Wednesday, August 30, 2017

SWAZI REED DANCE MEDIA BAN



Women taking part in Swaziland’s annual Reed Dance where they will parade half-naked in front of King Mswati III have been banned from talking to the news media.

This emerged in a report in the Swazi Observer on Wednesday (30 August 2017), a newspaper in effect owned by the King who is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

The Reed Dance participants who are generally described as ‘maidens’ or ‘virgins’ are travelling to the Ludzidzini Royal Residence for a ceremony that ends on Monday. The Observer reported that maidens from the Northern Hhohho region were unable to speak to the media. The newspaper wanted to know how much they were looking forward to the event.

The newspaper reported, ‘authorities responsible for the maidens said they were not allowed to conduct interviews with the media because they had not sought permission from their superiors.’

It quoted one saying, ‘Unfortunately, due to the fact that our superiors have not given us the go ahead to speak to the media we are currently in no position to comment on the preparations and we can’t reveal the number of maidens we currently have here.’

Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that the maidens will once again sing songs at the ceremony against democracy in the kingdom where political parties cannot take part in elections and prodemocracy campaigners are prosecuted under the Suppression of Terrorism Act.

The Swazi Observer also reported on Wednesday that about 80,000 maidens had registered to attend the Reed Dance (also known as Umhlanga) and more were expected. It spoke to one leader Nonduduzo Zubuko. It reported, ‘Zubuko said they would also be tackling issues of multi-party democracy stating where they stand as a regiment. 

‘“We are happy with our system, we don’t need multi-parties in our country hence we will put that out there for everyone to know in song,” he said.’

See also

SWAZILAND’S SINISTER REED DANCE

DISPUTE OVER REED DANCE SAFETY

SWAZI MAIDENS LEARN POLITICAL SONGS

CULTURAL REED DANCE TURNS POLITICAL
SWAZIS FORCED TO DANCE FOR KING

SWAZI GIRLS FACE PUBLIC WHIPPING

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

SCHOOL FEES AGAINST CONSTITUTION



The short-lived era of free primary school education in Swaziland has officially come to an end. The move contravenes the kingdom’s constitution.

The Swazi Government has approved a circular allowing the Ministry of Education and Training to charge additional educational fees over and above the Free Primary Education (FPE) grant and Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) grant from government.

The Times of Swaziland, the only independent daily newspaper in the kingdom rules by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, reported on Monday (28 August 2017), ‘The signing and endorsing of the circulars brings to an end the impasse that seems to have existed between the ministry and school administrators.’

Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Education  Pat Muir advised all primary schools, with effect from January 2017 to forward applications for charging additional fees over and above the stipulated free primary education, the newspaper reported.

The directive goes against S29 of the Swaziland Constitution.

The Swazi Government pays E580 per child but this is supported by the European Union. 

School principals complained that the money given to them was inadequate. Local media reported that some schools had declared bankruptcy.

The news of the scrapping of free schooling came in March 2017 when Dr Phineas Magagula, Minister of Education, told a budget debate in parliament that top-up fees had been authorised. No additional money would be given by the Government.

Up until December 2016, the EU had spent a total amount of E110 million (US$8 million) to fund the Free Primary Education Programme in Swaziland. In 2015, it reportedly sponsored 34,012 learners in 591 schools. The EU plans to continue paying for the school fees until the end of 2018.

The EU started funding FPE for first grade pupils in the whole country in 2011.

The decision to charge fees contravenes S29 of the Swaziland Constitution which states, ‘Every Swazi child shall within three years of the commencement of this Constitution [2005] have the right to free education in public schools at least up to the end of primary school, beginning with the first grade.’ 

In February 2017, nearly E2.7 billion (US$216 million) was allocated in the national budget for the kingdom’s security forces that comprise the Umbutfo Swaziland Defence Force (USDF), Royal Swaziland Police Service (RSPS) and His Majesty’s Correctional Services (HMCS). 

Security will take up 12.4 percent of Swaziland’s total budget of E21.7 bn ($US1.66 bn), up 11 percent from last year.

Education was allocated E3.5 billion.

Following the latest announcement, Zwelithini Mndzebele, Secretary of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), criticised the move. The Times of Swaziland reported on Tuesday (29 August 2017) he said there was no need for top-up fees at primary school level given that this was a human right enshrined in the Constitution of the land.

‘Government has the obligation to offer Free Primary Education with no option of top-ups as that affects parents,’ he said.

He called on government to increase the FPE grant instead of seeking an ‘easy way out’. He further said this was the same case with secondary or high schools.

He noted that there was a commission set to view the issue of top-up fees in schools and it had offered recommendations. The educator said it would be best if government revisited those recommendations.

The task team, in its recommendations, had noted that top-up fees in schools were the reason many Swazi pupils attended schools in South Africa. The task team compiled the report on the issue of top-up fees in fulfilment of the dictates of legal notice No. 125 of 2014. This, according to concerns raised by head teachers and school committees, depreciated the quality of education as the funds were insufficient to run schools, the Times reported.


See also
KING’S ROLE IN SCHOOLS CHAOS IGNORED

SWAZILAND: MASSIVE ‘SECURITY’ SPENDING

Monday, August 28, 2017

JAILERS ‘SEXUALLY ASSAULT’ MEN INMATES



More former male inmates at a jail in Swaziland say they were sexually assaulted by warders.

They say they were stripped and had their genitals groped. One said a warder pulled the pubic hair on his testicles. 

The Sunday Observer newspaper in Swaziland reported (27 August 2017) that three former inmates at Bhalekane said the jail ‘created monsters out of them’. 

It said, ‘One of them who had been with the facility for two years before he was released recently indicated that the torture he endured at Bhalekane has made him a hostile animal.’

One former inmate whom it did not name said, ‘They [warders] were doing their usual strip search, where they went on to touch me and some other inmates on our private parts, very intimately, which destroyed our manhood.’

Another former inmate said, ‘One day they returned straight from their gym and did a strip search, they would smash our hands on the floor with the soccer boots, squeeze our genitals.’

The Sunday Observer reported, ‘He further added that one of the officers even went as far as pulling the pubic hair in his testicles.’

Warders were searching inmates for illegal drugs, the newspaper said.

One of the former inmates told the newspaper, ‘Our sentence might have ended but we are definitely not the same people that went in there, we are worse and I would not be shocked if one of the inmates committed murder or any related offence because we are the animals that they are trying to build at Bhalekane.’

Another former inmate told the newspaper he had been kicked in the head by one of the officers. ‘He kept on banging my defenceless head on the ground with his soccer boot. I begged for mercy and he told me that I do not deserve mercy since I was there (jail) to pay for the crimes I committed,’ he said. 

He further alleged that he was made to work in the fields with a gun pointing on his head. 

Bhalekane was in the news in late July 2017 when a former inmate told local media an entire dormitory of prisoners was ordered to strip naked before warders searched them and smacked them on their buttocks.

See also

PRISONERS STRIPPED NAKED, ASSAULTED

‘JAIL WARDERS SELL PRISONERS DRUGS’
‘WOMEN’S JAIL BOOZE COVER-UP’

PROBE INTO ‘INHUMANE’ JAIL CONDITIONS

PROBE INTO CORRUPTION AT SWAZI JAIL
https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/probe-into-corruption-at-swazi-jail.html