It’s time eSwatini joins the 21st century

There are a number of bad things which hide behind the cloak of “culture”. But when defenders of an entire country cite culture as the reason that it remains a royal dictatorship languishing in the Middle Ages, then culture becomes a tool of oppression.

When SA’s tiny mountain kingdom neighbour eSwatini (formerly Swaziland) goes to the polls today, there will be little real hope a democracy will emerge, or even that the genuine will of the people will be reflected.

Just over half a million voters will take part today in an exercise which many have slammed as a “mockery” of democracy. No political parties are allowed to be involved and the candidates for election to the country’s parliament are not allowed to have party affiliation.

Most of them, in any event, will be loyal followers of the country’s leader, the playboy King Mswati III.

Mswati, the England-educated man who continues the line of his father, King Sobhuza, is one of the world’s last remaining absolute monarchs, with his power and authority untrammeled by anything.

He has complete control over parliament, both the 59 seats filled by the constituency ballots and the additional 10 MPs he selects.

Under Mswati – who has 14 wives and more than 24 children, and who regularly chooses new blood for his harem – eSwatini is not only one of the most undemocratic countries in the world, but also one of the poorest. About 63% of Swazis live below the poverty line and just under 30% of them have HIV – one of the highest rates in the world.

Any attempts to foster democracy in the country – or to criticise it from outside – attract violent pushback defending what happens as “cultural”.

It is in nobody’s culture to be oppressed. It is time eSwatini joined the 21st century.

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