improve the capacities of, and opportunities available to all
Swazis, especially the poor," states the plan. "The specific object is
to reduce the incidence of absolute poverty from 69 percent to about
30 percent in 2015 and eradicate it completely by 2022."

Level

In an end-of-year statement, Minister of Economic Planning and
Development Muntu Absalom Dlamini said that gross domestic product
(GDP) in Swaziland was E6.90 per head, making it the lowest level in
southern Africa. While economic growth picked up slightly to an annual
rate of around 2.8 percent, it was not enough to dent the poverty
levels which the new action plan said affected more than two-thirds of
the population.

"The richest 20 percent of the population hold 54.6 percent of wealth
whilst the poorest 20 percent hold only 4.3 percent," it said. "There
were also notable urban-rural and regional imbalances. About 76
percent of the rural population is poor whilst 50 percent of the
population in urban areas is poor."

Among the measures outlined in the plan are the establishment of a new
revenue authority and more incentives for private businesses,
particularly in the technology sector.
"Economic growth requires a framework whereby the private sector can
perform to its full potential. "For the country to attain the desired
level of growth, it is also critical that more investment should be
directed towards research and development as well as in science and
technology."

Growth

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Themba Absalom Dlamini, in his New Year
message, noted the slow economic growth and poverty as some of the
country's major challenges in the past year. He stated that
agriculture did not perform well due to rain shortages and as a
result, shrunk by 2.4 percent with a great share of the decline
attributed to crops on Swazi Nation Land (SNL) and Individual Tenure
Farms (ITF).

"The country's exports have been negatively affected by the strength
of the exchange rate between the lilangeni and US dollar, but the
strong demand for some major domestic commodities minimised the impact
on overall export receipts," reads part of the statement.
___________________________________________

6. Swazi shop workers take wildcat strike action. World Socialist Web
Site www.wsws.org. Workers Struggles: 4 January 2008

Shop workers at the Nhlangano Spar in Swaziland took strike action at
the end of 2007 to demand their wages be increased by 15 percent. The
workers, members of the Swaziland Manufacturing and Allied Workers
Union, complain that their wages have been eroded by inflation and
that managers have refused to give commensurate pay increases,
offering them only 7 percent.

Management recruited casual workers to take the place of the strikers,
further inflaming their anger. Police were drafted into the Nhlangano
Mall shopping complex and the workers threatened with forceful removal
if they did not move away from their workplace.
____________________________________________

7. Swaziland fails to meet EU beef quota. Swazi Observer, 10 January 2007.

It has transpired that Swaziland was only able to meet 13 percent of
its beef quota to European Union (EU) markets.

Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives Mtiti Fakudze said Swazi beef
had an annual quota of 3600 tonnes in the EU markets, but the country
was only able to supply 500 tonnes per year.

"Therefore, we are facing growing pressure to fulfil the quota as
other countries are interested in exporting to the EU, but they cannot
do so currently because they cannot meet the high standards set," he
said.
_____________________________________


8. Risky business: report sheds new light on sex trade (PlusNews) 14
December 2007.

Not much has been known about sex workers in Swaziland, but a recent
report has begun to shed some light on the sex industry in a country
with the highest rate of HIV infection in the world.

The study, conducted for the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) by the
National Emergency Response Council on HIV and AIDS (NERCHA), was
prompted by the grisly discovery in late September of about 100
foetuses in a stream used by a peri-urban community at the Matsapha
Industrial Estate, outside the central commercial town of Manzini.

Commercial sex workers were initially blamed, but police sources also
suspected that underpaid women working at the Matsapha factories and
selling casual sex after hours might have used a local abortionist,
who then disposed of the foetuses.

After the controversy died down, health workers wanted to assess the
nature of the sex trade to formulate a strategy for reaching this
high-risk group, but finding sex workers was difficult because the
practice is illegal and perpetrators face prison terms.

The first phase of the research was a "snap survey", which interviewed
53 women aged 15 to 39 and eight men. A follow-up report covering
other areas where the sex trade is conducted, such as the Ezulwini
suburb of the capital, Mbabane, where the main tourist hotels are
located, is due in early 2008.

Although the study shows that there are more women in the profession
than men, "it must be noted that a growing number of males are joining
the trend," said Margaret Thwala-Tembe, National Programmes Officer
for UNFPA in Swaziland. The men engaged in sex with wealthy female
small-business owners or company executives. "The report is just the
beginning of much still to be covered by phase two of the study."

Selling sex for extra income

An increasing number of factory workers were also resorting to sex
work, or "night duty", to make ends meet because they were underpaid,
said researcher Alfred Mndzebele, but delegates attending this week's
conference of the Swaziland Partnership Forum on HIV and AIDS stressed
that these women should not be labelled sex workers.

"These are industrial workers; these are working women, they are not
prostitutes. If they are forced into prostitution it is because they
are not paid enough to support their families. The price they pay is
HIV infection, and the price the whole nation pays is an expansion of
the AIDS epidemic," warned Mathew Myeni, an HIV counsellor in Manzini.

The rising number of women resorting to sex work has been attributed
to worsening economic and humanitarian conditions in the country.

Instances of violence against women engaged in commercial sex were
also documented. "Some were taken to bushes and threatened with death
by customers who refused to pay, whilst others were injured on duty,"
said Thwala-Tembe.

The survey distinguished between working women who engaged in sex for
cash - usually in parked cars or at the homes of clients whose spouses
were absent - and women who had multiple sex partners as part of
economic arrangements. Such women would be homeless if they could not
spend the night with one partner, and hungry if they were not given
meals by a second sex partner.

Both groups of women said they did not use condoms at the insistence
of their clients; nor did the men. The report cited one candid woman
who had informed a potential partner that she was HIV-positive, but
the unperturbed man hired her for sex anyway, saying he was also HIV
positive. Swaziland's first household health survey, conducted this
year, found that one out of four sexually active adults was HIV
positive.

The sex survey confirmed that working women, who had been impregnated
when they engaged in commercial sex, had aborted the foetuses, despite
abortion being illegal.

Since the late 1990s, Swaziland has attracted Asian garment
manufacturers that set up shop to take advantage of favourable trade
treaties with the West, including the African Growth and Development
Act (AGOA) with the US. However, low pay and complaints about working
conditions have led to labour tension.

The garment factories are opposed to a new labour law that expands
maternity leave for women, and sick leave for people living with HIV
and AIDS. The textile industry employs mainly women as seamstresses
and other semi-skilled labour. These are the type of workers at
Matsapha found to be engaged in commercial sex and vulnerable to HIV
infection.

Their highest-paying clients were members of parliament, religious
officials, lecturers at the University of Swaziland campus adjacent to
the Matsapha industrial estate, police officers, businesspeople and
well-heeled tourists.

A session with a sex worker costs a typical client R50 (US$7), but can
escalate to R1,000 ($146) for some pastors. Member of parliament and
other wealthy clients reportedly paid nearly R3,000 (US$439) per
session.

___________________________________

9. Artists concern for HIV and Aids. International declaration. The
Herald (Harare), 9 January 2008.

1. We artists from Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe
meeting in Harare (Rainbow Towers) from November 27 to 29 2007 during
Sadc Artists Workshop on HIV and Aids as part of the Sadc Artists Aids
Festival:

2. Having undertaken a comprehensive introspection of ourselves as
artists on how HIV and Aids have impacted on individual artists and
arts organisations and how we have responded to the pandemic;

3. Having noted that we, as artists are equally infected and affected
by the pandemic but have not taken the challenge decisively respond to
the pandemic owing to our ego arising from the celebrity status and
our desire to follow the culture left by the fellow artists who have
gone;

4. Having noted that we are still in the denial phase and afraid of
stigmatisation and are victims of the prevailing community silence on
the disease;

5. Having noted that we have mainly been instrumental in HIV and Aids
campaigns and have not been target for such campaigns, information and
support service;

6. Being now aware of the need for all artists to be actively involved
in disseminating information on HIV and Aids prevention, voluntary
counselling and testing, treatment, mitigation and care;

7. Having noted with sadness that many artists have died in silence
and isolation with no support from fellow artists, arts organisations
and HIV and Aids organisations;

8. Being aware of the devastating impacts of the HIV and Aids pandemic
on artists, artists communities where individuals, the whole group has
succumbed/died of the pandemic leaving their dependants with no
support and the fact that artists have still not changed their mindsets;

9. Having noted that many HIV and Aids organisations and institutions
have not been able to cater for the special needs for artists whose
life and industry directly revolve around HIV and Aids issues;
aspirations, our realisation on the impact of HIV and Aids pandemic
and our response to it are common to all artists in the Sadc region,
we declare the formation of the SAAAF.

10. Having appreciated that our experiences, our concerns, our
challenges, our hopes and aspirations, our realisation on the impact
of HIV and Aids pandemic and our response to it are common to all
artists in the Sadc region, we declare the formation of the SAAAF.
___________________________________________

10. Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report. January 2, 2008


Preliminary results of Swaziland's national census released last month
found that since 1997, the country's population has decreased by
17,489 people to 912,229, and many experts have attributed demographic
changes to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Toronto's Globe and Mail reports.
The government has not finalized the results of the census, but if the
figure holds, it would mean that the country is 300,000 people below
what was projected as the likely rate of growth 20 years ago,
according to the Globe and Mail.

The country grew by more than 200,000 people from 1986 to 1997,
Solomon Dlamini, head of the national university's department of
demography and statistics, said, adding, "But it's the period between
these two censuses (1997 and 2007) when the [HIV/AIDS] epidemic
reached its apex." Swaziland has the highest HIV prevalence in the
world: 26% of adults, 49% of young women between the ages of 25 and 29
and 43% of pregnant women are HIV-positive. According to the Globe and
Mail, the population decline could be attributed both to people dying
of AIDS-related conditions and because HIV infection lowers the number
of children women have.

"I don't think anybody quite realized what the depth of HIV would be
in Swaziland." Derek von Wissell, director of the National Emergency
Response Council on HIV/AIDS, said, adding, "Even if they undercounted
by 10%, we're down 25% from where we should be." However, Rob
Dorrington, a professor of actuarial science at the University of Cape
Town, said, "Experience has taught me to be skeptical of census data
in general." He added, "It is not unusual for there to be an
undercount of children and of men [in a census], and deaths would have
to have been implausibly high, given the estimated level of
prevalence, for one to be able to detect this through the change in
the numbers counted by the census."

Amos Zwane, Swaziland's senior statistician, wrote in his preliminary
report on the census that "a population decline or stagnation was not
expected and this result is most surprising." He said that his office
is going to search for a logical explanation and will not speculate on
the cause until it produces final numbers in the middle of 2008.

According to the Globe and Mail, a "toxic mix" of factors has fueled
the country's HIV epidemic, including a highly virulent strain of the
disease circulating among residents; a culture that "condones, even
encourages" promiscuity and polygamy among men and denies women the
right to negotiate condom use; a "limited economy" that relies on
sending men to work in South Africa for long periods of time; and a
"playboy" king with an "ever-expanding stable" of wives who has denied
the magnitude of the problem, according to the Globe and Mail.

In addition, the country's understaffed and underfunded health system
could not treat people when the epidemic hit in the 1990s and, as a
result, "achingly slow progress" has been achieved in delivering
antiretroviral drugs to those in need, the Globe and Mail reports. The
rates of new HIV cases have begun to decrease minimally among young
people, but the rates remain stable or are increasing among people in
their 30s. About one-third of people who need antiretrovirals are
getting the drugs (Nolen, Globe and Mail, 12/22/07).

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11. Message of the Bishop to the people. Looking back on last year and
forward on 2007. Bishop M B Mabuza, Chairperson SCCCO (Swaziland
Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations).

?It is becoming apparent to civil society that the Constitution is
being used as little more than a fig-leaf to cover the international
shame of 33 years of rule by decree. What we now have is a piece of
paper that is not being promoted or even defended by the government.
The rights and duties that are enshrined in it are not being protected
or enforced. This year has seen defenceless suspects killed by the
police, public meetings broken up or prevented from happening, union
members harassed, property taken without due court processes,
newspaper editors intimidated, journalists threatened by government.
The people of Swaziland are in the dark about the constitution and
their rights and the government seems more than happy to keep them
that way.

The kingdom continues to wear two faces, the one it shows to the
outside world, a happy, peaceful, united democratic nation. The other
face is the reality of an internally riven, politically bankrupt,
corrupt and profoundly anti-democratic system that is underperforming
economically. Rather than investing the public coffers in relation to
areas of greatest need and with the potential for greatest results it
squanders them on economically unproductive projects that do little
more than stroke, already inflated, egos.

It is the year that many comparative international studies have
started to peek behind the veil and show that Swaziland consistently
is one of the worst performers in terms of human rights, political
participation, civil rights, governance, corruption and use of natural
resources. Yet these studies are regularly pooh-poohed by our leaders.
These are not high flown legalistic issues. Good governance directly
affects the country?s ability to develop its economy, society and
environment and to access the international aid that might just help
us out of our multiple and interlinked crises.

We were already aware that Swaziland has the shame of the highest HIV
prevalence, lowest life expectancy on earth and with equally appalling
infant mortality rates. This year saw the publication of the Whiteside
report that put these into a completely different context. The report
shows that the deaths that arise as a result of HIV/AIDS are now at a
level that is equivalent to generally accepted definitions of
emergency requiring massive international action as is seen in cases
of natural disaster, famine and civil war. We were shocked to find out
that Swaziland now has more OVCs per head of population than Darfur.
The slow and silent nature of the orphans? parents? deaths does not
make the emergency any less real, just less newsworthy.

A constitution is more than a piece of paper; it defines the political
culture of a country. Enacting it and upholding it are not matters of
luck or chance but require energy, skill, resources, practice and
passion. We do not see any of these necessary qualities being used at
present. Rather we bear witness to the masterly arts of planned and
practiced inactivity, prevarication and procrastination. The necessary
structures to defend democracy and freedom ? Commissions on Human
Rights and Public Administration and the Elections and Boundaries
Commission are nowhere close to being set up. The Royal Swazi Police
Force is not trained in the implications of policing under a Bill of
Rights. Women remain in law, and practice, second class citizens to
such an extent that the governor of Ludzidzini is able to say with
confidence, and in public, that they do not have the right to make
decisions on their own lives and should be equated with children,
subservient to their husbands as head of the household. As for the
rights of children? we?ll not even start with that one. Most
disturbing of all was the discovery of over one hundred foetuses in a
dam near Matsapha. The causes, implications and effects of that
particular nightmare are still being worked out. The human tragedies
that lie behind these headlines shame us all.

The constitution defines emaSwati as citizens, not subjects. The
difference is profound, if enacted. Citizens cede their power to
politicians and then call them to account for their stewardship.
Subjects do as they are told. The transition from subject to citizen
does not happen overnight. It requires a fundamental shift in thinking
that must be developed and the people must be educated in. Again,
there is masterly inaction on behalf of the government on this. We
hold deep reservations about the ability of the Tinkhundla system to
support an internationally recognisable democracy, and to promote
proper citizenship, especially in relation to elections.

The candidates put forward by the Tinkhundla system are not those with
the most to offer, the highest energy, the best minds, the vision of a
successful, prosperous and happy nation and the will and skills to
bring these about through inspiring, leading and listening. Its
candidates do not reflect the wealth and wisdom of this great country.
The offerings to the people of this corrupt, petty, and self-serving
system are, in the main, the loyal, the blind, the mediocre and the
second rate. We need better than that and we deserve better leaders.
The Tinkhundla do not serve emaSwati, they can only serve a small
section of us. Prince David had the arrogance to call the people of
Swaziland stupid for electing the current set of MPs. Let us remember
that he was the chair of the Constitutional Drafting Committee that
enshrined the system of their selection. As Democrats, we contend that
the people can not be stupid ? they are certainly not as stupid as the
system that rejects what every African country has accepted as right,
proper and normal ? multi-party politics. We in civil society will be
rolling out as large a programme of civic and voter education as we
can gather resources for in time for the expected elections in 2008.

All in all, 2007 has not been a good year for Swaziland, the terrible
effects of HIV/AIDS, drought, poverty, unemployment, corruption and
poor governance continue to unnecessarily kill far too many people and
to sap the ability of the country to perform. Our ?unique? system and
style of governance wastes time, effort, resources and energy that
could be better spent on really tackling the issues rather than paying
court to labadzala. We say to the democrats in government, reach out,
respect diversity of opinion and pluralism, embrace civil society and
work with us in partnership. The present system has failed and can
only continue to do so. Talk to us, we are listening. Stop being busy
doing nothing and wasting your time defending the indefensible. Let us
roll up our sleeves and work together to improve the lives and
conditions of all of the Swazi people, not just the few.


_____________________________________

12. Africa at large: Economic growth hits snag. The Monitor (Uganda),
by Martin Luther Oketch, January 8, 2008.

The past decade has witnessed growing diversity in income levels and
economic growth across Africa, however, the World Bank report 2007
reveals that despite these positive signs, Africa is not growing
rapidly enough to substantially reduce income poverty in the next five
years. Now the World Bank says it is well positioned to mobilize
private and public development finance to increase annual growth to 7
per cent, the minimum necessary to have significant impact on poverty
reduction.

The World Bank report show that sixteen countries grew by more than
4.5 per cent a year over this period, and several of them [including
Ghana, Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda] also diversified
their economies and exports.

"The fastest- growing group of non-oil-production producing African
countries, which together represents 36 per cent of population in
Africa, grew at an average rate of 5.5 per cent. In contrast, the 13
slowest-growing countries, which represent 20 per cent of the region's
population, saw average growth of only 1.3 per cent," the World Bank
report reads in part. Growth for the region as a whole reached an
estimated 5.3 per cent in 2006 with inflation falling to single digits
in most countries.

Solid growth has helped to improve human development outcomes,
especially in primary education. Gross primary school enrollment rates
in the region rose from 72 per cent in 1991 to 96 per cent in 2004.

Health outcomes are more varied, but report they improving in many
countries, and progress in preventing and treating malaria and
HIV/AIDS has accelerated. To drive economic recovery and development
taking place in Africa, the Word Bank advises in the report that
Africa now needs to sustain such gains by continuing to improve the
policy, environment in particular by ensuring macroeconomic stability
and improved market efficiency.

"Doing so will require greater openness to trade as well as the
formation of strong market institutions. Removing behind-the-boarder
constraints and establishing a pro-competitive domestic business
environment would enhance international competitiveness and strengthen
domestic capacity to respond to the changing demands of the global
economy," reads the report. The report states that African countries
continue to benefit from increased aid effectiveness, in keeping with
the March 2005 Paris Declaration.

The declaration calls on all development partners to ensure that aid
is coordinated among donors, that donor agencies harmonise their
requirements to minimise transaction costs, and that aid matches the
country's development needs. "Africa has shown that it can sustain
shared economic growth. In supporting African governments and people,
World Bank continues to play pivotal role in advocating the need to
increase aid flows to Africa and for African goods to have better
accesses to world markets," the report shows.

The World Bank is the largest provider of development assistance to
Africa, with a record $5.8 billion in credit, grants and guarantees in
fiscal year 2007. In total the World Bank approved 93 projects, up
more than 20 per cent from 2006.The report reveals that it also
continued its nonlending activities support, completing 194 analytical
and advisory services. In Uganda World Bank funded project is about
$1.5 billion in various development projects such as infrastructure,
education, health. Sixteen African countries, Uganda was among them
that benefited from Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative in fiscal year
2007.

This follows the cancellation of $40 billion by the International
Monetary Fund, World Bank and African Development Bank Group during
the G8 in 2005 Gleneagles in Scotland. The report, which amylases
progress and failures in Africa states that another 17 African
countries will become eligible when they reach their completion points
under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCI).

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