Times Of Swaziland: USDF forfifies its arsenal

USDF forfifies its arsenal
================================================================================
BY LINDA JELE on 28/06/2013 02:42:00


MANZINI – The Umbutfo Swaziland Defence Force (USDF) has  purchased a range of
new weaponry which is reported to include firearms.
This publication can exclusively reveal that a huge cargo plane yesterday landed
at the Matsapha International Airport to deliver weaponry that have been
purchased by the USDF. The cargo plane arrived at around 3pm  and was met by a
heavy security detail of USDF members and police officers when it delivered
unspecified number of firearms and other military hardware.
Impeccable sources from within the security agencies confirmed that the cargo
included firearms and other military hardware.
The arrival of the plane and its cargo was said to be top secret such that our
attempts to ascertain which country the plane came from were unsuccessful.  When
the Times team arrived at the airport, the plane was found parked at the back
and army personnel were offloading the equipment. The plane was parked next to a
warehouse not far from the airport tower and it was surrounded by heavily armed
soldiers and army vehicles.
The plane, due to its size, drew the attention of members of the public at the
airport and staff that came closer to get a glimpse of what was being offloaded.
However, armed soldiers prevented them from getting any closer.
Heavily armed soldiers were littered around the plane and the airport.
Journalists from this publication were ordered to leave the premises and warned
not to take pictures.
Army Commander Lieutenant General Sobantu Dlamini, in a telephone interview,
confirmed that the plane had come to deliver security equipment for the army. He
did not want to specify what the plane had come to deliver, citing security
reasons.
Dlamini also wondered how the press got to know of the presence of the aircraft.
“Who told you of the plane? What had you gone there to do? I can only confirm
the presence of the plane and that it has come to deliver security equipment,
full stop,” the army commander said.
When pressed further on what the security equipment was for, he refused to
elaborate.
“I cannot reveal due to security issues. This is equipment intended for and
known by us, the security force. Uyaganga. I can never detail each an every item
relating to security. Such is never publicised.”
“I can never reveal where the equipment is coming from. Security issues must
be respected,” Dlamini said.
Government, in the beginning of its fiscal year, allocated the Ministry of
Defence E867 million.  The budget for the ministry increased by E109 million
from last year’s, which stood at E758 million.
The ministry’s allocation is the fourth highest when compared to other
portfolios. It is only lower than the Ministries of Education and Training,
Health and Public Works and Transport, respectively.
According to the 2011 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Factbook,
Swaziland is spending more money on the army than any other country in the SADC
region and ranks 13th in the world.
The comparison has been made in terms of the percentage of the gross domestic
product (GDP) that a country spends on the army. It must be noted that the CIA
based its information on statistics dating between 2005 and 2010 for the various
countries but when it comes to Swaziland the data is for 2006.
In the entire African continent, Swaziland reportedly ranks third after Burundi
and Morocco who are ranked eighth and 11th in the world, respectively.
The World Factbook provides information on the history, people, government,
economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational
issues for 267 world entities.
TUCOSWA not pleased
MANZINI – The continuous excessive expenditure by the army may jeopardise the
negotiations for salary increments between government and public sector unions.
This was the view of Vincent Ncongwane, the Secretary General (SG) of the
deregistered Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA), during an interview
yesterday.
“The continuous excessive expenditure by the army makes the public sector
unions not understand why government is failing to increase their salaries
because they think the country has money. They think the country has money
because the army continues with secretive expensive expenditures while the
country is not at war and there are no signs of a looming war,” Ncongwane
said.
He urged government to thoroughly look into the issue and make some means to cut
down the excessive expenditure by the army.
Ncongwane said he understood the Umbutfo Swaziland Defence Force (USDF) should
be secretive with its operations like every country, but since Swaziland was not
at war, the continuous expenditure should be minimised because it confuses the
people of the country.