Stand Up

After having always suffered everything,
taken it all in silence for months and years,
it is a matter of finally having the guts to stand up.
To take one's turn to speak.
To feel like men, for a few days.


Simone Weil's account of the Popular Front in 1936.

L. Bodin and J. Touchard,
Front Populaire,
112,
quoted in Zolberg,
"Moments of Madness," 183.

Democratization

Clearly, in African conditions, democratization cannot be limited to multi-party elections. It has to address these vulnerabilities of the ordinary people who are unable to participation effectively in a democratic dispensation. By all indications, these vulnerabilities can only be addressed by social transformation, by massive social, cultural and economic upliftment of the poor in Africa. Without this there is no democracy.


Claude Ake
The Feasilibilty of Democracy in Africa
CODESRIA 2003
page 172

Swaziland is a political powder keg

Swaziland's political order is bifurcated between an executive or absolute monarchy and traditional leadership. However, the king reigns supreme in both systems. There continues to be a serious stand-off between the monarchy and civil society movements, notably the labour movement, which wants to democratise the country and obviate monarchical rule. Political parties remain banned. Civil society opposition forces are not only excluded from governance, but also harassed for their political beliefs and positions; many of them are in fact driven to exile. So at a time when a lot of attention is focused on Zimbabwe, Swaziland is a political powder keg...



Chris Landsberg
Southern Africa Post-Apartheid? The Search for Democratic Governance.
Cape Town: CPS, IDASA, IMD, 2004, p. 10

Swazi Kings' lavish taste.

King Sobhuza during his "progressive" phase had indeed enjoyed the 1920s-era material perquisites of modern royalty--stylish European dress, a shortwave radio, a Buick touring car, and a house in Sophiatown, to mane a few. Beneath all the stylishness, however, had laid almost from the beginning a serious political agenda--his determination to best the colonial-settler society at its own game. Mswati by contrast often appeared to be following no political agenda at all, aside from his determination to preserve monarchy unchanged. The young king soon became known for his frequent and luxurious travels abroad, often to occasions more ceremonial then substantive, and for a copious taste in the trappings of conspicuous wealth, most notable the construction of a lavish palace outside Mbabane. At the same time Mswati developed reputations domestically for his inattention to the substance of governance and within the foreign diplomatic community for his reluctance to focus on serious affairs of state. Those reputations stood in stark contrast to those of his late father.



Alan Booth
Historical Dictionary of Swaziland
Scarecrow Press 2000

Tibiyo takangwane - the capital base for the Swazi aristocracy

Consequently, Tibiyo, which has become a principal capital base of the modern Swazi monarchy, has operated only at the massive cost of skewing national development priorities and draining the central government budget. For all of Swaziland's copious natural resource base, and whatever the effects of foreign influences, its national economy will never achieve its full potential for the benefit of all its citizenry as long as Tibiyo exercises such overwhelming and exploitative dominance over so much of its modern sector.



From
Alan Booth's Historical Dictionary of Swaziland
Scarecrow Press 2000

Wealth of the Swazi Nation or Wealth of the Royal Dlamini Family?

Although "tingwenyama" [Swazi kings] have claimed over the years that Tibiyo's resources are held in trust for the benefit of the nation as a whole, the fact is that a very small percentage of its profits are ever seen by the common citizenry except in the form of scholarships (often made available to the children of the elite) and support of cultural institutions, which further the monarchist tradition.


From
Alan Booth's Historical Dictionary of Swaziland
Scarecrow Press 2000

Wealth of the Swazi Nation - Tibiyo dampens national growth

Because its accounts are secret, there is no telling the degree to which Tibiyo dampens national growth, but it is substantial. Since the mid-1970s, Tibiyo's principal means of accomplishing this has been to obtain substantial shares (usually half) of virtually every important foreign-owned enterprise in the modern sector, often at little or no cost to itself. Because Tibiyo pays no taxes, that has meant that the national economy benefits only from wages earned and corporate taxes paid (or what is left of them after Tibiyo's exemptions) from nearly every significant business from hotels, construction,, and transport to financial institutions, mines, agribusiness (notably sugar), and forest products.



From
Alan Booth's Historical Dictionary of Swaziland
Scarecrow Press 2000

Wealth of the Swazi Nation - Tibiyo takaNgwane

The main domestic obstruction to the healthy growth of Swaziland's national economy is the continued existence of the royal investment trust, the Tibiyo takaNgwane ("Wealth of the Swazi Nation")Fund. Increasingly since its establishment in 1968, Tibiyo has exercised a parasitical influence on the national economy, siphoning much of its lifeblood into a separate treasury primarily for the benefit of the monarchy and its clients, and pushing the economy as a whole into an artificially anemic state.



From
Alan Booth's Historical Dictionary of Swaziland
Scarecrow Press 2000

Who defines Swazi Culture?

We must work and fight with the same rhythm as the people to construct the future and to prepare the ground where vigorous shoots are already springing up. A national culture is not a folklore, nor an abstract populism that believes it can discover the people's true nature. It is not made up of the inert dregs of gratuitous actions, that is to say actions which are less and less attached to the ever-present reality of the people. A national culture is the whole body of efforts made by the people in the sphere of thought to describe, justify, and praise the action through which that people has created itself and keeps itself in existence. A national culture in underdeveloped countries should therefore take its place at the very heart of the struggle for freedom which these countries are carrying on.
[Italics added]

"On National Culture" from The Wretched of the Earth
Frantz Fanon 1961

Evuka Swaziland

Avenge

How would it be if I came in the night
And planted the spear in your side
Avenging the dead:
Those you have not known,
Those whose scars are hidden,
Those about whom there is no memorial,
Those you only remembered in your celebration?
We did not forget them.
Day after day we kindle the fire
Spreading the flame of our anger
Round your cities,
Round your children
Who will remain the ash-monuments
Witnessing the explosions of our revenge.

Raymond Mazisi Kunene
(1930-2006)

from You Better Believe It.
Paul Breman, ed.

Truth in Swaziland?

All truth passes through three stages.

First, it is ridiculed.

Second, it is violently opposed.

Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.


Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860)

MAKHOSETIVE WILLIAM DLAMINI

Fact page: Search target No 1

A DANGEROUS CRIMINAL ON THE LOOSE:

MAKHOSETIVE WILLIAM DLAMINI

Count 1
Adultery: Has a habitual tendency of dating other peoples' spouses and in some instances wins them over using his political authority. Runs an emissary unit that identifies his targets and arranges sexual sessions for him.

Count 2
Rape & Abduction for sexual slavery: Statute rapist and has made rape a lifestyle. 95% of unreported rape cases in the country are committed by himself. He keeps young school girls in private houses, mainly hotels and guests houses, for sexual activity and releases them to his brothers for the same acts when new ones arrive. He keeps an average of 7 girls for 3 months.

Count 3
Murder: He keeps over ten wives and denies them conjugal rights. When they lobby assistance somewhere, especially male guards, he personally shoots them or instructs others to kill them. More than 20 soldiers in the royal guard have been killed thus far.

Count 4
Money laundering, Fraud and illegal Dealing: He travels with a huge amount of money - over a hundred million for his overseas trips. He fraudulently possesses resources of the people and claims ownership, a habit he inherited from his father. He is dealing with drugs, dagga (marijuana), body parts, and pornographic material. One Swazi woman was arrested in Thailand whom he used as a trafficker.

Count 5
Child labour: He mobilizes young boys and girls to work in his fields, yards, build houses or fences for E30.00 ($4) per month.

Count 6
Nepotism and Corruption: A corrupt lot. He gives himself and his family undeserved opportunities using state and international resources - resources gained by using the name of the poor. He mysteriously employs his relatives and friends in top government post.

Count 7
Genocide: He is guilty of 60% of the HIV/AIDS related deaths in the country. He has reserved ARVs, donated under the UNAIDS aid scheme, for his family and himself leaving massive numbers of people to die of AIDS in the country.

Count 8
Theft: He is a thief. He steals everything shiny, glittery, or having a market value including arable land. A habit he has extended to his wives and children.

Count 9
Abuse: Abusive to his staff, wives, animals and general society. He makes his staff work under severe and risky conditions. When he is chronically ill, STDs are prevalent, he blames his wives of witchcraft and runs to the media for that. He mobilizes people to work for him without pay.