Johannesburg - Leading dissidents from Swaziland urged South
Africa on Thursday not to bail out the cash-strapped government of King Mswati
III, in order to keep the pressure on Africa’s last absolute monarch.
With his appointed administration facing a Greece-scale budget deficit and moribund economy, the
UK-educated monarch has turned to Pretoria for help, having tried and failed to
get any cash from the International Monetary Fund or other lenders.
His opponents fear that even a small amount of aid from his
giant neighbour will take the heat off Mswati, who has at least a dozen wives,
an estimated $200m fortune and runs the landlocked nation of 1.4 million as a
personal fiefdom.
“If there are people who want to bail out the Swazi regime,
it must not be a blank cheque,” Mario Masuku, president of the People’s United
Democratic Movement (Pudemo), told a news conference in Johannesburg.
Like all political parties, Pudemo is banned in Swaziland,
and Masuku has been imprisoned for criticising the monarchy during previous
crackdowns on dissent.
Mswati’s immediate fiscal problems stem from a 2009
recession in South Africa that triggered a collapse in revenues from a regional
customs union that has historically accounted for two-thirds of Swaziland’s
budget.
However, Masuku said the root cause of Swaziland’s woes was
Mswati’s autocratic and nepotistic rule, in particular his refusal to axe a
military and civil service whose wages consume 18% of gross domestic product - the highest proportion in Africa.
South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said
this week Pretoria “does not have the means to give bailouts”, suggesting any
assistance will be limited.
Screaming and kicking
The Swazi government has kept its head above water by
running through central bank reserves, which now stand at just over $500m, and
running up at least $180m in unpaid bills.
Meanwhile, the crisis has galvanised opponents of Mswati’s
25-year rule and security forces have had to use water cannons and rubber
bullets to break up protests. Dozens of students and democracy activists have
been arrested.
Masuku and other campaigners at the news conference said any
aid must carry strict terms, including a promise to move towards democracy, the
unbanning of political parties and the release of Swaziland’s five political
prisoners.
However, Mswati is unlikely to yield, mindful of the way in
which political concessions helped protests in Tunisia and Egypt snowball into
mass uprisings.
“The king is likely to say no. That is in the nature of all
dictators,” said Musa Hlophe, a retired businessman now running the Swaziland
Coalition of Concerned Civil Organisations.
“But as people increasingly become desperate and in despair,
there will be those who say ’Enough is enough’, and drag him out of the palace
screaming and kicking.”