By Zweli Martin Dlamini

When King Mswati, a multibillionaire told the Nation that prayer is the solution to poverty and hunger, I remembered that religion is one of the most powerful tools used by dictators to capture the minds of the masses and, induce them into submission.

Without disregarding the significance of prayer, perhaps let me warn the King to stop this ‘nonsense’ of manipulating the Christian religion to legitimize his dictatorship, people are hungry and financially broke in this country, they need food and money to survive.

But let me quote James(Jakobe) 2 verse 15-17, I was reading this verses from my siSwati Bible this morning.

“Nangabe umzalwane nome umzalwanekati bahlubulile beswele nekudla kwemalanga onkhe, bese-ke lomunye emkhatsini wenu utsi kubo: “Hambani ngekuthula, nifutfumale, nesutse,” ngaphandle kwekubapha loko labakudzingako emtimbeni, kusitani loko?. Ngako-ke nangabe kukholwa, kona kwekwako, kungenayo imisebenti kufile”.

Well, I remember quoting this verse inside my church, the Africa Evangelical Church(AEC) about ten(10) years ago when clarifying an issue of this nature,this verse came back to my mind this morning after watching King Mswati preaching at Mandvulo Hall on Monday evening.

In my view, the Lozitha Palace Prayer is turning to be a gathering of Pharisees who loot State resources and then manipulate the poor, saying the solutions to their sufferings is prayer.

This is the same strategy used by Pastors in the various churches, they demand physical cash from church members to pay their bills and live a luxury life but, when you approach them saying you are facing financial challenges as a church member, they will never use the church offerings to help instead, they will put a hand on top of your head saying they are blessing you.

The question is; can a poor person go to Pick& Pay or SPAR and say “please give me bread”, my Pastor or my King has blessed me?.

The truth is; even though we may have spiritual desires to live eternal life, we have bills to pay in the physical world and those bills need money.

King Mswati has messed-up this country, stealing money from public coffers and, changing laws to benefit from mineral resources saying he is holding shares in trust for the Swazi Nation but when it’s time to release those monies and feed the people, he normally tells them to pray saying God will feed them.

Well, let me state that God is not a fool but a source of intelligence, he is also not a friend of corrupt Pharisees as Mswati and his loyalists might think.

In this country, we are having a challenge of corrupt Pharisees who steal our resources, these Pharisees normally gather at Mandvulo Hall-Lozitha Palace telling us to pray while enjoying the wealth and resources of this country, this is actually, the highest degree of ‘nonsense’.

Without disregarding the plight of other civil servants and workers in the private sector, junior police officers are pleading with Government these days for a salary increment under Phase two(2), then a whole King who must bring solutions to the plight of citizens and release the money, is telling poor and financially struggling emaSwati to pray.

Personally, I don’t need to be told by corrupt Pharisees when and how to pray, other problems need money not prayer and I don’t want spiritual hypocrites to lecture me that prayer brings money, I am aware that prayer is the solutions to all problems.

But in context, you cannot pray to God to have a child and then avoid to play a role in the physical world,  even if you are spiritual, you must pray and then have sex to produce a child. 

This means prayer must complement our efforts in the physical world, the King cannot pray for the poor in this country to have a better life while stealing from them by looting public funds. 

Even if we can pray for money to flow like rivers in this country, Mswati can create a dam and harvest all the money for himself.

We have Mines in this country and this include Lufafa Gold Mine, Malolotja, Maloma among others, all these Mines are pumping money to Mswati’s pocket and then, he comes from a cossy vacation with his new wife Inkhosikati LaZuma(21) where they spent millions of public funds to tell poor people to pray.

EmaSwati will learn the hard way that,these Lozitha Palace Prayer gatherings are organised to capture their minds, Mswati and prayer are actually the east and the west, in the absence of a miracle, they will never meet.

We need money in this country to benefit all citizens and we can’t be told by a group of Pharisees to pray while they steal and enjoy State resources.