SWAZI MTN TESTING OUR PATIENCE SSN-STATEMENT: June, 8th, 2013 The sole mobile phone network provider in Swaziland, Swazi MTN, has left us wondering once again if its leadership has any business ethics or social responsibility at all. This company, which has the dubious honour of having the tyrant, King Mswati, as it’s “the esteemed shareholder”, has once again found itself meddling in the country’s politics on the side of its dictatorial shareholder. The Swazi Observer, a newspaper totally owned by the king, proudly reported on Friday the 7th of June that the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC), a commission hand-picked by Mswati to run his sham elections, is currently giving out MTN products such as T-shirts and caps to those who register for the elections. The newspaper explained that this was an incentive from MTN Swaziland to urge people to register. To give context to MTN’s absolute betrayal of its customer base, it must be remembered that the Mass Democratic Movement in Swaziland collectively called for a boycott of the registration and elections process as these two exercises give credibility to a system which disempowered the population. This call for a boycott was the most unanimous and most publicised call ever since the sham elections, which vote for a toothless parliament, were initiated in 1978 to serve as a distraction to those who yearned to participate in politics after the 1973 state of emergency which had outlawed all forms of political activity. Fearing that this call was resonating within the population, the EBC resorted to some extremely desperate measures to ensure that they registered as many of those who normally do not vote because they saw no importance in participating in this useless exercise. This resulted in hospitals being invaded, with sickly patients disrupted from their recuperation as king Mswati’s PR agents sought to create the impression that the majority of the population is fully behind his absolute grip of power. MTN Swaziland has since shamefully joined the fray, sponsoring this sham exercise, knowing well that poor Swazis will not pass the opportunity to have free T-shirts and caps. We ask a simple question to these friends of dictatorship, “Does this mean that the company does not value those amongst its subscribers who wish to live in a democratic country?” Surely if it valued them then it would not plough the profits it makes from their patronage into sustaining their oppression. If this gesture is innocent and has nothing to do with pleasing the king then MTN should also give out its products to those organizations who called for a boycott of the elections, failing which the Mass Democratic Movement is rightly advised to boycott this company, difficult though this may be, since it is a total monopoly thanks to the fact that its “esteemed shareholder” pulls the strings to ensure that there is no competition in the mobile telephone industry. As we have promised before, our solidarity partners from Cape to Cairo are eagerly awaiting our signal for them to initiate the global boycott against this economically extractive company which funds the oppression of Swazis. If Swazi MTN does not immediately stop giving out its products to entice unsuspecting Swazis to register for king Mswati’ toy elections we will activate this boycott. Issued by the Swaziland Solidarity Network [SSN] Contact: Lucky Lukhele-Spokesperson 072 502 4141
Posted on: Sat, 08 Jun 2013 10:44:08 +0000
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