Johannesburg - South Africa's smallest neighbour, Swaziland, last week stole the limelight from Zimbabwe as the country that blackened the region's name the most.
Last week, people throughout the world could read about the extravagant festivities to celebrate the 40th birthday of one of the richest kings worldwide - as well that of one of the poorest countries on the globe.
If only South Africa had a leader that took southern Africa's interests to heart, working for the advancement of the region...
On the one hand, 69% of Swaziland's 1.1m people live beneath the breadline. This is much the same as the people of Mozambique, which has long been known as one of the very poorest countries in the world. On the other hand, the Swazi king, Mswati III, is the 15th richest monarch in the world according to the latest Forbes listing.
For the extravagant 40th birthday party he apparently had a special stadium built, brought 20 luxurious German vehicles to transport the distinguished guests, and sent his wives on an advance shopping trip to Dubai.
Among the guests, as expected, was that other autocratic southern African despot, Robert Mugabe, who clings to power through election fraud and violence against his own people, declaring himself "president" of Zimbabwe.
While Swaziland has surpassed Botswana as the country with the highest rate of HIV/Aids infection, and the life expectancy of the average Swazi at birth is only 32 years, Mswati, as a polygamist with 13 wives, present s a bad example for his people.
This is apart from the fact that each wife has to have her own luxurious home and a deluxe German vehicle.
Kleptocracy
Several recent reports have described Swaziland's form of government as a kleptocracy - government by thieves or plunderers, the word derived from kleptein, the Greek word for steal, and kratos, which means power or authority.
This is because King Mswati enriches himself, and maintains his high lifestyle with money intended for the development of his country and his people.
These are the types of reports read by potential global investors in southern Africa, and/or people with skills who might have considered emigrating to South Africa or a neighbouring country.
If only South Africa had a leader who realised the importance of creating investor confidence, and worked towards it...
All the obvious damage to southern Africa's image is inflicted by the despot of a minute country, whose land area is less than 1.5% that of South Africa.
About all that Swaziland can pride itself on is that it is relatively peaceful, and that its economy is twice as large as that of Zimbabwe, if one takes the latest available annual GDP reported by an American CIA webpage.
But then Zimbabwe, which is 20 times the size of Swaziland, and which hosts 10 times as many inhabitants, has been the victim of Mugabe's economic destruction for eight years.
To its credit, Cosatu, the South African federation of trade unions, has expressed itself strongly against Mswati's kleptocratic (without calling it that) rule.
Passionate plea
Even the ANC's usually irresponsible and impetuous youth league, for a change, acted sensibly by taking a stand against Mswati.
If only South Africa had a leader that was able to persuade the governments of southern Africa to form a peer group that would exert pressure on governments that make themselves guilty of abuse - including its own government...
If President Thabo Mbeki has made any attempt at all to bring the despotic Mswati to reason, for the sake of his country, his own people, and the sake of other countries and peoples in southern Africa, then that attempt has been as invisible as Mbeki's so-called silent diplomacy towards Mugabe.
Somewhat more than a decade ago, on the August 13 1998, Mbeki, still deputy president, delivered his impressive African Renaissance speech.
In it he made a passionate plea for Africa to resist the trend of mutual violence, the grasping of power of through deceit and election fraud, and the avaricious pursuit of self-enrichment at any cost, so prevalent on this continent.
Among the examples that he mentioned were the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the genocide in Rwanda and the violence threatening violence in Lesotho.
It is a little more than 10 years later. Shortly after the speech, Mbeki took over the reins and has had almost 10 years as president of the leading country in Africa to lead the continent in striving for and living out those beautiful ideals.
There have been attempts, but six or seven months before the anticipated end of Mbeki's rule it's clear that he has largely squandered his opportunities.
This is being supported by the behaviour of Zimbabwe's Mugabe and Swaziland's Mswati.
If only South Africa had a leader...
- Fin24.com