//CORRECTED REPEAT//POLITICS-AFRICA: Swazi Army in Search of a Mission

By James Hall Reprint | | Print |

James Hall

MBABANE, Feb 15 2002 (IPS) - The dispatching of 36 troops to Tanzania this week for training as African peacekeepers of the future may signal a possible raison d’etre, or reason for being, for an army that after 29 years of existence is still in search of a mission.

The soldiers’ departure is also a first step toward an international presence for the country, and away from isolationism for a small kingdom of less than one million inhabitants.

“Swaziland has not been isolationist diplomatically, and she belongs to all the right organisations, from the OAU (Organisation of African Unity) and the UN to the Southern African Development Countries (SADC). But in terms of armed intervention there has been nothing since 1879, when Swazi warriors conquered the BaPedi tribe on behalf of the British,” says former army chief Brigadier General Fonono Dube, who is also a noted local historian.

The British repaid Swaziland by colonising the Wales-size country as a protectorate from 1902 to 1968. When Independence talks were underway, the Swazi leadership under King Sobhuza expressed an interest in a post-independence army for the nation. British authorities dismissed the idea with the rejoinder, “Who are you going to fight?”

The comment was a rather cruel reminder of Swaziland’s small size and geographic isolation, landlocked as the kingdom is between two large neighbours, Mozambique and South Africa.

“But the Swazi kings always knew reality, which is why they pursued diplomacy over the years, and this paid off by gaining a large degree of national autonomy, and the retention of traditions, during the colonial period,” says former foreign minister Albert Shabangu.

In 1973, five years after Independence, King Sobhuza went ahead and established an army, called the Umbutfo Swaziland Defense Force. An umbutfo is a traditional Swazi warrior who serves in the king’s regiments.

But if the army called itself a defence force, what was it defending Swaziland from? Diplomats say the kingdom has never been under military threat from anyone.

One use the soldiers stationed at the Matsapha army barracks, 25 kilometres east of Mbabane, have been put is to augment the police force. Troops patrol the border with Mozambique to counter pervasive cross-border cattle rustling. Swaziland is on the route for stolen South African cars headed for Mozambique and northward to Zambia. Swazi soldiers have interdicted car hijackers, on occasion exchanging gunfire.

Critics of the army do not dispute the need any sovereign state has for a defence force, but they question the use the soldiers are put. “Soldiers are not policemen, and they should not be involved in internal matters or have anything to do with civilians,” says a Manzini businessman.

Legislators are not permitted to debate the army budget in parliament, but must approve it unseen. Currently, army personnel number about 3,000.

The army’s most controversial policing role is during times of civil unrest, such as national stay-aways called by the labour unions to push for political reforms. Last November, prior to a news conference called by the Swaziland Democratic Alliance, an umbrella organisation for progressive labour unions and political organisations, the army showed up in the central town Manzini, where the conference was to be held at the offices of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers.

Police blocked the conference, but not before the townspeople were treated to the unusual sight of anti-aircraft guns pulled around by trucks, which for some reason the army brass felt were required.

Said MP Nthuthuko Dlamini, laughing at the battle equipment on the main street of the sleepy town, “Whose air force is going to attack us?”

Not nearly as amused was Phineas Magagula, president of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers. After the police and army blocked the news conference that was intended to announce a list of political demands, he said, “Swaziland’s army is meant to defend royal interests from political groups who seek democracy.”

It was no coincidence, Magagula says, that the Swazi army was formed the same year King Sobhuza banned opposition political parties, threw out the Independence constitution, and assumed ultimate governing powers for the monarch.

Former army chief Dube, who was a school headmaster before joining the new army, disputes the notion that Swazi troops exist only to keep in check political dissidents. “All nations need an army. Swaziland is a peaceful kingdom. Our soldiers may not fight wars, but we can keep the peace,” he says.

Since 1998, Swazi soldiers have received training in Britain for roles in peacekeeping ventures. This month’s training in Dar es Salaam, which will be run jointly by Tanzania and France, is truly an international exercise intended to integrate Swazis into a wider role in continental peacekeeping.

Chief of Operations and Training, Lieutenant Mampondweni Shongwe says, “We will join SADC forces, and soldiers invited from Kenya and Madagascar. Amongst the attendants will be the United Nations Peacekeeping forces, the United Nations Development Fund, World Food Programme, OAU and the European Union.”

Adds Shongwe, “There are three categories of the exercise, and our troops will form the grounds forces.”

For obvious reasons, soldiers from landlocked Swaziland, which has no air force, will not participate in the sea and air training.

Heading for the giant C130 B Hercules transport plane, the 26 troops, who think of themselves as pioneers, are enthusiastic, almost giddy at the prospect of leaving the mountainous kingdom for awhile, though they will be working in tropical Tanzania at the height of summer.

“With 25 years in the army, I am ready for anything, and soon I will be equipped with knowledge on how to maintain peace in one of the war-torn African States. I am eager to actually do the peace keeping,” says Martin Gama, a veteran soldier at 43.

Previously, King Mswati personally dismissed the troops, who had gathered at the traditional royal village Engabezweni. He has encouraged his foreign ministry to engage in conflict disputes, even using Swaziland as a neutral venue for the resolution of factional fighting in Burundi.

The use of Swazi soldiers in peacekeeping missions will further raise the kingdom’s profile internationally, and give the army its first formidable mission.