by Ntsiki Zulu, Data News, Swaziland, April 1997
THEME = POLITICS
Recently, the four-man Central Committee (CC) shocked the Swazi nation and infuriated the Prime Minister, Sibusiso Dlamini, when its chairman Mr.A.K.Hlope, announced that these four senior officials were above cabinet ministers, because their role was to scrutinise laws passed in Parliament, before King Mswati III can approve them.
The CC operates as an advisory body to the King, but its creation has never been announced in the State Gazette. It was supposed to have been disbanded when the King set up another advisory board, the Swazi National Council (SNC). The two advisory boards are now at loggerheads over their various responsibilities, each claiming to be advising King Mswati and to be superior to the other.
A political analyst in Mbabane suggests that the power struggle between the two groups has arisen because the country has a dual system of government - traditional Swazi patterns of authority and the Westminster parliamentary system.
Prime Minister Dlamini has rejected allegations that cabinet ministers report to and are disciplined by the controversial Central Committee. He says there is a direct link between the cabinet and the King. "There is no trace of truth in statements that the government or cabinet ministers report to the CC or that they are disciplined by such a body", says Dlamini.
However, he refused to comment on allegations that the CC has been disbanded, saying it did not enter into the government's prerogative. "Government makes independent decisions without any influence from any committee. We have a direct link to King Mswati and the Queen Mother, and we report straight to them", he said.
The House of Assembly has ordered the Prime Minister, Mr.Dlamini, to dissolve the CC. Members of Parliament pointed out that recommendations made in the second political review exercise, must be implemented. One of the recommendations was that the CC be disbanded and replaced with the Swazi National Council.
In 1992, the King denied the existence of the CC, but it has since emerged that the Committee has been in existence all along - with each member getting a salary higher than that of the Chief Justice, who is Swaziland's highest-paid civil servant.
In a heated debate in the House of Assembly, an irate Member of Parliament (MP), Mntonzima Dlamini, told the Prime Minister that the CC was never at any stage gazetted or even legitimised. "Its existence is in direct contravention of the nation's recommendations, contained in the political review exercise", Dlamini said.
The Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) has on numerous occasions complained about the lack of political direction in the country, because of the dual system of government. The secretary- general of the SFTU, Jan Sithole, says that as long as the country is governed in this manner, its democratisation process will not succeed.
END