(From Swazi Media Commentary 29 March 2010 www.swazimedia.blogspot.com)
Lufto
Dlamini, the Swazi Minister of Foreign Affairs and
International Cooperation, is getting agitated by the continuing demand
across the globe that Swaziland become a democracy.
But the
trouble is he is lying to the people of Swaziland and the world in his
defence of King
Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute
monarch and his puppet government.
Dlamini’s
latest outburst came
yesterday (28 March 2010) after
news spread across the globe that democrats in Swaziland and their
supporters across the world were demanding targeted sanctions against
members of Swaziland’s ruling elite. One suggestion is that the European
Union and others should stop paying for Swaziland’s leaders to travel
outside the kingdom.
Dlamini
reacted loudly and dishonestly to this suggestion. He told the Times Sunday
newspaper, an independent newspaper in
Swaziland, that the ‘current government was legitimately voted into
office’.
He
also said, ‘the Southern
African Development Community (SADC) observers
and other international organisations liked Swaziland’s election
system.’
Let’s look at Dlamini’s
statements. First, the government was not elected by the people. Barnabas
Dlamini, the prime minister was not
elected by anyone.
King Mswati
ignored the Swaziland constitution
and gave the job to Dlamini.
More than half the cabinet
ministers were
appointed by the king, along with 10 members of the House of
Assembly and 20 senators. The other 10 senators are chosen by MPs – none
are elected by the people. That’s not what I call a government
‘legitimately voted into office’.
The king also chooses members of
influential committees and councils in Swaziland. The Times of Swaziland,
the kingdom’s
only independent daily newspaper, reckoned that in total at
least 20 princes and princesses and 16 chiefs have been appointed to
highly influential decision-making positions that they will occupy for
five years.
In his outburst Dlamini also said
the SADC and ‘other international organisations liked Swaziland’s
election system’.
That statement is a distortion of
the truth. The Commonwealth Expert Team (CET) that monitored Swaziland’s
last election in 2008 was
so unhappy with the system that it advised Swaziland to look
again at its constitution, this time ensuring that there is full
consultation with the people, civic society and political organisations.
The CET said that the elections were not
entirely credible because the constitution banned political parties and
members of parliament had few real powers.
The Pan-African Parliament (PAP)
also denounced the poll because political parties were not
allowed to take part.
Immediately after the election amid
many accusations that MPs had bribed voters, the Times of
Swaziland called many
new MPs ‘cheats’. It said, ‘We no longer have an election; we have a
selection of those who were able to buy their way into power.’
Even Swaziland’s Attorney
General (AG) Majahenkhaba Dlamini has said that candidates
bribed voters to win parliamentary seats.
After the elections, the International Commission of Jurists
(ICJ) criticised the Swaziland Supreme Court for siding with the
Swaziland state and confirming a
constitutional right to ban political parties in the kingdom.
Then it was the Swazi
gender activists who were angry that King Mswati III
betrayed their hopes, and the Swaziland Constitution, by not
appointing more women to the House of Assembly and the Senate.
And it goes on. All of this is no
secret. Lufto Dlamini knows this and we should not let him get away with
telling the international community that all is well in Swaziland.
Link http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2010/03/stop-lies-on-swazi-democracy.html
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