(From Swazi Media Commentary 19 August 2009 www.swazimedia.blogspot.com)
After the Swaziland Government launched its purge of civil servants who have
an interest in politics, comes a call for schools, universities and colleges to
be targeted next.
The Public Service Bill which is going through parliament states
that civil servants who are considered by the Swaziland ruling elite to
be ‘political’ would be given the chance to recant and if they didn’t
they would be sacked from their jobs.
The new bill, which could become law as early as next month, says it will be
an offence for a public servant to be ‘visibly
associated’ with a political formation or organisation. It will also be
an offence to be a member of a political party.
Now, Walter Bennett, a prominent businessman and former Swaziland Senator,
has called for schoolteachers and college
and university leaders to be screened to see whether they are
supporters of the Tinkhundla system of government. If they are not,
they should be sacked, he says.
Under Tinkhundla all political parties are banned and King Mswati III,
sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, makes all the important decisions.
Last year he unconstitutionally appointed Barnabas Dlamini as the kingdom’s
prime minister.
According to the Swazi Observer, the
newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, Bennett told a gathering at
Lozitha primary School last week that it was high time the government
screened college and university leaders to make sure they supported the
political system in Swaziland.
The Observer
quoted him saying, ‘Every time we see students from the colleges and
the university march and one wonders why. Some of the students
disappear after getting allowances,” he said.
He
said teachers who are against the Tinkhundla system should also be
removed. Bennett said principals should also make sure that teachers in
schools adhere to our system of governance.
Bennett has a
reputation for outspokenness and is unafraid to speak out on matters he
knows little about (see for example his comments on HIV and his call to beat up
workers). He is also openly racist and has regularly verbally attacked Asians.
Despite
his shortcomings as a social and political commentator, Bennett is
afforded considerable respect by the Swaziland media and many ordinary
Swazis so unfortunately we cannot simply ignore his latest ranting.
Link http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2009/08/call-to-extend-politics-purge.html
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