Political Developments in Swaziland After World War II
The years after World War II saw dramatic changes in Swaziland. The development of forestry and of irrigated sugar and citrus production, as well as mining and the completion of the railway, transformed a stagnant economy. Opportunities for local employment were greatly increased and dependence upon labour migration to South Africa reduced. Labour was, in fact, drawn into Swaziland from Mozambique, Nyasaland and South Africa to meet the demands of the expanding economy. Political development was relatively slow. From 1939 until 1950 Sobhuza had been largely preoccupied with resistance to the government's schemes for indirect rule, realizing that the bureaucratization of the chiefs, including himself, would undermine their authority. He was largely successful in this campaign, ensuring that the appointment and dismissal of chiefs was kept out of government's hands and that they did not become salaried officials.[98]
When, in 1959, the colonial government, moving with the times, broached the question of constitutional development in Swaziland, Sobhuza and the Swazi National Council's executive committee—the Liqoqo —moved quickly to pre-empt the development of mass-based political parties. They proposed a deal with the conservative settlers under which each group would elect by its own 'traditional' methods an equal number to the new legislative body. Control over Swazi law and custom, as well as land and minerals, would be vested in the king and council.
Sobhuza's initiative prompted J.J. Nquku to form the Swaziland Progressive Party on the basis of the old Progressive Association. Nquku's party soon split and the majority of his following joined the Ngwane National Liberation Congress, which was founded and led by Dr Ambrose Zwane and Prince Dumisa Diamini, a nephew of the king. Both were closely associated with the 'traditional' hierarchy, as were Dr Alien Nxumalo, son of Benjamin Nxumalo, and Simon Sishayi Nxumalo, who emerged as the leaders of the Swaziland Democratic Party.[99] The Ngwane National Liberation Congress sought to acquire a mass base by involving itself with the widespread labour unrest which led to a crisis in 1963 and the calling in of British troops. The 'traditional' methods of labour representation through works indvunas, which had been developed in the Witwatersrand's mines from the 1920s and applied in Swaziland during the 1940s, had failed, and the Resident Commissioner, Brian Marwick, blamed both the Swazi National Council and the employers for their failure to heed warnings. The Swazi National Council blamed foreign labour and foreign agitators for the situation.[100]
Sobhuza was under strong pressure from the political parties and the colonial authorities to remain above politics and prepare himself for the position of constitutional monarch. He was, on the other hand, pressed by the Liqoqo and the settlers to venture into politics. Finally, after the rejection by the Libhandla, or general council, of his power-sharing scheme, he launched in 1964 the Imbokodvo National Movement as the political arm of the Swazi National Council.[101] Sobhuza's major tactic against the political parties was to label them as 'foreign', divisive and hostile to Swazi 'tradition', of which he was not only guardian but the unchallengeable interpreter. The fact that, with the exception of Nquku and the South African Swazi, MacDonald Maseko, who was prominent in the NNLC, all the leaders had impeccable Swazi credentials does not seem to have worked against this tactic. Sobhuza's major assets were the prestige he had acquired over 40 years of low-key resistance to colonial rule, the authority of the chiefs, and the foundations of cultural nationalism which he had himself begun to lay in the 1930s and continued to consolidate thereafter. He also enjoyed the support of substantial capitalist interests which saw in him and Swazi 'tradition' a bulwark against more radical forms of African nationalism.
His party won all the contested seats in the 1964 elections after which many of the political leaders, such as the two Nxumalos and Dumisa Diamini, threw in their lot with it rather than face prolonged exclusion from public life. They had in any case obtained only a derisory share of the vote, with the chiefs throwing their full weight, including alleged threats of banishment and dispossession, behind the Imbokodvo. The party was also helped by the constituency boundaries which favoured the rural areas and by the disenfranchisement of black, but not white, South Africans living in Swaziland.[102]
The independence of Swaziland was delayed until 1968 mainly because of the stubborn refusal of Sobhuza and the Swazi National Council to allow control over land and minerals to pass to the cabinet and parliament. They insisted that these should be vested in the king and council. This made possible the establishment of the Tibiyo takaNgwane Fund' to which royalties and dividends on joint ventures were to be paid. Under the control of members of the Swazi National Council, this fund was, after independence, to be a major backer of prestige projects, such as the national airline, but also provided capital through salaries, loans and other means for the embourgeoisement of a section of the traditional elite whose financial resources had always been slender. The fund was also used for substantial purchases of land, the market in which was brought under 'traditional' control by the Land Speculation Act of 1971. This measure greatly incensed
Sobhuza's capitalist backers, but they were satisfied with the hostility of his government towards trade unions and the attempt which was made to modernize the 'traditional' system of labour control through the king's representatives or Ndabazabantu .[103]