MBABANE – A Swazi man, claiming to be a network administrator at MTN Swaziland, has caused a racial uproar following his post on a job seekers Facebook page where he said only black people could post.

This has since led to MTN Swaziland business partners, distributors and customers complaining to the organisation about the post and the kind of people allegedly employed by the organisation. 
The company, through its Corporate Affairs Manager Mandla Luphondvo, has since distanced itself from the post and the person, stating that he was not employed by MTN Swaziland. They have, as a result, also contacted Facebook administrators to inform them that the man was not an employee of the organisation. 

The man, *Bheki under the group Job Seekers and Job Offers Swaziland, on Monday posted that he did not want to see any Indian, Qatar, USA, South Africa or any other country’s post advertising overseas vacancies. 
“This group is for Swazis only not any other white person,” wrote Bheki. 
The group, as of yesterday afternoon, had about 11 820 members. Bheki continued to post  that the group had been created for black people and not whites, while he continued to launch an attack on Caucasian people, stating that they were photocopies of black people.  

However, a majority of those who commented on the post did not take kindly to the post and informed Bheki that he was racist, while others added that many people in the country had been employed by the people from the countries in which he had referred to and told him to stop being racist as Swaziland was not one of the States which promote racism. 

Information gathered was that some of MTN Swaziland’s partners called the company and went as far as sending emails complaining about the post, especially since a majority of them were not originally from Swaziland.                                         
Luphondvo, in response, said; “Swazi MTN can acknowledge that there is an incident on social media which saw the publication of unpleasant remarks directed to non-locals.” He disassociated the company from both the person, who claimed to work for Swazi MTN, and the remarks made. “The author of these remarks has never been a staff member at Swazi MTN,” said Luphondvo. 

He said they were also working with Facebook to have the false association made by this person with Swazi MTN removed. “A complaint was filed yesterday, and should be processed soon,” said Luphondvo. 
“We sincerely apologise to our valued customers and stakeholders for such unfortunate remarks,” continued Luphondvo through a statement. 

Swaziland: King Took More As Spending Cuts Bit

As King Mswati III, Swaziland's absolute monarch, calls for public spending cuts to save his kingdom's damaged economy, we are reminded of a similar national crisis in 2011.

That year the King forced spending cuts in Government departments of up to 20 percent; but at the same time he awarded himself and the Royal Family a budget increase of 23 percent from public funds.

Then, as now, Swaziland was affected by cuts in income from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU). Successive governments that are not elected by the people but chosen by the King have failed to manage Swaziland's economy. The Swazi Government relies heavily on SACU income and when it falls, as this year, it has little alternative income.

In his speech opening Parliament on Friday (12 February 2016), King Mswati blamed falling SACU revenues for the crisis and called on everybody to help ensure the economy improved.

In 2011, when budgets controlled by the Swaziland Government were slashed by 20 percent King Mswati III got 23 percent more from the Swazi people for the upkeep of himself and his Royal Family. Jimmy Ghidinelli