By James Hall
MBABANE, Oct 17 2003 (IPS)

Non-government organisations seeking to have their issues better understood by potential lawmakers are instructing candidates in this week’s parliamentary elections about social welfare and health matters the members of parliament (MPs) must know about once in office.

"The time for an education campaign is now, before the MP enters office," said Doo Aphane, national director for the Swaziland chapter of Women in Law in Southern Africa. "Once they are in the House of Assembly, it is almost too late to ground them in an understanding of basic issues, because of their work duties."

As for educating candidates who may not succeed in their electoral bids, Aphane said, "For the most part, the candidates are made up of community leaders. If they have been nominated, and succeeded in the primary elections to run in the general elections, then they have influence and supporters. They will continue to be involved in developmental issues in their areas. It is important that they be trained as well, even if it turns out they don’t become MPs."

Women in Law in Southern Africa hosted a series of workshops for women who are running for parliament. About 17 women are contesting for MP positions in the 55 areas that are holding elections.

Presently, only 2 MPs are women out of the 65-member House of Assembly (King Mswati appoints 10 members to accompany 55 elected members).

"It is hard for a woman to be elected to parliament," Ntombi Nkosi, president of the Ngwane National Liberatory Congress’ women’s league, told IPS in an interview.

Nkosi failed to gather enough votes in the primary election to run in the secondary general elections. It is not that her group, the NNLC, is a banned political party, which puts her at odds with the ruling monarchy that does not tolerate political opposition. Rather, Nkosi believes, it is women’s status as legal minors that prevents both men and women voters from taking seriously women candidates.

The Women in Law workshops introduced participants to a wide range of social issues. The candidates were also taught about gender empowerment, and specific legislation that is required to elevate the status of women. Laws are needed to permit women to own property, and sign contracts without the sponsorship of a male relative.

The Swaziland draft constitution prepared by the ruling authorities was also reviewed.

Heading the sessions, which were paid for by the British Embassy in Swaziland, was a prominent women MP from South Africa, Thabsile Mavimbela. She brought a wider regional perspective to gender issues.

"All over Southern Africa, it is very hard to get elected if you are a woman. For me as a woman in 1993 (when South Africa had its first democratic elections), to even stand for elections got attention. I was in business, and I wanted to show other women how to make money in small businesses, like raising chickens."

Mavimbela lost in 1993, but was elected to stand in the 1998 elections, when she was rated number one most likely to succeed.

"But being a woman, I couldn’t make it in the end. The House of Assembly, though, they learned of me. They heard I was a candidate two times, and I was a businesswoman. They nominated 20 people to be MPs, and I was the only woman! So, they voted me in," she related.

Mavimbela believes that with gender equality laws that will enable women to succeed in businesses, society will have new respect for women’s capabilities, and throughout Southern Africa women will be more likely to be elected into national legislatures.

"I think South Africa is one of the leading countries in Africa in terms of gender empowerment. South Africa was the first nation of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to achieve the goal of the SADC gender declaration of having women make up 30 percent of parliamentarians and in cabinet," said Mavimbela.

To help achieve that goal elsewhere, the Women in Law programme in Swaziland for candidates may prove a template for other nations where civil society would like to "educate" about social agendas.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) also hosted workshops for candidates, both men and women. Specific to children’s welfare issues, they came with an inducement: All candidates who attended the workshop, and took a pledge to support child welfare if elected to parliament, had their faces printed in the nation’s two daily newspapers every day.

In a poor country where only a few candidates had the financial resources to run newspaper advertising, the placement of their photographs and names in the newspapers was in itself worth the workshop attendance.

But candidates found the knowledge they gained about AIDS, poverty, the rising orphan population and other issues key to children’s welfare was as valuable as the free campaign publicity.

"You cannot separate child welfare from national welfare," UNICEF’s national director for Swaziland Alan Brody told IPS. "Children who are uneducated and unhealthy are bad for the nation’s future."

Children’s welfare is declining in Swaziland, judging by such statistics as those emerging from the education sector. In the 1990s, 90 percent of Swazi children were in school. Today, only 70 percent of children are in school, which is a reversal to attendance figures when Swaziland achieved independence in 1968, and the population was a third of what it is today.

"We haven’t fully understood how important to the future of the country is HIV/AIDS. But the candidates are growing more knowledgeable, and this bodes well for an educated parliament," Brody said.

Excerpt: