SECURITY PERSONNEL COSTS

As the whispers grow louder that government will not be able to pay its civil servant wage bill in June, there is a notable claim in the US State Department's Human Rights Report for 2010 (HERE).

Under s 1(d) 'Role of the police and security apparatus', the report states that:

"Approximately, 40 percent of the government's workforce is allocated to security."

If true, that is a shocking figure. Nationmaster lists Swaziland as 19th out of 163 in terms of military expenditure as a % of GDP (HERE). But the personnel costs are stated as quite low (HERE). If these figures are true, that would mean police, correctional services, customs, private security contractors and spies are making up a huge swathe of government employees.

US STATE DEPT REPORT ON SWAZILAND

The annual human rights report of the US State Department for Swaziland has been published (HTML version, HERE). It catalogues the human rights abuses by the Swazi government in 2010. It seems the US accepts that the 2005 Constitution is the fundamental law in Swaziland. This is doubtful. I am quite convinced that the 1973 Decree is in fact the real constitution, and that the Head of State can rule by decree even against the 2005 Constitution's terms. More on that shortly.