A toast to Africa's last absolute monarchy

Today is the first day that it has rained since I got here and I could not be happier to see it. The last few days it has been just too hot and I have found it been pretty difficult to summon the energy to do anything. In fact I was so excited to go to one of Swaziland’s only clubs last night to watch Nameless perform (Kenya Hip Hop artist) but passed out as soon as I got back home from playing basketball in Manzini. I really should go and buy food as I have nothing in the house, but instead I am finishing off the remnants of last night’s double burger (over estimated how much I could eat again) and think it is time to finally write a bit about politics in Swaziland.

Swaziland is the last absolute monarchy in Africa, which means that while it still has a Parliament, the king can override anything that they actually decide, and he makes full use of this privilege. As you can imagine, in some cases this can lead to a great deal of confusion, particularly when you have a king that does not give too much thought to the consequences of his words. In the past few weeks the problems with this kind of system have been brought into sharp focus by the saga of the striking teachers. Following a decision to give high-up government positions pay rises (this at a time when Swaziland is feeling the pinch like everybody else) teachers have been protesting for a similar pay rise, or they demanded that at the very least Ministers’ wages should return to normal. Some teachers were dismissed because of the strikes – which caused national uproar. Because of the outrage the question then arose whether or not these firings were legitimate. The cabinet issued a statement stating that all teachers who had been fired remained as such – the decision was not revoked, they had behaved inappropriately and now they were to suffer the consequences. However, the next day the king stated that, and I quote ‘All fired teachers should go back to school.’

Now, I know what you’re thinking – what a clever guy. He does not state explicitly whether his comment is in fact overriding what the Cabinet decided. He does not say whether (a) the firings are not actually valid and everyone who WAS a teacher remains so and should return to work accordingly or alternatively (b) those teachers who were fired were legitimately dismissed and therefore do not count as the ‘teachers’ who should return to school.  If ambiguity is his game then this guy is doing an absolutely stellar job.

Thankfully for us all a week later he was good enough to clarify that he was, indeed, overriding what the Cabinet decided, and that EVERY teacher should return to school.  And all this in the run up to final examinations for thousands of young Swazis. I promise I will never complain about our beloved DC again.  

Oh shit wait. I’ve just seen the reshuffle... Perhaps a Swazi who was visiting the UK for the past few months would be similarly baffled by our politics.