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Mbabane - The Swazi Senate on Thursday called for the arrest of Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini over the cabinet's use of development funds to purchase a $45 million luxury jet for King Mswati III, amid a food crisis that threatens one quarter of the population.
A US$20 million down payment was paid to ExecuJet, a South African firm representing Bombardier Aerospace, the Canadian manufacturer of the 18-seater Global Express Bombardier corporate-style long-range jet for Mswati. To purchase the plane, the prime minister took funds earmarked by parliament to build factory shells for foreign investors and to upgrade the road infrastructure.
"Cabinet's misappropriation of these funds is a criminal act," said Senator Rowan Howe. "What will the country's image be internationally, especially because almost all the people in the Lowveld are starving?" Legally only parliament has the authority to appropriate government funds.
"This is depressing, and we are utterly demoralised," IRIN was told by the director of an international aid organisation currently scrambling to come up with funds to mitigate a food shortage that has brought one quarter of the population to the brink of starvation.
This week, UN agencies operating in Swaziland reported that US$19 million in emergency aid was needed to ensure the survival of 250 000 Swazis left without sustenance because of drought-induced crop failures.
"In terms of government expenditures, the jet's purchase price is more than double the annual health budget of US$20 million, at a time of an Aids crisis," noted a Western envoy stationed in Mbabane. "Community and social services have been budgeted only US$7 million this year, and all economic services, including money allocated to agriculture, industrial and mining sector support, transportation and communications, received US$33 million."
'To cost every Swazi R450'
Vusie Ngcamphalala, an agriculture ministry field officer, did some math, and concluded: "It works out that the airplane will cost every Swazi R450 [US $45]. Me, my wife, my grandchildren. All the starving people who are going to bed tonight without anything to eat have to come up with R450."
Dlamini defended the jet's purchase in his statement to parliament on Wednesday night read on his behalf. He said leasing a plane was more expensive, as would be Mswati's continued use of commercial flights. But critics of the large entourage that accompanies Mswati on his frequent overseas trips argue that costs could be kept down if the scores of royal relatives and friends who tag along stayed home.
Dlamini advanced an additional reason for the purchase of the plane: "The terror attacks using airplanes on September 11 made it imperative for security reasons that the king have his own plane."
While rounding on the prime minister, parliamentarians - a third of whom are palace appointees - shied away from associating the jet's purchase with its intended user, the king.