Is Swaziland’s controversial king the right man to helm the SADC? Sechaba ka’Nkosi ponders the question...
Swazi King Mswati III is preparing to take over the helm of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) next month. Already, plans are afoot in the tiny landlocked kingdom to host the body, which could see more than 10 heads of state attending. The capital Mbabane is a hive of activity for the annual regional summit where southern Africa’s 15 countries will review progress toward deepening integration and promoting socio-economic development.
Mswati, who will take over from Botswana President Ian Khama, told a ceremony - to commemorate his birthday - in April that he was ready to play a meaningful role in pursuing SADC aspirations, including the facilitation of free trade and a united, integrated and prosperous region.
Read also: Mswati III as SADC chair will 'institutionalise dictatorship'
His immediate task will be to preside over the chaos that has engulfed Lesotho, where assassinations have become the order of the day. There is also a brewing war between Frelimo and Renamo in Mozambique, which has forced hundreds of residents to seek refugee in neighbouring Malawi and South Africa.
Never known peace
Zimbabwe itself is under economic meltdown, while the Democratic Republic of Congo has never known peace since Joseph Kabila took the reins from his father Laurent Kabila in 2001.
Now there is nothing wrong with the continent’s last absolute monarch taking over the rotating chair of the regional body. After all, Mswati has been a member of the SADC since its inception in the early 1990s.
But Mswati is the antithesis of the vision of the founding fathers when they conceived of the idea of the SADC and free trade between member states and development that would allow its citizens to move across their countries with minimal interference.
Under Mswati, the economy of his kingdom has all but stalled. The country continues to operate under massive fiscal indiscipline, corruption and the lavish lifestyles of the royal family, while the rest of the population lives below the poverty line.
Just this week, Mswati made headlines yet again for all the wrong reasons.
The country’s rights group, the Swaziland Solidarity Network, criticised and questioned his morality and leadership for purchasing an Airbus jet that reportedly belonged to China Airlines - his second in less than six years.
The network said the move was a deliberate slap in the faces of Swazi people who were battling poverty.
But such criticism has never stopped the 48-year-old king from pursuing his exploits.
In 2010, Mswati bought himself a luxury plane for $11.45 million (about R112m at the time), with the first $10m paid for by a foreign government and the remaining $4.5m paid by the king’s company, Inchatsavane, of which he is the sole shareholder. (Inchatsavane holds up to a 50 percent stake in many companies that do business in Swaziland.)
The new plane has the capacity to carry 350 people, enough to fit Mswati, his 15 wives and his reported 25 children without taking strain.
The purchase of the plane comes at a time when reports are emerging from the kingdom that Mswati recently treated his wives and others (more than 100 people) to an all-paid holiday in Orlando, US, at a cost of more than R16m.
The vacation is said to have caused some consternation in the diplomatic community, which is motivating for more drought relief aid for the country.
The list of transgressions by the continent’s last absolute monarch is endless.
In 2004, he gave himself a Daimler Chrysler flagship Maybach 62 car with a television, DVD player, 21-speaker surround-sound system, fridge, cordless telephone and sterling silver champagne flutes for his 36th birthday.
The super-luxury car cost $500 000 (about R3m at the time) as his debt-ridden country battled with crippling poverty.
Such cries have not stopped Mswati, whom Forbes magazine ranks among the world’s 15 richest royals, with his net wealth estimated at about $200m (R2.86 billion), from continuing on his insatiable quest to plunder the tiny nation’s resources.
Which is why SADC’s decision to give him the leadership of the organisation flies in the face of the struggles against his tyranny.
It is an endorsement of the policies that have left tens of thousands of Swazi people barely surviving. It legitimises his stranglehold over the population. But that is what the SADC has reduced itself to in the past few years: providing dictators with some credibility in the eyes of the world.
In tatters
In 2014, the SADC gave Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe the right to lead the regional body, while his country was already in tatters and his police had taken over the running of the country.
Mswati’s popularity and respect among traditional Swazis remains resolute. But the urban Swazis have rallied the younger generation and civil servants to lead protests and criticism of his flagrant disregard for their problems.
This is no surprise given that Swaziland’s unemployment is reported to be in the region of 40 percent, while almost 70 percent of the country’s population is living below the poverty line with a third relying on food aid for survival.
Swazis are beginning to question why Mswati, as a modern-day monarch, cannot let go of some of his luxuries and kick-start economic activity in the kingdom.
Since 2000 there has been an increase in popular protests against Mswati’s escapades. While many of them have been suppressed harshly, leading to scores fleeing the country for exile in South Africa and the arrests of journalists such as Bheki Makhubu and trade unionists like Mario Masuku, the once docile Swazis have taken the lead in releasing themselves from the shackles of oppression.
It may be a hard and difficult journey for the nation’s estimated 1.1 million people. Asking Mswati to do the right thing is like asking Hlaudi Motsoeneng to finish his matric and get a qualification good enough for him to lead an institution such as the SABC with dignity.
So while the fellowship of the regional leaders to allow Mswati to take over the SADC chairmanship can no longer be stopped, there is something that progressive nations such as South Africa can do to address the situation.
South Africa could use its economic muscle to ensure Mswati’s unquenchable lust for repression comes to an end as his country receives more than 90 percent of its imports from South Africa and sends about 70 percent of its exports through it.
South Africa could also use the revenues generated from the Southern African Customs Union to stop his escapades.
In 2011, South Africa tried to use the economic tactic by forcing Mswati’s hand into meeting certain requirements and regulatory reforms by agreeing to a R2.4bn loan at the time to help Swaziland cope with a cash crisis in 2011.
In return the kingdom had to commit to fiscal policy, public financial management procedures and practices, legal frameworks and related rules that govern financial management.
Although the deal fell through after Swaziland failed to come to the party, it sent a clear message to the monarch that things would no longer be the same as usual.
This is what South Africa needs to do to push Swaziland into the 21st century.
But that will only happen if South Africa shows that it has the stomach and the political will to stop some countries from taking the entire region into feudalism.
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