Thursday, May 31, 2012

BUS STRIKE: UNION LEADERS DETAINED

Three trade union leaders were detained by Swaziland police as a public transport strike entered its second day.

The three, executive committee members of the Swaziland Transport and Allied Workers Union (STAWU), were locked in a cell all day at Mafutseni Police Station.

They were picked up by 15 officers close to their union offices in Manzini, the main commercial city in Swaziland.

One of the detained men, Petros Ndzabandzaba, chief negotiator of STAWU, told local media they were on their way to an arranged meeting with police Regional Commander Richard Tsabedze when they were picked up.

Transport workers in Swaziland were on their second day of a strike that has brought much of the public transport out of Manzini to a halt. Workers are protesting about being forced to use a new bus rank in Manzini that has led to a reduction in passengers.

The Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, reported police released the three men without charges after seven hours following a request from the Ministry of Labour and Social Security Minister.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

STUDENT SHOT IN LEG BY SWAZI POLICE

A university student in Swaziland was shot with a live bullet by police following campus disturbances, human rights activists report.

The 23-year-old student at the Limkokwing private university in Mbabane was reportedly an innocent victim of the shooting.

The Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) said, ‘The student was on his way to his dormitory when he was struck by the live bullet in his leg.’

SSN reported, ‘According to witnesses, one policeman claimed to have been hit by a stone. In retaliation, one of his colleagues let out a shot in the direction of the student who was walking
past the police contingent.’

Linkokwing has been the scene of disturbances for more than a week as students protested against lack of equipment such as computers, laptops and cameras, at the university.

Authorities closed the university, but it reopened yesterday, but some students are boycotting classes.

The student was taken to hospital where he was treated for his wounds.

The Times of Swaziland,  reporting the same incident, said the student was hit with a rubber bullet, ‘which was lodged below the knee of his right leg’. It said the student bled profusely and the bullet was extracted at the hospital.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

NEWSPAPER COMMENT MUST BE ETHICAL

There have been posts on Facebook recently about the standards of newspaper journalism in Swaziland and whether comment writers need to abide by ethical codes.

Some people are saying writers of ‘my opinion’ pieces aren’t ‘journalists’, so the ethical rules that apply to full-time employees of newspapers don’t apply to them. This isn’t the case.

The word ‘journalist’ covers a multitude of newspaper tasks and not just news reporting. So, feature writers, opinion writers, photographers, the people who write the headlines, the editors, and so on are all ‘journalists’.  The term applies to people whether they work full-time for a media house or only contribute the occasional piece. It doesn’t matter if comment writers have day-jobs somewhere else: when they write for the newspapers they are ‘journalists’ and they are expected to stick to the rules like everyone else.

Some Facebook posters also think that comment writers are allowed to say anything they want and it doesn’t necessarily have to be true, because it’s the writer’s own ‘opinion’.

That isn’t true. Comment writers have to abide by the same laws and ethical codes as anyone else. Take the defamation (libel) law, for example, that protects people from false attacks on their character. Suppose a comment writer says in his column that a person he names was sacked from his job, even though this isn’t true. When he is accused of libel it’s no use him telling the court, ‘It was an honestly-held opinion’. It was not true (even if the writer thought it was, but did not check his facts) and he and the newspaper that published the article would have to pay damages to the person libelled.

Libel laws differ from country to country, and many of them allow that writers should be allowed to have opinions, but there are limits. If a writer were to be accused of libel, the main defence he might have would be that what was written was ‘fair comment’ or ‘honestly believed’. But, for this defence to succeed, the writer must show that the comment was made without malice or disregard for the truth.

The Swaziland National Association of Journalists (SNAJ) code of ethical conduct says something on this.  Article 12 on separating comment from facts states, ‘While free to take positions on any issue, journalists shall draw a clear line between comment, conjecture and fact.’

SNAJ also has this to say about facts. ‘The duty of every journalist is to write and report, adhere to and faithfully defend the truth. A journalist should make adequate inquiries, do cross-checking of facts in order to provide the public with unbiased, accurate, balanced and comprehensive information.’

So, opinion writers must beware – they have no special privileges and must stick to the same rules as all other journalists.

SWAZI QUEEN’S SHOES COST 3 YEARS’ PAY

It would take seven-out-of-ten Swazis at least three years to earn the price of the shoes trimmed with jewels worn by one of King Mswati III’s 13 wives at a lunch in the UK.

Inkhosikati LaMbikiza, the King’s first wife, wore shoes that cost £995 (US$1,559) to a lunch hosted by the UK’s Queen Elizabeth II to mark her Diamond Jubilee, earlier this month (May 2012).

Her shoes were described by reporters as a ‘rather eye-catching pair of Pearly Queen-style shoes with feathery pom-poms on the toes and heels.’ They were trimmed with jewels, sequins and feathers. 
She also wore a black and white spotted dress with feathery trimmings to match her shoes and a grey clutch bag.

The King is regularly criticised in media across the globe for his extravagant lifestyle. Media in Swaziland, where King Mswati is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, dare not criticise him. Last week the Times of Swaziland, the only independent daily newspaper in the kingdom, featured a report about LaMbikiza’s shoes, gushing that she had received ‘rave reviews’ for her dress sense while in the UK.

In Swaziland, seven-in-ten of King Mswati’s subjects are so poor they cannot afford shoes of any kind. They earn less than US$2 a day and it would take them at least 779 working days, or three years, to earn the price of LaMbikiza’s shoes.

While more than half of Swaziland’s 1.1 million population rely on some form of food aid to keep them from hunger, King Mswati has 13 palaces in Swaziland, one for each of his wives; fleets of BMW and Mercedes cars and at least one Rolls Royce. Last month, for his 44th birthday he received a private jet worth US$17 million as a gift. He refused to reveal who bought it for him, leading to speculation that it was paid for out of public funds.

The cost of the King’s five-day trip to the UK for the Diamond Jubilee has been estimated to be at least US$794,500.

 


Picture of LaMbikiza’s shoes: The Daily Beast 


See also

KING’S TRIP TO LONDON ‘COST US$794,500’

SWAZILAND LOSES MORE BUDGET SUPPORT

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has followed the IMF’s lead and withdrawn support for Swaziland.

The AfDB will not pay US$100 million (E800 million) budget support due to the kingdom, because Swaziland has failed to tackle problems with its economy.

Last month (April 2012), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) withdrew support for the Swazi Government’s plan for financial recovery, because Swaziland had failed to reign in public spending and had presented a national budget that took money away from education and poverty reduction and diverted it to other areas, widely understood to include spending on King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

Majozi Sithole, Swaziland’s Finance Minister, said this week that the AfDB would not pay the annual E800 million budget support it had promised over three years because the government had not met targets it agreed with the IMF.
 
Sithole said that the government was now hoping to reduce its annual public service salary bill by E300 million, but he said this would be difficult as the government had already failed in a previous attempt to cut it by E241 million.

The Swazi Government would have received a ‘letter of comfort’ from the IMF if it had been able to control its economy, thereby enabling it to get loans from the AfDB and the World Bank.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

TRUTH, HONESTY AND SWAZI NEWSPAPERS

The case of the Swaziland journalist dropped by the Times Sunday after writing homophobic comments in his column draws attention to the need for newspapers to be honest with their readers.

Some people are saying that the case of Qalakaliboli Dlamini touches on his right to freedom of expression. Even the editor of the Times Sunday Innocent Maphalala said as much as he issued an apology for publishing Qalakaliboli’s article after an ‘unprecedented’ number of complaints.

But, with Qalakaliboli, the issue is not about free speech, it is about honest writing and telling the truth to readers. Qalakaliboli was neither honest nor truthful.

Qalakaliboli wrote 1,500 words attacking homosexuals, using offensive language and proudly boasting that he was ‘homophobic’. He used examples from the world around him in support of his case. But, the examples were misleading at best and false at worst.

In support of his view that homosexuals are despised in Africa, he wrote that the Anglican Archbishop Emeritus, Desmond Tutu, was to speak at a symposium in the Catholic University of America. He said, students at the university ‘ran riot’ and made it known that they did not want Tutu at the university because of his support for gays.  In fact there was no riot, but there was a petition signed by 784 people against the visit. But, 16 times as many people (12,192) signed a counter petition in favour of Tutu.

So, the vast majority of people signing petitions at the Catholic University were very willing to listen to Tutu.

Qalakaliboli also wrote, ‘So, the proponents of multiparty and democracy should not tell us the nonsense that we should accommodate homosexuals because even in democratic country’s such as America, homosexuality is still taboo to most.’

‘Taboo’ means something banned by society as unacceptable and that is obviously not the case with homosexuality in America or developed countries.

Perhaps, Qalakaliboli meant to say that Americans ‘disapprove’ of homosexuality. But the facts do not support even this. In this month (May 2012) alone a number of opinion polls in the US show that the majority of Americans support same-sex marriage. Any number of polls conducted for many years past show Americans also support equal rights for gays and lesbians in public policy areas such as employment, education, housing and health. Most Americans do not disapprove of homosexuals. Qalakaliboli was misleading his readers to say otherwise.

But, the most blatant misdirection of readers was the entire premise for the article. Qalakaliboli told his readers that a new report ‘states that gay sex is on the increase in Swaziland’. He said that the report found 324 gay men and he ‘got the shock of my life’, when he read this.

The report he refers to, the Swaziland Country Report on Monitoring the Political on HIV AIDS, is not about gay sex. Nowhere in the whole report does the word ‘homosexual’, ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’ occur. Qalakaliboli needed to go through the report with a fine-tooth comb even to find reference to his 324 men.

This he clearly did with relish in order to falsely suggest that homosexuality might go ‘viral’ in Swaziland.

The report is actually a very sober account on HIV and AIDS in Swaziland. The 324 men Qalakaliboli despises so much take up four paragraphs of a report covering 91 pages. The 324 men are ‘men who have sex with men’, which Qalakaliboli did not tell his readers does not necessarily make them ‘gay’.

The report makes it clear that this is the first time such information has been collected, so Qalakaliboli is wrong when he writes the report shows ‘gay sex is on the increase in Swaziland’.

So why should we care that Qalakaliboli is deliberately misleading his readers? The simple answer is that journalists are expected by their readers to tell them the truth. A certain trust needs to be established between newspapers and readers, so readers can feel that they are not being manipulated. This is especially important in Swaziland where ordinary people have limited access to alternative sources of information.

Qalakaliboli and the Times Sunday broke this trust.

The Swaziland National Association of Journalists (SNAJ) recognises the importance of trust. Article 1 of its code of ethical conduct states, ‘The duty of every journalist is to write and report, adhere to and faithfully defend, the truth. A journalist should make adequate inquiries, do cross-checking of facts in order to provide the public with unbiased, accurate, balanced and comprehensive information. The public must have unfettered access to all media.’

This discussion is not about Qalakaliboli's attitudes to homosexuality alone: he has form when it comes to telling his readers falsehoods. One, of many examples, was when discussing whether a husband had the legal right to rape his wife. He said, ‘The British law makes it clear that there can never be marital rape in a marriage unless both parties are separated or the court has issued an order forbidding the husband from touching his wife.’ This is not true. Courts in England have ruled a husband cannot force his wife to have sex since at least 1991. 

In the past many Times Sunday readers complained to the newspaper and corrected him on a number of articles. Some of these complaints were published by the Times either online or in the printed newspaper, so Times' editors knew Qalakaliboli was unreliable with the truth.

In his apology to readers published last week the Times Sunday editor Innocent Maphalala said he took ‘full responsibility for publication’ of Qalakaliboli’s article. And so he should, but why did he let the article go in the paper in the first place? His comments on gays were clearly in contravention of Article 13 (hate speech) of the SNAJ code and there were significant doubts from the past about Qalakaliboli’s ability to write truthfully.

Following his suspension from the newspaper, Qalakaliboli sent an email to his editors confirming his hatred of homosexuals and stating that he would be prepared to launch an anti-homosexual campaign in Swaziland.

Qalakaliboli cannot claim he has been denied his right to freedom of expression, now he has been dropped. His case is not about the right to hold opinion, it is about deliberately lying to readers to advance his own agenda. 

Some readers are expressing relief that Qalakaliboli will no longer be allowed to write for the Times Sunday, but dropping his column does not remove the responsibility of the newspaper to ensure that all its writers are truthful.

Now, it is up to the editors at the Times to ensure in future they monitor the work of their journalists more thoroughly so readers can feel confident they are not being manipulated by them to advance their own purposes.

See also

GAY HATE JOURNALIST UNREPENTANT
‘TIMES’ GAY HATE – CALL TO OMBUDSMAN
NEW ATTACK ON ‘TIMES’ HATE SPEECH

TRADE UNIONIST SPEAKS OF GOVT ‘THREAT’

A trade unionist visiting Swaziland this week said he felt ‘threatened’ when a Swazi government minister said he and his colleagues should not be in the kingdom without permission.

They were visiting Swazi workers on a ‘fact-finding’ mission about trade union operations in the kingdom, ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

But, Minister of Labour and Social Security, Lutfo Dlamini, said they had no right to be in Swaziland because they had not informed government of their mission.

The unionists from the UK and the Netherlands met with public service unions while on a four-day visit to the kingdom, just ended.

Commenting to local media on Dlamini’s statement, Nick Sieler, Head of International Relations at UNISON, a UK trade union, said, ‘We were shocked by the statement made by the minister.’

He told the Timesof Swaziland, ‘The minister’s statement does not tie up with the freedom of association.’ He added he perceived the statement as a threat.

Sieler said their mission was to strengthen their relationship with the country’s unions, particularly the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) and the National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU).

George de Roos, International Officer of Abuavabo trade union in the Netherlands, told the newspaper that in more than 30 years travelling around the world on trade union issues no government had demanded he registered on arrival.

See also

GOVT WANTS TO VETO UNION VISITS
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2012/05/govt-wants-to-veto-union-visits.html

SWAZILAND’S BRUTAL REGIME: AMNESTY


Stiffkitten Blog

24 May 2012


Amnesty International annual report criticises “brutal” Swazi regime

 “Arbitrary and secret detentions, political prosecutions and excessive force were used to crush political protests,” Amnesty International writes about Swaziland in their 2012 annual report on the state of human rights throughout the world that was released today [24 May].
Swaziland is an absolute monarchy where all political parties are banned, where the monarch King Mswati III rules by decree and where two thirds of the population survive on under a dollar a day whilst the royal family spend lavishly on luxury items and prestige projects.

The Amnesty report focuses at length on mass demonstrations in April 2011 that were brutally suppressed by police and security forces. “In April, the government banned protest marches planned for 12 to 14 April by trade unions and other organizations. Arbitrary and secret detentions, unlawful house arrests and other state of emergency-style measures were used to crush peaceful anti-government protests over several days.”

The treatment of student leader, Maxwell Dlamini, who was detained and tortured during the mass demonstrations (although the torture of Maxwell at the hands of security police is for some reason not mentioned in the report), is held up as an example of the regime’s suppression of the democratic movement in April 2011, as is that of (banned political party) Ngwane National Liberatory Congress activist Ntombi Nkosi.

“Maxwell Dlamini, President of the Swaziland National Union of Students, was detained between 10 and 12 April and held incommunicado without access to a lawyer or contact with his family. The day after his release he was rearrested, along with Musa Ngubeni, a political activist and former student activist leader. They were denied legal access while in police custody and during their hearing at the magistrate’s court.”

“On 12 April, 66-year-old Ntombi Nkosi, an activist with the Ngwane National Liberatory Congress (NNLC), was on her way home, having received medical treatment after tear gas was thrown at her, when she was confronted by three armed police officers. They questioned her about wording relating to the NNLC on her T-shirt and head scarf and then allegedly grabbed her, pulled off her T-shirt and headscarf and assaulted her. They throttled her, banged her head against a wall, sexually molested her, bent her arms behind her back, kicked her and then threw her against a police truck. A passing taxi driver helped her to get away.”

The report also clearly points to the fact that the regime has closed of all avenues of dialogue with the democratic movement. “The government ignored renewed efforts by civil society organizations to open a dialogue on steps towards multi-party democracy. At the UN Universal Periodic Review hearing on Swaziland in October, the government rejected recommendations to allow political parties to participate in elections.”

Read more:

KING’S TRIP TO LONDON ‘COST US$794,500’

The King of Swaziland’s trip to London for Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee cost the Swazi people at least US$794,500.

King Mswati III reportedly took 30 people with him and stayed at the world-renowned Savoy Hotel.

The extravagant spending comes just as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) criticised Swaziland for diverting money that should have been used on education and health to other spending.

As a result of this spending the IMF withdrew from Swaziland its team that was advising the government on economic recovery. Now, the kingdom will find it impossible to get the loans it needs from the World Bank and the African Development Bank to help rescue the economy.

The cost of King Mswati’s trip is a state secret, but it has been possible to piece together some of the spending.

To fly to London the King had to hire a private plane, despite having received a jet as a gift for his birthday last month. That plane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-87, which cost an estimated US$17 million secondhand, is too small to fly from Swaziland to the UK without stopping at least once on the way for refuelling.

So, King Mswati flew in a Bombardier. When he went to the UK last year to attend the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton he went in a similar jet. That time the cost of plane hire was reported to be between US$700,000 (E4.7 million) and US$900,000. We can assume it cost more or less the same this time too.

The King, who is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, took an entourage of 30 people with him to the Diamond Jubilee. He stayed at the US$630-per-night Savoy Hotel. Assuming all his party stayed in the same hotel, he ran up a bill of US$18,900 per night. Multiply that by a five-day stay and the total hotel room bill was US$94,500.

We can say with some confidence that the combined bill for the flight and the hotel came to at least US$794,500. There would also have been considerable incidental expenses associated with the trip, but it is difficult to cost these.

In November 2011, Joannes Mongardini, head of the IMF team in Swaziland, was asked by the BBC whether he thought the King and the Royal family ought to make financial sacrifices to help Swaziland out of its economic mess. He responded diplomatically, ‘We would expect all Swazis to make a sacrifice.’

In the interview Mongardini pointed out that the old and sick were suffering most from the financial crisis in Swaziland.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

GAY HATE JOURNALIST UNREPENTANT

Qalakaliboli Dlamini, the Swaziland journalist dropped by his newspaper after he attacked homosexuals in his column, has told his editors he is glad he did it and would do it again.


And, he says he is ready to launch a public campaign against homosexuals.

Qalakaliboli, until last week a regular columnist in the Times Sunday, told them, ‘I want to put it on record that I did write the article and I did state it without fear that I hate homosexuality with every fiber of hair on my body. Given the opportunity I would gladly do it again and I am not at all apologetic for my choice of words.’

He made his comments in an email sent to Times Sunday editor Innocent Maphalala and Times of Swaziland group managing editor Mbongeni Mbingo.

Qalakaliboli was ‘indefinitely’ suspended from the Times Sunday following what Maphalala called an ‘unprecedented’ number of complaints from readers. The Times of Swaziland readers’ ombudsman has been asked to investigate a complaint that Qalakaliboli broke the National Association of Journalists code of ethical conduct on hate speech.

In his email, which Qalakaliboli copied to a number of people and organisations, including Swazi Media Commentary, he wrote he would ‘stand up against the spread of homosexuality in my country, and which I will do even after I have stopped writing for the Times of Swaziland.

He added, ‘I will continue to stand up against homosexuals and if need be, I will run a public anti-homosexual campaign.’

See also
‘TIMES’ GAY HATE – CALL TO UMBUDSMAN
NEW ATTACK ON ‘TIMES’ HATE SPEECH

‘TIMES’ MISLEADS ON KING’S LONDON VISIT

The Times of Swaziland has censored itself again while reporting the Swazi Royal Family. 

The Times, the only independent daily newspaper in the kingdom, reports today (23 May 2012) that Inkhosikati LaMbikiza, the first wife of King Mswati III (he has 13), had ‘rave reviews for her dress sense’ when the couple visited London last week to attend dinner with Queen Elizabeth II to mark her Diamond Jubilee.

It quoted the Daily Mail newspaper in the UK saying, LaMbikiza had a ‘rather eye-catching pair of Pearly Queen-style shoes with feathery pom-poms on the toes and heels.

‘The shoes were trimmed with jewels, sequins and feathers. She also wore a black and white spotted dress with feathery trimmings and it matched perfectly with her shoes and a grey clutch bag.’

But what the Times did not say was that the Daily Mail has also been reporting,  ‘Guests from controversial regimes include Swaziland’s King Mswati III, who has been accused of living an obscenely lavish lifestyle while many of his people starve.’

News media across the world have been reporting that King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, was dogged by protests during his short visit to London.

Demonstrators picketed him on two separate occasions at the Savoy Hotel, where he was staying in rooms reported to cost £400 (US$630) per night.

Protestors also were waiting for him outside Buckingham Palace, the Queen’s residence when he visited her and there was also a vigil outside the Swazi High Commission.

See also
SWAZI CENSORSHIP ON KING’S UK TRIP
LONDON PROTEST TO GREET SWAZI KING

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

POLICE FIRE RUBBER BULLETS AT STUDENTS


Swaziland police fired rubber bullets and teargas to disperse students protesting about the lack of equipment at their university.

Armed police forced the students from the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology campus, Mbabane, where they had been boycotting classes for the past week.

Limkokwing administrators said the university had now been closed ‘indefinitely’.

Students were protesting about the lack of technical equipment, including computers, laptops and cameras. The university is a private university, based in Malaysia, which opened a campus in Swaziland in May 2011. The Swazi Government pays E16 million (US$2 million) a year for scholarships to the university.

Local media reported armed police officers used rubber bullets to disperse the students who were refusing to leave the university premises after they were ordered to do so by management. Students ran from the university when police fired teargas and took cover in a nearby shopping complex, but were forced from there by armed police. 

There have been numerous complaints and boycotts by students over issues including poor accommodation, non-payment of allowances and non-availability of teachers, since the university first opened.

See also

STUDENTS UNDER FIRE FROM POLICE

KING FELL FOR BOGUS UNIVERSITY

Monday, May 21, 2012

GOVT WANTS TO VETO UNION VISITS

A Government minister has warned workers in the kingdom that they cannot invite trade unionists from overseas to Swaziland without permission.


Lufto Dlamini, Minister of Labour and Social Security, said Swazi unions could not have any meetings with organisations which had not informed government of their mission.

He was reacting to a meeting that took place yesterday (21 May 2012) between Swazi unionists and a delegation of workers from the UK and the Netherlands.

‘Any organisation or union that comes into the country for any meeting must first inform government through the relevant ministry. There is protocol that has to be observed before they come into the country,’ Dlamini told media in Swaziland. 

 
He added, ‘I am not aware of this meeting as nothing was formally communicated with the ministry. Any members of an organisation or union who come into the country have to ask for permission from government and state their agenda.’

Mduduzi Gina, of the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA), said the meeting was held to discuss various issues, including the recent deregistration of TUCOSWA by the government.

GAY HATE SPEECH WRITER SUSPENDED

The Swaziland writer at the centre of a gay hate speech storm has been suspended by his newspaper.

The Times of Swaziland acted against Qalakaliboli Dlamini when an ‘unprecedented’ number of readers complained at his article last week attacking homosexuals.

His weekly column did not appear yesterday (20 May 2012) and may never appear again.

Times Sunday editor Innocent Maphalala told his readers, ‘As Editor, I also take full responsibility for publication of the said article and unreservedly apologise to all our readers who found it in bad taste.’

He said, ‘We have received an unprecedented number of concerns regarding Qalakaliboli’s last article.’

A formal complaint to the Times of Swaziland readers’ ombudsman has been made against Dlamini for breaking the Swaziland National Association of Journalists code of ethical conduct.

Separately, Times Managing Editor Mbongeni Mbingo said, ‘We shall be having further discussions on a permanent way forward.’

See also

‘TIMES’ GAY HATE – CALL TO UMBUDSMAN
NEW ATTACK ON ‘TIMES’ HATE SPEECH

Saturday, May 19, 2012

SWAZI CENSORSHIP ON KING’S UK TRIP

The Weekend Observer in Swaziland censored itself in its reporting of King Mswati III’s attendance at Windsor Castle to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee.

The newspaper reported, ‘Among the guests is King Hamad al-Khalifa of Bahrain, whose attendance has been criticised by human rights campaigners.’

But, the newspaper did not report that these same ‘human rights campaigners’ were also complaining that King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, had been invited.

Media houses across the world have been reporting that King Mswati is being criticised in London for ‘leading a lavish lifestyle while his people starve’.

The campaigners also highlight that the King has a personal fortune of US$100 million.

The King, who is reported to have taken an entourage of 30 people with him to London, was met with protests at his hotel and at the Swazi Consulate, where he held a dinner.

The Press Association news agency in the UK, quoted Thobile Gwebu of the Swaziland Vigil who said people in the kingdom had been reduced to eating cow dung to make sure they filled their stomachs as required for Aids medicines provided by non-government organisations (NGOs).

The Weekend Observer is in effect owned by King Mswati.

Friday, May 18, 2012

SWAZI KING FACES NEW PROTEST


Swaziland prodemocracy campaigners are to picket the Swazi High Commission in London on Saturday (19 May 2012) when King Mswati III is due to hold a dinner.

The King is in London to attend a banquet as the guest of Queen Elizabeth II as part of her Diamond Jubilee celebration.

The King, who is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, is staying at the £400 a night Savoy hotel. He is reported to have taken an entourage of 30 people with him to London.

His visit has been met with protests and media organisations across the world have drawn attention to the fact that while the King and his 13 wives live a lavish lifestyle, seven in ten of his 1.1 million subjects live in abject poverty, earning less than US$2 a day.

According to Forbes, the King has a personal fortune estimated at US$100 million. He also has control of a trust fund in Swaziland that is estimated at US$10 billion.

Pickets organized by the Swaziland Vigil met the King when he arrived at the Savoy on Wednesday. The Vigil is also organizing a protest on Saturday 19 May at the Swazi High Commission, 20 Buckingham Gate, London, from 6.30pm.

See also

KING MSWATI, LONDON PROTEST - PICTURES