Swaziland has no vision!

The royal University of Swaziland!

In the April issue, the Nation magazine editor, Bheki Makhubu, observed that the country’s football sector, outwardly by far the most democratic, has however failed to improve the standard of the game. The cumulative failure, argues Makhubu, is exemplified both by the national soccer team, Sihlangu’s failure to qualify for the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup in South Africa and the incoming Sports Minister’s frantic (belated) efforts to find ways in which the country could still benefit the event next year.

All this because, adds Makhubu, the country’s duly elected football administration has no vision; something that prompts him to conclude that even if we suddenly had the multiparty democracy we crave so much we would still be in the same political mess we find ourselves in today. Sad, isn’t it?

Mr Makhubu’s observation and conclusion are neither new nor without substance. What is new is his illustration of lack of vision in our sports portfolio. In March, 2007, then head of the University of Swaziland’s (Uniswa) Journalism & Mass Communication (JMC) department, Associate Professor Richard Rooney, observed in an open lecture on “ethics and professionalism in the media” at Uniswa’s Multipurpose Hall that media practice in an undemocratic society such as Swaziland inevitably reflected, if not exuded, that society’s general outlook and discourse around issues of human rights.

The reason is simply that the media is both a product of that society and, whether by design or by default, an agent of the society’s reproduction. I am glad that Richard is always on hand to redirect appropriately in the event of misquotation/misinformation.

Yes, our sports, like all other aspects of our national life, both lack direction and are in disarray.

A further illustration is now in order. Uniswa’s mooted journalism degree course might never see the light of day because, again argues Rooney, the institution has neither vision nor plan. See, we all may have good intentions for our country, but we have a lousy example to copy in the current national administration. I’ve always argued and, perhaps much to the irritation of my political associates, that I look around and I see a lot of Tinkhundla mentality in our modus operandi. I’ve also always been at pains to explain too that while this is something that we should never be ashamed of because we really can’t help where we come from, we should however be alert to the Tinkhundla baggage we bring to our pro-democracy aspirations enough to prevent us from resembling the past we would rather leave behind. Sadly, we don’t have much still left in the way of a democratic example to look up to immediately outside our borders either. Unscrupulous neighbours are even taking advantage of my democracy-deprived countrymen & women to enhance party prospects in their own “democratic” elections. I have close family in the southern border with South Africa and I know what I’m talking about.