(From Swazi Media Commentary 3 October 2010 www.swazimedia.blogspot.com Also
on Face book at
http://www.facebook.com/Swazi.Media.Commentary?v=wall#!/group.php?gid=142383985790674&ref=ts).
‘Heads must roll’ after
Barnabas Dlamini, the illegally-appointed
Prime Minister of Swaziland, fell for an easily
identifiable scam.
That’s
the verdict of the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations
(SCCCO) after
Dlamini and a group of his supporters had flown to the Bahamas to
receive a medal for his record on human rights. The Swazi Government said
Dlamini was
to be honoured because he was a ‘highly respected global figure,
whose role in history has been significant’.
It was revealed
on Friday (1 October 2010) that the World Citizen Awards, the organisation
behind the medal, was
‘little more than a Florida phone number and website’.
The
whole thing was a scam.
But the Swazi people have yet to find out how much in hard cash Dlamini
and his supporters have paid to the con artists.
Musa
Hlophe, the Coalition’s Co-ordinator said, ‘This is a gross abuse of
our taxes. The country is facing an economic
crisis, our foreign reserves are pitifully low and we see the Prime
Minister spending them lavishly just to feed his vanity.
‘It is incredible that he thought he
could be eligible for a Human Rights Award, it is even more incredible
that he took an entourage with him to the Bahamas to watch him receive
it.’
He
added, ‘If the award was genuine it would still be a gross waste of
money at this time. The fact that it is an easily
identifiable fraud calls into question the judgement of this man and
his officers.
‘We demand that a full inquiry be set up so that we
get to know how this scandal arose, how much government money has been
spent on this exercise and who was responsible for investigating,
recommending and authorising the acceptance.
‘We also demand that the Prime
Minister and his advisors are personally held responsible and pay every
cent of our money that they have squandered back. Heads
must roll.’
SCCCO said in a statement it was
‘not at all surprised, that the award for Dlamini was ‘a complete hoax.
‘In his short time in power The PM
and his government have earned severely negative human rights reports
from the International Labour Organisation, Amnesty
International, Freedom House,
Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa,
International Bar Association, Frontline Defenders, Human Rights
Observatory, United
States Government and the European Union.
‘So any award praising his efforts to promote human
rights that came at the same time that he was advocating torture for
dissidents must surely have come as something of a surprise to him and
should have set alarm bells ringing everywhere. We
now find out that the award has absolutely no merit.
‘It
seems that the President of the World Citizens Award is someone who has
bestowed on himself the title of His Excellency Dr. R. K. LaRoda-King
but is actually nothing but a common fraudster who is wanted in the
United States for offences totalling more than 20 Million Emalangeni. The
Awards website lists a number of distinguished human rights defenders as
judges, yet it turns out that their names have been used without their
knowledge or permission. Its phone numbers are
bogus and cannot be called.
‘The
Coalition and many others uncovered these facts in an afternoon. What was the
Swazi government thinking about?’
Link http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2010/10/swazi-pm-scam-heads-must-roll.html
--
NEW!!!! SSN FORUM IS ON FACEBOOK!!!!
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Swaziland
Solidarity Network Forum Google Group.
Visit the group home page at
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/sa-swaziland-solidarity-eom-forum for more
options, pages and files.
To post to the group, send email to
[email protected] or reply to this message.
To unsubscribe, send email to
[email protected]
