Thursday, October 31, 2013

NO TOP PARLIAMENTARIANS WERE ELECTED

None of the major office holders in King Mswati III’s new parliament in Swaziland was elected by the people.

The latest is Gelane Zwane who has become President of the Swaziland Senate.

Zwane, who last week was appointed to the Senate by the king, was elected Senate president unopposed. This will be the third term that Zwane has served as Senate President.

Ngomuyayona Gamedze was also elected unopposed as Deputy President. Gamedze too was appointed to Senate by the king. It will also be Gamedze’s third term in the position.

All senior positions in the Swaziland Parliament have now been filled following the national election in September 2013. None of them were elected by the people.

The Prime Minister, the Speaker of the House of Assembly, the President and Deputy President of Senate were all appointed to Parliament by the king, who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

In addition this week King Mswati appointed six members of his own family to the Senate and earlier this month he appointed a further six to the House of Assembly.

 
All political parties were banned from contesting the election in September. The people were only allowed to contest 55 of the 65 seats in the House of Assembly. King Mswati appointed the other 10. The king appointed 20 of the 30-strong Senate House. The other 10 were elected by members of the House of Assembly. None were elected by the people.

Following the election on 20 September two independent international organisations that monitored the poll separately called for the Swaziland Constitution to be rewritten.

The African Union mission reported the Swaziland Constitution guaranteed ‘fundamental rights and freedoms including the rights to freedom of association’, but in practice, ‘rights with regard to political assembly and association are not fully enjoyed’.  

The AU urged Swaziland to review the Constitution, especially in the areas of ‘freedoms of conscience, expression, peaceful assembly, association and movement as well as international principles for free and fair elections and participation in electoral process.’

Separately, the Commonwealth Observer Mission said the constitution needed to be rewritten so that King Mswati’s powers were reduced. It also said political parties should be allowed.  

See also
AU WANTS REVIEW OF SWAZI CONSTITUTION
KING APPOINTS SIX OF HIS FAMILY TO SENATE

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

AU WANTS REVIEW OF SWAZI CONSTITUTION



The African Union (AU) mission that observed Swaziland’s national elections has called for fundamental changes in the kingdom to ensure people have freedom of speech and of assembly.

In a preliminary report on the election just released, the AU said the Swaziland Constitution guaranteed ‘fundamental rights and freedoms including the rights to freedom of association’, but in practice, ‘rights with regard to political assembly and association are not fully enjoyed’.

The AU said this was because political parties were not allowed to contest elections in Swaziland. The most recent took place on 20 September 2013.

The AU’s comments follow those of the Commonwealth Observer Mission that also observed the election. In its report on the election, the Commonwealth called for Swaziland’s Constitution to be rewritten to reduce the powers of King Mswati III, who rules as an absolute monarch.

The AU urged Swaziland to review the Constitution, especially in the areas of ‘freedoms of conscience, expression, peaceful assembly, association and movement as well as international principles for free and fair elections and participation in electoral process.’

The AU called on Swaziland to implement the African Commission’s Resolution
on Swaziland in 2012 that called on the Government, ‘to respect, protect and fulfil the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom of assembly.’

The AU also said women constituted more than 50 percent of the population of Swaziland and called on the kingdom to take measures and develop mechanisms to achieve increased representation of women and physically challenged persons in elective public positions in accordance with the Constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women.


See also

POLL OBSERVERS: REWRITE CONSTITUTION

KING APPOINTS 6 OF HIS FAMILY TO SENATE


King Mswati III of Swaziland has appointed six members of his family to the kingdom’s senate.

This is in addition to the two princes, a princess and three members of his own Dlamini clan he appointed to the House of Assembly earlier this month (October 2013).

King Mswati, who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, chooses 20 of the 30 members of the Swazi Senate. The other 10 are elected by members of the House of Assembly. None are elected by the people.

The king also appoints 10 members of the 65-strong House of Assembly. The others are selected by the people. Political parties are banned from taking part in the election.

The appointment of his family to the Senate and the House strengthen the king’s control over what happens in the Swaziland Parliament. It is widely acknowledged outside of Swaziland that the parliament has no real powers and will not do anything that displeases the king.

In addition to appointing six of his own family to the Senate, King Mswati also appointed four chiefs and one acting chief. In Swaziland chiefs are the personal representatives of the king in their local areas. They are seen as the eyes and ears of the king and often delegate his powers to themselves.

King Mswati also reappointed his staunch supporter Barnabas Dlamini to a third term in office as prime minister. Dlamini, a member of the king’s clan, was not elected to parliament.


See also

KING APPOINTS HIS FAMILY TO PARLIAMENT

‘PM IS INCOMPETENT, UNTRUSTWORTHY, VAIN’

Monday, October 28, 2013

‘PM INCOMPETENT, UNTRUSTWORTHY, VAIN’



As expected Barnabas Dlamini has been reappointed Prime Minister of Swaziland by King Mswati III.

Dlamini was not elected to the Swazi Parliament. Instead, King Mswati, who rules as an absolute monarch, appointed him to the House of Assembly, so in-turn, he could reappoint him Prime Minister.

Dlamini had been PM for the whole of the five-year Parliament that ended last month (September 2013). He had also been PM for seven and a half years until 2003.

Dlamini is a controversial figure, recognised internationally as an enemy of freedom and seen even inside Swaziland as incompetent, untrustworthy and vain.

His incompetence can been seen all over Swaziland, where seven in ten people live in the grip of abject poverty, earning less than US$2 a day. Three in ten people are so malnourished they are moving from hunger to starvation and the kingdom has the worst record for the number people with HIV in the whole world. On top of that, TB and measles are at epidemic proportions in Swaziland.

But, instead of putting forward policies to help the Swazi people, Dlamini spent much of his time in office feathering his own nest. A blatant land-scam, where he and government colleagues bought for themselves land belonging to the Swazi people, only failed to go to court because King Mswati personally ordered it should not.  
 
Dlamini also has personal share-holding in companies, including Swazi Empowerment (Pty) Limited (SEL), which in turn has shares in the MTN cellphone company. This means he has a personal vested interest in many business decisions his government takes.  

Dlamini is untrustworthy. The most blatant example was in April 2011 when he called a press conference and lied to the media that he had secured a ‘letter of comfort’ from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This letter would demonstrate to world finance organisations, such as the World Bank and the African Development Bank, that Swaziland’s economy was sound and the kingdom could be trusted with loans. The news was greeted as a triumph and published all over the world. But, the letter did not exist. It was a fabrication.

Instead, one year later in April 2012 the IMF announced it was withdrawing support from Dlamini’s government and its ‘fiscal adjustment roadmap’ plan to save the economy. The IMF said, ‘Government has yet to propose a credible reform programme that could be supported by a new IMF Staff-Monitored Programme.’ 

Dlamini was also exposed as a fraud in October 2010 when he allowed his government to alter an official report for the United Nations that stated that Swaziland was behind in its efforts to meet Millennium Goals on alleviating poverty.  The doctored report was changed   so instead of saying the Swaziland Government was ‘not likely’ to meet the target of ‘eradication of extreme poverty and hunger’ it read that it could ‘potentially’ meet the target.

As well as being incompetent and untrustworthy, Dlamini is also vain. In October 2010 he accepted a ‘World Citizen Award’. Even though before the award ceremony took place the world’s media exposed the organisers as conmen and the award as fake,  Dlamini nonetheless flew first-class with an entourage from Swaziland to the Bahamas, to accept the award. Even when he was told to his face that he had been conned, he refused to acknowledge it, humiliating both himself and Swaziland on the world stage.

The Swazi people recognised Dlamini was not worthy to lead the kingdom. In October 2012 the Swazi House of Assembly passed a vote of no-confidence in him and his government. According to the constitution, King Mswati was obliged to sack him. But the king defied the constitution and Dlamini remained in office.

The House vote of no-confidence was not isolated. In August 2012 the Sibaya, a rather quaint excuse for democracy in Swaziland where ordinary people gather at a cattle byre to air their views on matters of importance to them, told Dlamini and his government to quit. The people said they were corrupt and destroying the kingdom. 

King Mswati claims Sibaya is the supreme policy-making body in the land because it demonstrates the peoples’ will. But, again, he ignored the voice of the people and stuck by Dlamini.



See also
HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSER SET TO BE PM

PUDEMO BACKS CRITICAL ELECTION REPORT



The People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), the best known of Swaziland’s banned pro-democracy groups, has welcomed a report from a Commonwealth mission calling for the kingdom to democratise.

The Commonwealth Observer Mission observed the national election held in Swaziland in September and said they were not entirely credible.

In a report, the group called for the constitution to be reviewed and for the influence in political affairs of King Mswati III, who rules as an absolute monarch, to be reduced.

PUDEMO in a statement said, ‘It has validated our position and critique to say we can`t talk of credibility, fairness and democracy for a process which does not allow for political parties, separation of powers, freedom of the media, gender equity and democracy as a modern standard.’

PUDEMO was among a number of groups and individuals that boycotted the election held on 20 September 2013 under a political system known as ‘Tinkhundla’.

Politcal parties were banned from taking part and the people were only permitted to select 55 of the 65 members of the House of Assembly. King Mswati appointed the remaining 10. None of the 30 members of the Senate House are elected by the people. The House of Assembly elects 10 and the other 20 are appointed by the king.

PUDEMO said, ‘We are happy that our arguments and position on the elections has been vindicated and shall stand the test of time as long as the elections are held under the undemocratic, discredited and condemned Tinkhundla system of governance.’

See also

POLL OBSERVERS: ‘REWRITE CONSTITUTION’

Friday, October 25, 2013

POLL OBSERVERS: ‘REWRITE CONSTITUTION’



Commonwealth observers have called for Swaziland’s Constitution to be rewritten after they concluded the kingdom’s national election in September 2013 was not entirely credible.

The call came in the official report of the Commonwealth Observer Mission just circulated.

The report says members of parliament ‘continue to have severely limited powers’ and political parties are banned.

The Commonwealth observers said there was ‘considerable room for improving the democratic system’.
Swaziland is ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

They called for King Mswati’s powers to be reduced. ‘The presence of the monarch in everyday political life inevitably associates the institution of monarchy with politics, a situation that runs counter to the development that the re-establishment of the Parliament and the devolution of executive authority into the hands of elected officials.’

The report said the Constitution needed to be revisited with an open debate on what changes were necessary.

It added, ‘This should ideally be carried out through a fully inclusive, consultative process with al Swazi political organisations and civil society (if needed, with the help of constitutional experts.’

It said, ‘The aim is to ensure that Swaziland’s commitment to political pluralism is unequivocal.’ 

See also

SWAZI ELECTION ‘WILL BE A FRAUD’