Swazi MTN, a subsidiary of African mobile giant MTN, has been accused of colluding with the Swazi royal family and limiting connectivity and access to Facebook Mobile.
The Swazi uprising is now entering its second day, as citizens take part in pro-democracy protests, following close on the heels of recent North African revolutions.
The Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) has issued a statement saying that since Swazi MTN is the only provider of mobile Internet in the country, and thus the only means of accessing Facebook on the go, the problems being experienced are indicative of the network “being deliberately tampered with”.
According to the statement, users have been unable to access the Internet for up to two hours at a time.
“This is frustrating Facebook users who use this medium to get information about the protest,” said the SSN.
The social networking site is being used as the primary means of organisation for the Swazi uprising, and the “April 12 Swazi Uprising!” group has over 1 800 members.
“Swazi MTN will obviously deny being involved in this and might blame it on a technical fault, but the truth of the matter is that Facebook users are not impressed,” said the SSN.
Politically impartial
In response to the allegations, MTN maintains it remains politically impartial in all of its operations, including Swaziland.
“[MTN] does not subscribe to any political party, movement or affiliation. We pride ourselves in connecting people at all times wherever they are.”
MTN head of corporate affairs Rich Mkhondo adds that operations in Swaziland are currently running smoothly, although some problems have been experienced:
“Due to increased volumes on the mobile network, which runs on the 2G spectrum, MTN Swaziland has been experiencing data speeds that are below normal,” says Mkhondo.
Royal pressure
According to the SSN, King Mswati owns shares in the network as part of his personal investments.
The SSN has threatened a mass boycott of the mobile operator across the continent “if this embarrassing collusion with an oppressive regime continues”.
“Our network technicians are doing everything they can to manage the volumes within the limits of our licence conditions, which do not provide for MTN Swaziland to offer 3G-enabled data services for faster Internet speeds,” explains Mkhondo.
The SSN has accused MTN of collusion before. In August last year, it threatened a boycott of MTN after the operator was allegedly ordered by the Swazi royal family to investigate phone calls to South African journalists from inside the country.
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