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Wednesday 9 January 2008

SILENCE OVER SWAZI KING’S WEALTH

I know this is beginning to seem like a personal crusade on my part but I’d like to return to the subject of Swaziland’s King Mswati III’s huge wealth.

The international media have been reporting for months that the king has a net worth of about 200 million US Dollars (about 1.4 billion Swazi Emalengeni) and is one of the richest monarchs in the world.

Although people across the world have been able to learn about this wealth, the king’s subjects, 70 percent of whom live on one US Dollar a day or less, have not been told anything by Swaziland’s media.

The latest newspaper to carry the news was the Daily Star in the Lebanon on Monday (7 January 2008).

The newspaper published the report from Forbes in New York, US, that this blog originally carried in September 2007.

Forbes placed King Mswati III among the top 15 richest monarch’s in the world and as the very richest in Sub-Saharan Africa. At aged 39, he was also the youngest monarch to appear in the Top 15 list.

The Daily Star reports, ‘The list's youngest member and the only one from sub-Saharan Africa is 39-year-old King Mswati III of Swaziland, with a net worth of $200 million. Almost every year, he chooses a new bride from among 20,000 naked bare-breasted virgins; so far, he has 13 wives and is building a palace for each.’

None of this has appeared in the Swazi media because they are not allowed to run pieces critical of the king. Any media outlet that dares will be closed down.

For example, as I wrote previously the Times of Swaziland Group of Newspapers in March 2007 was forced into publishing an abject apology to Swaziland’s King Mwasti III after the Times Sunday ran a news commentary sourced from the international news agency Afrol News in which the following appeared. ‘Swaziland is increasingly paralysed by poor governance, corruption and the private spending of authoritarian King Mswati III and his large royal family. The growing social crisis in the country and the lessening interest of donors to support King Mswati’s regime has also created escalating needs for social services beyond the scale of national budgets.’

Such open criticism of the king is not allowed in Swaziland (not even in so-called independent newspapers like the Times Sunday). The publisher was summoned to the Royal Palace and told to issue a public apology or his newspapers would be closed down. The apology was swiftly forthcoming.


See also
STORY THE SWAZI MEDIA MISSED
CLOSURE THREAT TO TIMES

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