NOT ENOUGH WOMEN ELECTED

Inter Press Service

1 October 2008

Struggling Against Tradition

Mantoe Phakathi

MBABANE, Oct 1 (IPS) - The crowd ululated, whistled and danced. Their candidate had won! Last Sunday, the people of Mbabane East returned Esther Dlamini to Swaziland's House of Assembly for a second term.

A court-ordered recount of votes found that she had indeed won 1,621 votes out of 2,461 cast in this suburb of Swaziland's capital, and her voters were celebrating in the community hall where the ruling was read.

"They ganged up against me but I won!" exulted the former police officer and mother of five, and ululated in joy. She was referring to her opponents who had challenged the earlier results in court.

Dlamini was one of seven women elected to the 55-member House of Assembly in the polls held on Sep. 19 and 27.

The number does not bring Swaziland even remotely close to the Southern African Development Community target -- approved in August -- of having 50 per cent women in Parliament by 2015.

But it is not bad compared to five women MPs elected in the 2003 elections and just two in 1998.

And it is even better when considering that Swaziland is Africa's last remaining absolute monarchy, where adult women were considered legal minors until a couple of years ago.

One reason behind the increase in women candidates and voters is the vigorous campaign, organised by 11 women's groups under the slogan "Make the Right Choice: Vote for a Woman". Through media and meetings in more than 100 communities, the campaign encouraged women to vote for women and to run for office.

The campaign banked on the unusual fact that more women than men are registered as voters in Swaziland. According to the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC), out of 400,000 eligible voters, 350,780 registered. Of these, about 192,000 are women and 158 760 are men. This should give women an edge if they chose to vote for female candidates.

The campaign attracted strong criticism from traditional leaders in this tiny country of less than a million people. Chiefs from the eastern Shiselweni region, complained loudly that the campaign gave women an unfair advantage.

Chief Dambuza Lukhele argued to the EBC that elections should be based on individual merit and not on group status. Lukhele is a member of the Ludzidzini Council, an advisory body to the powerful Queen Mother, and a former Cabinet Minister.

"This campaign is biased, emotional and provocative, and unhealthy for a country such as Swaziland," Lukhele told IPS. "What if other disadvantaged groups come up and also do their own campaigns?"

Nonhlanhla Dlamini, the gender unit coordinator at the Ministry of Home Affairs, says that a lot that needs to be done to change the prevailing attitude towards women.

"Society is not ready to give women a chance," she told IPS.

Some of the 33 women candidates reported receiving telephone threats from anonymous men who told them to desist from running, revealed Lomcebo Dlamini, coordinator of the rights group Women and Law in Southern Africa-Swaziland (WLSA).

The odds are stacked against women from the very structure of Swaziland's unique Tinkhundla system of governance, where political parties are banned and people elected on individual merit. In theory, any citizen can stand for elections and campaign for a seat in Parliament but women lack the political clout, financial means, understanding of the system and, crucially, the chiefs' approval.

The role of the House of Assembly is not to pass legislation and be a check to the executive, explains WLSA's Dlamini. Rather, MPs are agents of community development. With few women MPS, "women lack the resources to be visible in the communities," she says.

The next hope for Swazi women to increase their representation lies with the arcane system of appointments by the King to the Assembly and by the King and the Assembly to the 50-member Senate.

Dlamini explains that the Constitution calls for 22 women to be appointed to both houses if they do not reach 30 percent representation in the polls.

However, she adds, this does not mean that the Constitution mandates 30 per cent representation in Parliament. The five women elected and the 22 appointments makes 27, out of a total of 106 members of both houses. (The Attorney General is the ex-officio 106th member.)

"This does not give you 30 percent of the total Members of Parliament," says Dlamini.

The next step for the activists is to lobby Parliament to appoint women who are gender champions.

One impressive victory is the election at Ludzeludze constituency in the Manzini region of the outspoken activist Nonhlanhla Dlamini, director of the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse.

"Besides the fact that society lacks confidence in women leadership, you still get some stereotypes who want to know who is going to take care of domestic responsibilities if women go to Parliament," she told IPS.

The burden of AIDS -- Swaziland has the world's highest seroprevalence rate with about one-third of adults infected -- falls mainly on women as carers of the sick and the orphaned.

Combining work and domestic responsibility, says Dlamini, "is such big challenge such that most of them don't stand for elections because they feel they won't cope."

Link http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=44085

'VOTE FOR WOMEN' - A SUCCESS

Weekend Observer

27 September 2008

Vote a woman campaign’ a success – Nonhlanhla

By Fanyana Mabuza

The Programme Manager of the Gender Coordination Unit at the Ministry of Home Affairs is one of the people who is still adamant that the Vote for a woman campaign was a success, even though the desired number of women going to Parliament was not reached.

Nonhlanhla Dlamini said it should be remembered by all that this campaign was a first of its kind in the country and they still managed to hold sensitisation workshops in a 100 communities, where the turnout was impressive.

This is why they hope the seeds they planted in these communities will bear fruition in the 2013 elections.

"I do agree that the outcome was not what we hoped for, but some of the women who had entered the race highlighted what they believed worked against them in both primaries and secondaries." Dlamini said the woman spoke about a number of things among them the fact that woman candidates had only two weeks to campaign. These were the weeks after the primaries, when campaigning was officially allowed. They said the men began campaigning a long time ago, even when campaigning was illegal.

"The women also mentioned the problem of finance, saying they had to ask for money to from their male counterparts (read husbands), while the males held the purse strings and could do anything at any given time.

"They have the cars to ferry locals to and from soccer games. They even have livestock which they can sell and use the money they got to promote their intentions to go to Parliament long before the election race began. Women did not have this kind of opportunities."

She continued that after passing the primaries, some women received threats, insults and many other derogatory remarks like they were trying to grow male sex organs by trying to make their way into Parliament.

"But we are not fazed as this is a process and can not bear fruit overnight. One important aspect we learnt is that we should begin preparing now for the 2013 election. We should begin mobilising for funds right now and keep up the tempo until the next election. That is the biggest lesson we learnt and we are happy about that and do not mind not reaching our target of bringing more women into Parliament this time around. We do acknowledge that we begun very late. This is a process like trying to convert a person into Christianity and you do not expect results immediately" Dlamini stated.

Statistics showed that in the 2003 elections more women than men voted, with figures showing 119 970 women voters while only 109 703 men voted.

This is one field the 'Vote for Women Campaign' has to work hard on, as women tend to think only men can make their lot better, opting to vote for them rather their own.

Link http://www.observer.org.sz/weekend/main.php?id=47208&section=mainweek

WHY 'VOTE FOR WOMEN' FAILED

Times of Swaziland

26 September 2008

Why ‘Vote for Woman’ failed

MBABANE – The ‘Vote for a Woman Campaign’ has attracted the attention of people outside the country as far as Britain.

According to a journal entitled neotherbusiness, which features a variety of articles from around the world, they too few the Vote for Women campaign as having little success.

An example is made of a candidate who was the only woman of 19 women out of 175 chiefdoms to make it through to the secondary level of elections.

She was, however, unsuccessful in her dream to make it as a female MP.

The writers note that she may see this as the end of the road in her crusade to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS and encouragement of female empowerment across the kingdom.

"You see, there has been a significant need for gender empowerment in Swaziland for many years, and still little progress has been made.

"For instance, Swaziland is currently the only Southern African country that has not endorsed the Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)," the report notes.

Lomcebo Dlamini of the WLSA (Women and Law in Southern Africa) is quoted saying: "We currently have five women MPs out of 65 overall.

It has been reported that many women standing for election have been threatened and intimidated.

"We are still awaiting the results of one of the constituencies to be released this coming weekend, which could bring us up to seven."

This is still a long way off the minimum 30 percent.

It is noted that the female illiteracy rate is high because of the traditional belief that women belong in the kitchen.

Token

And despite government taking measures to meet the 30 percent female representation in Parliament, women’s participation is sometimes viewed as a token gesture rather than a sign of their credibility.

"Even if we take gender equality out of the equation, it is still very hard, if nigh on impossible, to state that these were free and fair elections.

For a start, political parties were not permitted to contest the current state of affairs.

This restriction - as stated by the Pan African Parliament - places infringements on the rights of those people wanting to take part in elections and is nowhere near any type of democracy," states the report.

Diane Mariechild, one of the British women quoted said: "A woman is the full circle.

Within her is the power to create, nurture and transform."

This should be recognised throughout the world, because surely all women should have the right to live in dignity, in freedom from want and freedom from fear.

Link http://www.times.co.sz/News/1718.html

NEW SWAZI PARLIAMENT IS CORRUPT

Times of Swaziland

26 September 2008

Comment

Just Thinking

Martin Dlamini

Bribes galore

Parliament now needs 23 women who have to be handpicked as they dismally failed to convince the electorate they are worth the ballot. The vote for women campaign could only manage five entries to Parliament so far.

While many would view this as a failure on the part of the campaign, it was far from it. These were not elections to begin with. These were job vacancies up for grabs to every Tom, Dick or Larry, not Penny, Siphiwe or LaNkhosi.

And like with all vacancies in Swaziland, the successful candidate is one who bribes the most or is related to the government recruitment officer/boss.

This is a product of the Tinkhundla system. That is how it recruits members of the armed forces where you do not need to be educated beyond JC to get a job.

Royal appointments are the preserve of members of regiments most loyal to the monarch. You must butseka (get initiated) first. Critics of Tinkhundla will hardly sit on the king’s advisory board because they are labelled ‘unSwazi’.

That’s how the system works here. Gender equality and fair representation does not feature in Swazi politics as espoused by Jim Gama, the Ludzidzini governor, recently when women marched to the Prime Minister’s office for an explanation regarding a trip by Emakhosikati to Dubai.

He made it clear women had no place on the streets without permission from their husbands. So how many husbands allowed their wives to stand for an election?

Who will cook, wash, weed the fields and look after the children?

And with so much money to be earned (at least E21 000) in a country of low paying jobs and high unemployment, what type of Swazi man would want his wife to earn 10 times more than he does? It’s unSwazi.

The few women who made are known to play active roles in society. Nonhlanhla Dlamini of Ludzeludze needed no introduction with her vocal campaigns for women and children’s rights.

Hlobsile Ndlovu of Pigg’s Peak is an independent woman and has no husband to report to. Thandi Nxumalo of Manzini South has been in the forefront in business, even earning herself leadership status in the Federation of the Swaziland Business Community and in a women’s consortium, a group that later turned against her over administrative issues.

I know just as little of Siphiwe Kunene of Mhlume as I did Trusty Gina before she became MP and Deputy Speaker in the previous Parliament.

Perhaps this is an indication that the ‘Vote for Women’ campaign should have focused on the husbands; educating them on how possible it is to have a home with a woman in politics.

There are thousands of well educated and successful women in government, corporate and social sector who took no part in this election.

Instead, some of them only feature in the Businesswomen or Entrepreneur of the Year competitions and that’s the last we hear of them. Perhaps they hold the view that their contribution would not be appreciated by the system and that it would not have been worth the effort. True.

Tinkhundla has a history of breaking brains. Good people go bad and none could ever muster the courage of former Finance minister and now NERCHA Director Dr Derk von Wissel to resign when the situation calls for it.

So while there seemed to have been an aggressive campaign for women, there was even greater campaign by the poor husbands to get a well paying job.

Many were prepared to break the bank to win votes and they did. Buying kombis, food, T-shirts, booze, meat and E50 handouts to voters was all part of the circus. It’s a joke. Why bribe your way into a job? Election laws should ban this completely.

Election finance should be used to market one’s agenda. It should go towards posters, newspaper adverts, TV commercials and rallies. Not handouts.

It is a shame on the electorate to sell itself so cheaply. Swaziland is poor, yes. People are hungry, true. Beggars we’ve become, definitely. But then how will corrupt people bail us out of this misery.

The electorate must realise they have just endorsed a corrupt Parliament. Forget that the list includes ex-convicts, crime suspects and failed business people, the new MPs will be walking into Parliament with corrupt minds and we have allowed this to happen.

People will have nobody, but themselves to blame five years down the line when the reality that the losers who offered their intellectual wealth to voters may have been the ideal candidates.

No use crying over spilt milk, but the point must be made that voters were a big disappointment in many areas, not just for the women but the country at large.

So it was not just a ‘Vote for Women’ flop, it was an election flop. The women groups that were involved in the campaigns should take comfort in the fact that they put up a decent civic education exercise, unlike our Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) that is gloating in victory over what they term a successful election.

Yes, people voted and election observers have given them thumbs up, but the quality of the product sums up their job better.

Link http://www.times.co.sz/Just-Thinking/1699.html

MORE WOMEN NEEDED IN PARLIAMENT

Times of Swaziland

23 September 2008

23 vacant parly seats for women

By ARTHUR MORDAUNT

MBABANE – Aspiring women Parliamentarians should not lose hope as the constitution calls for at least 30 percent representation.

This means if this constitutional provision is met there will be a total of 28 women MPs. So far only five women have made it to Parliament by being voted for.

However there are still 40 posts that have to be filled in Parliament.

It is guaranteed that at least 18 of the 40 posts will go to women through appointments while the others could be through nominations.

About 13 of them will be in Senate while five will be in the House of Assembly. The number could rise to nine if certain constitutional provisions are to be fulfilled.

The country’s constitution (section 95) stipulates that after elections for Members of Parliament, the king shall then nominate or appoint 10 MPs, half of whom shall be women. These shall add to the 55 already elected from the various constituencies around the country.

The king, according to section 94, shall appoint 20 Senators. About eight of them shall be female. Added to that number will be 10 other Senators who shall be nominated by elected Members of Parliament. Half of them shall be female.

Nominate

Once it is realised that women Parliamentarians do not form 30 percent of the total number of legislators, the chairman of the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC), in this case Chief Gija, shall call elected Members of Parliament to nominate four women who shall join them in Parliament.

Between three and five women shall be nominated from each region. Their names will be published in the print media for three consecutive days and 10 days later, the House shall meet to vote for the four women (one from each region) to join them in parliament.

Head of government’s Gender Unit Nonhlanhla Dlamini said they believed they were going to achieve the 30 percent female representation in parliament.

Dlamini said the ‘vote for a woman campaign’ has so far proven difficult to achieve because currently only five women have made it through and there are only two areas where voting is still to take place.

"We can achieve the 30 percent representation if we are able to have at least 20 women in both houses of parliament," Dlamini said

Link http://www.times.co.sz/News/1631.html