Govt will have it tough to escape international spotlight

By Alec Lushaba - Weekend Observer, July 18, 2009

At the height of political challenges that faced the country back in the mid 90s, Sive Siyinqaba Sibahle Sinje Cultural Organization came up to defend the State against what was perceived lies and negativity.

That allowed government to engineer a political process that eventually led to the current Constitutional dispensation.
Today, about 14 years later, the same pressure is put to bear by the same poilitical and labour forces calling for multi-party democracy.
Sive Siyinqaba has now, under the new political dispensation, transformed itself into a National Movement calling for more transparency in the governance of the country.
Marwick Khumalo, the organisation’s Secretary General, gives his views about the obtaining political environment and expresses great concern at people who claim to love the country but hate it.
In a wide ranging interview, Khumalo, who is also Lobamba Lomdzala Member of Parliament, had this to say about the current negativity and political spotlight Swaziland finds itself in today;

Name calling
The country’s political cadre needs to regroup to look at the obtaining situation from an objective position. What destroys this country is that we are quick at labelling each other, as if belonging to a political party is criminal. Some people are lazy to think and they choose not to exercise their ingenuity. I say because, we at Sive Siyinqaba come from extreme positions – we have hardcore conservatives, we have moderates and to a lesser extent, we have liberals. Coming from these extremes, we end up coming to a certain agreement or position. The nature of the position we take, we do so not to please a certain clique or group but for the betterment of our movement.
“The current position, therefore, needs all of us to analyse so that we can reach a political solution, if we are to do with all these negativity we get as a country.”

Malawi experience
“What is important now is where do we take the country – for example, Malawi has been an economic basket of thisProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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egion for a decade now. One man came in and put in place the right systems within a space of five years against much resistance. The party he now leads, he formed whilst in Parliament, following clashes with his own previous political party – that is President Bingu wa Mtharika. He continued without a political party until he formed one.
Today, Swaziland and the region is receiving maize from Malawi. The man alone was able to put the right systems in place. A person can make positives in a country if that person has clear policies in mind.
“The current Prime Minister Dr. Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini, with all the experience he has acquired both internationally and locally as the Prime Minister, has had the opportunity to make a post-mortem of his own tenure. It is very rare in political circles to have such an opportunity. Winston Churchill, one of the revered Prime Ministers Britain ever had, had such an opportunity as well. He had served for two consecutive terms and retired and the British people recalled him after some other time and the day he left, Queen Elizabeth II said it was a sad day for England to lose a man like him.
“Now, I am saying this is the legacy you would want to leave as a person.”

Government alone can’t battle against political parties
“As Sive Siyinqaba, we note the upsurge of the things that unfolded in 1996 that made us to stand up then and I am saying, government alone cannot win this battle against the political parties.
“Am saying that because it is very difficult for a government to win the battle against the call for political parties in a sea or surrounded by countries with political parties, particularly with the influence of South Africa.
“This is the time those who perceive themselves to be enemies, is the time to regroup, those who don’t believe in violence in violence tactic is the time to sit down and talk, those who really think they have a space of Swaziland at heart, not for self-interest and trying to appease the powers that be, is time to meet and exchange ideas.
“Not because you are driven by ill-will but with all good intentions.

Constitution doesn’t ban political parties:
“I agree with the observations of Prince Logcogco Mangaliso on the Constitution allowing people to associate but with all due respect, I will humbly disagree that even us at Sive Siyinqaba are now as members do it in a clandestine manner.
“Within the House and outside the House, such that it is only those of us who know who are our members in the entire government structure! It is not safe. Not everyone is politically strong. There are those of us who say, I belong to Sive Siyinqaba. I am the Secretary General of the organisation and then it is either you live with me or you don’t, but I am not ashamed of being one.
“If by so being, I cannot be anything in government, at least I have the pleasure and honour of being elected by people of Lobamba Lomdzala knowing – (that is very important) knowing very well that I am the Secretary General of Sive Siyinqaba but still elect me as their representative.

Transformation
“What is important is that let us not beat about the bush, we at Sive Siyinqaba, we have issued a statement contributing to the good of the country. As I have said, some people have criminalised people thinking in a non-conventional manner probably – this is not correct. We are all not made the same. Even those who claim to be opposed to us, I know them – they are fakes. I know some of them who have been appointed by the King to positions – the minute he does not do so, they become sworn enemies and these are people who start to see that everything about the system is wrong. I have discussed with quite a number of them, but at the time they are appointed by the King, everything was well and anyone calling for multi-party was satanic but they are now calling for multi-party.
“You never got to have a genuine person. This country is made of fakes – people are faking too much, they are not sincere. Those people who are faking will not stand for the truth – they will disappear and run away.

Sive Siyinqaba position:
“What we are saying with regards to the issue of political parties and elections is that whilst we appreciate that our system allows for individuals to be elected on merit, we are saying those who wants to be elected on the platform of their political groups should also be allowed. We must not have a law that outlaws their participation in the national elections just because they have made a choice to stand on a political party platform.
“Like every association they have to be registered and legalised properly. It is not good to allow them to exists but deny them the right to stand for an election.
“To say that Sive Siyinqaba is calling for multi-party is absolute nonsense. All we are saying is we are not going to play as if we don’t understand what the world is saying but can’t we as Swaziland come to the same table and live side by side. I can tell you that we are now being pushed into a tight corner where terms of transformation will be dictated to us.
“Even if they are only two people calling for this, they deserve to be listed to.
“There have been countries in the region, Mozambique, who did not want multi-party because they believe it is divisive, violent and all that but they had no choice but ended up having them in order to have political stability. They are now a haven for investment. Their economic growth has been growing at nine percent. They are coming from an era of a one party state. The same was happening in Tanzania. They went to the referendum and voted for one party state, but because the leadership of Tanzania saw what the world was playing at, chose to have multi-parties and Chama chama Mapinduzi has continued to reign freely.
I am saying, those people who I describe as fake and not honest to the leadership of this country, if the King would wake up today and say there will be multi-party democracy in Swaziland, all those who have been resisting it would side with him and hail his decision.
“Politics need people who are steadfast and principled. Sive Siyinqaba is not calling for multi-party democracy, all we are saying is that let us be realistic and pragmatic. Let’s appreciate the calibre of our people who are able to think freely.
“Are we not disturbed that after sending delegation after delegation outside looking for investment we have come back with nothing but promises? It should worry us why after all these promises, we see no results.
“This country is gold – what is derailing us is a small thing. All it requires, for an example, is for the country’s authority to give the Prime Minister power to lead its own political party, the same way it was done with Prince Makhosini and go and get the mandate from the people, I can tell you that party can triumph in the election.
“However, if we continue not to be pro-active and the negativity about the country grows, it will find it hard to convince the electorate come the next election.
“It is not entirely correct to say that there is freedom of association in this country. We at Sive Siyinqaba knowing very well that we are vilified in certain quarters of this country. Some people have decided to ignore what we did back in 1996.

Sive Siyinqaba programmes
“In every situation, be it political or otherwise, we study it and analyse what is happening.
“Every month we meet as an Executive to review the situation. Right now, we are working towards having our own conference. We have studied the current political environment with the advent of the new government, we are analysing the status quo. I can tell you that Sive Siyinqaba is not an evil organisation and thank God we seem not to have evil-hearted people within the leadership of the organisation.
“We don’t have room for hatred, something that we have actually witnessed within certain
“Elements of the establishment - our focus is on the good Swaziland. What concerns us is the good of Swaziland, Tinkhundla or multi-party we don’t have a problem. Where compromises have to be made, let us do so, so that the world can see that here is Swaziland talking to itself and making compromises. But you can only make compromises when you are able to talk. The picture that we have is not good one – it is a manmade picture which is so easy to correct.

Meeting with the King
Without divulging my discussions with His Majesty the King – let me say that there is nothing new in me discussion multi-partism. I have discussed with him the political situation that obtained pre-independence. In my recent meeting with the King after being removed as Speaker, we have not discussed political parties. There was a time where he invited me to comeback to discuss politics. I have not yet had that opportunity to discuss politics. The last time I did was in my first term in Parliament.
I cannot say from the other interactions we have had that politics was on the menu.

King is for everyone
The King is for everyone. In England, it is said Her Majesty’s Government and Her Majesty’s Opposition.
Here at home, anyone who criticises the government is seen as anti-Monarchy. They are actually undermining the authority of the King because all people are his.

Progressive forces
“It is a pity that our airwaves in this country don’t promote political debate. I would like to challenge those who see things differently from our organisation. At Sive Siyinqaba we are not a political wing of either government or the establishment – no! The government has no attachment to any organisation. If the airwaves were to be opened up, as Secretary General of Sive Siyinqaba I would like to discuss the issues with PUDEMO or any political group.
“It is true that the world will listen to those who make the most noise than what comes from the establishment. In order to counter that as a government you need to have a similar entity to do it on your behalf.
“Our government does not even a politician who can stand up against this negativity going around against the country. I cannot even start of the Press Secretariat which is lacking in political clout or its understanding of crucial political issues is shallow.
“You need people with strong characters.

Fakes destroying the country
“I am afraid the attention we have dodged in the passed has comeback and I don’t see it going away this time around. There is an item in the EU on Swaziland. We all wish well for this country. This country is destroyed by people who are faking.
“Let me tell you, serious political issues are not discussed in open debates like Parliament. Strategies are discussed behind the scenes.
“Government should worry about engaging stakeholders in the region that matter. It will catch up with us if we don’t do anything.”

http://www.observer.org.sz/index.php?news=5842

The Hegemonic Leadership’s Failure to Transform Swaziland

Despite boasting 40 years of independence in Swaziland, there are no signs of change in the ailing economy, inadequate health facilities, violence against women and children, poverty and lack of democracy. Our leadership continues to hide behind safety, peace and security targeting innocent citizens who are speaking up against the current state of our beautiful Kingdom. The citizens of the country have been harassed and detained for communicating their dissatisfaction against the government’s failure to address the state of the education, information technology, health, governance, and poverty. The current leadership continues to prevent events planned to promote dialogue to transform the kingdom. In practice, the government is a mechanism used to make communal decisions. Our country is suffering from economic down syndrome not because there is no cure or preventative measures, but bad governance. In the past people blamed civil servants about their work ethic and now I have realized that the people are not the problem, but the system they work under. It is troubling to see how self-centered our politicians can be, not only in Swaziland, but across Africa.

The government is even failing to accept the reality that the state revenues is laying on life support and donor pockets are deflating at an alarming rate, thus calling for Socratic and transformative servant leadership not driven by self-interest. Socratic and transformative servant leadership embraces democracy and technological advancement and promotes transparency and accountability. They understand that they are stewards of the country’s resources by committing to greater integrity and tighter control of public funds, and understand that there is a direct correlation between governance and prosperity. Thus, we need a responsible government, ready to use available resources to shape the country’s economy. We cannot make excuses for corruption any more, that time is up. President Obama said, “countries that are governed well, that are stable, where the leadership recognizes that they are accountable to the people and that institutions are stronger than any one person have a track record of producing results for the people.”

There is no time to splash money on luxury trips while people are suffering from all kinds of ailments, hospitals not properly functioning, schools not properly equipped, government failing to make education affordable to everyone, etc. I believe our PM and Cabinet Ministers should put a freeze on those luxury trips taken by government officials and those associated with the current regime with no benefits for the country except their full stomach. Our government should be bringing in new talents if they are to realize the power of entrepreneurial government, instead of shuffling the same people in different positions. We need to explore new kinds of institutions that are non-bureaucratic, lean, innovative and decentralized. We need an entrepreneurial type of government to transform our beautiful kingdom. Time for hegemony is up. Marxist Philosopher Antonio Gramsci defined hegemony as the dominance of one social class over other social classes or the dominance of one political unit over other units. This is a wake-up call to bring in transformative servant leadership, which embrace shared governance and understand the importance of engaging all stakeholders. The current Administration need to be committed to democracy and find ways to integrate all communities or political groups to share authority and stop acting like they have a fiduciaries obligation to the non-democratic principles for their survival. Thus, the administration needs to continuously grow, listen, build and improve all the constituencies regardless of their affiliation. Freedom of association is important for citizens to nurture their independence of thought and become active global citizens. Yes, shared governance does come with cost, but is very important that is respected and practiced in order to successfully transform the country.

This is the time for our government to ask the following questions:
• Are we doing enough for the development of the country?
• Realistically, can we compete in the global sphere with the current institutions?
• Why are we losing our young and talented citizens?
• Why is our constitution being violated everyday?
• Why there is nobody who can come out clean and interpret the constitution?
• Why are citizens’ freedom of expression being violated?
• Why are we not learning from their dissatisfaction?

Time for “iloyali” is over, we cannot afford to stand still. The country is still far behind in residential broadband speed, penetration, or affordability. It is high time that we adopt a transformative system of governance to drive our economy and improve the state of the citizens. There should be an aggressive national economic strategy coupled with innovations driven by the young and talented instead of telling them to go and develop other countries. The University of Swaziland should wake up and get involved and empower students with entrepreneurial form of education instead of making them moving database of information. The four critical areas the country needs to invest in: scientific and information technology driven skills development, telecommunications, health, education, and building sustainable commercial infrastructure. The country needs to place emphasis on technology-driven education system in order to produce high quality skilled Information Technologists and Scientists. There is also a great need for the country to consider both rural and urban landscapes while trying to implement technologically driven services to add value in the country.

The people tasked with the implementation of ICT are digital immigrants are failing to even implement current web applications in their own backyards, thus failing to even utilize systems that could cut cost and make funds available for projects to transform the country. The government has been adding ministries and appointing those close to the kingdoms echelons to be in charge of those fattening ranches. Citizens’ protest stem from the creation of government driven programs that fails to adhere to democratic principles and values, which violates people’s right to freedom of participation. The country have hosted all kinds of dialogues with the hope to address the state of the economy and transform the country, but results have been those close to the echelons getting contracts and become rich overnight and on top of that rewarded with high profile positions. Ministries added at the expense of taxpayers hard earned money.

Swaziland is a small country, surrounded by one of the thriving economies in the world. Instead of adding ministries there should be developing the newly created ministry of ICT and merged “Commerce Industry and Trade” and “Economic Planning & Development” , “Natural Resources and Energy” and “Public Works and Transport” , “Public Service” and “Labor and Social Security.” That’s what would have been governments prove for observing fiscal prudence by targeting priority areas and keep the budget deficits at its lowest. Instead we are busy making the wrong investments sending people all over the world on luxury trips. It is high time we recognize the current economic situation in the country and try to implement ICT to transform the country's socio-economic conditions. Those who have the technical know-how, and understand the value of technology and speak the digital language should lead the transition.

There is a need for transformative leadership, which embraces shared governance and understands the existence of different communities. The violation of the principles of shared governance is what we see across the country as unions and students’ organizations resolve to violence. The police force is not helping the situation. Their hegemonic behavior fuel the violation of human rights. In Gramscian sense those who aspire to hegemony must govern to some degree on behalf of the constituencies they serve. I repeat we need an Aristocratic type of leadership, which embraces democratic principles. The administration should use their power to emancipate all Swazis, instead of making us internalize their ideals. In short the government should partner and start a dialogue with all stakeholders to revolutionize our country.