My Beauty Best Teacher

Successful leadership ultimately depends on a leaders inherent abilities, the framework in which they operate and the effectiveness of associated checks and balances. Swaziland is an example of a traditional system gone awry, where a constitutional monarch has evolved into the worst type of destructive autocrat. As Babs Ajayi elucidates the slide into misrule began when the "...king was able to dissolve the Supreme Council of State (SCS), the Liqoqo. The legislative structure of the state was skewed in favour of the royal family and their sidekicks but a call for restructuring the legislature was rejected. The Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) have been on strike again and again pressing for reforms and demanding accountability, demanding that the state be separated from the palace and insisting that a people-oriented constitutional review be embarked upon. In 2001, the nation's Constitutional Review Commission enhanced King Mswati's powers. The Commission went on to extend the ban on all political parties in Swaziland..."

Franklin Cudjoe writes "...Famine in the fertile climes of southern and eastern Africa, however, seems more shocking. But there's a common thread: centralized state rule -- incompetent at best -- marked by corruption and sustained by aid...more temperate southern and eastern African countries are on the edge of famine, too, with 10 million affected in southern Africa alone. Again, we find the same economic profile: Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho all lack economic freedom and property rights; all have economies mismanaged by the state; all depend on aid...Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi believes that allowing Ethiopians to own their land would make them sell out to multinationals. He seems to have overlooked a basic market principle: It demands a willing seller and a willing buyer at an agreed price. If that price is worth selling for, the farmer might have some money to reinvest elsewhere; if that price is worth buying for, the purchaser must have plans to make the land profitable. If there is no sale, owners might have an incentive to invest in their own land and future, having, at last, the collateral of the land on which to get a loan.After decades of socialism, Ethiopia's agricultural sector -- the mainstay of the economy -- is less productive per capita than 20 years ago when Band Aid tried to defeat famine. Although 60% of the country is arable, only 10% has been cultivated. Ethiopia is entirely dependent on donations; but instead of grasping reality, Mr. Zenawi, a member of Tony Blair's "Commission for Africa," is forcing resettlement on 2.2 million people..."
Also covered at PSD Blog

Image via Wikipedia A recent COSATU memorandum states:

That the principles of democratic governance, embodied in the SADC and African Union charters, were the birthright of every African....The key defining features of both Zimbabwe and Swaziland were electoral fraud, political manipulation by ruling elite, institutionalised oppression, state brutality and an environment of fear and oppression, the civil societies said in the memorandum...[continue reading]

Kim McLarin at The Root writes:

The New York Times ran a story on its front page about the king of Swaziland, Mswati III, who leads a life of ostentatious luxury while the people of his small and proud nation struggle with poverty, malnourishment and HIV...In this political season of outrage, why get excited about a front-page story in the paper of record mocking the greedy king of some place in Africa? Because the story highlights how stereotypes and prejudices render real people in caricature, making it almost impossible to seriously assess their problems or devise real solutions to them; this is Africa's special affliction, and something very familiar to those in the Diaspora...[continue reading]