Swaziland’s King Mswati III uses a controversial public relations company to project a positive image of himself to the world.
The King has chosen Eligo International, based in London, UK, for the job. The King’s contract with Eligo is not public knowledge in Swaziland.
The King’s move might come as a surprise to some people, but if you think about it from the King’s point of view you can see why he needs help over the coming month.
Swaziland faces a controversial election, in which political parties have been banned and which is widely seen internationally as a sham because the parliament that is being elected has no powers.
Also taking place over the next month in the kingdom are celebrations of both the King’s 40th birthday and the 40th anniversary of Swaziland’s independence from Britain. The celebrations are expected to cost upwards of E25 million (nearly 4 million US dollars).
Also taking place over the next month in the kingdom are celebrations of both the King’s 40th birthday and the 40th anniversary of Swaziland’s independence from Britain. The celebrations are expected to cost upwards of E25 million (nearly 4 million US dollars).
These events will almost certainly put Swaziland in the international spotlight, more than it has been since 2004 and 2005 when the world learned that the King was spending lavishly on himself and his wives (remember all those expensive cars and new palaces) while 70 percent of Swaziland’s population lived in abject poverty, earning less than one US dollar a day (E7).
In some respects, Eligo might be a good choice for the King. Eligo, on its website, boasts that it deals in ‘crisis management’ for countries and statesmen.
The website says, ‘We have also in times of national and international trouble succeeded in defending a country’s image against media and public attack through setting up issues and crisis management systems.’
As my report on censorship and self-censorship in the Swazi media published last month (July 2008) demonstrated, King Mswati has a tight control over what is said about him in Swaziland. He doesn’t have such a control of the international media, and that is why (I assume) he has felt the need to take on a public relations company.
Eligo is so proud of its association with King Mswati that on its website it boasts that he is one of its customers.
Other customers include Prince Khalid Al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia (a country with an even worse human rights record than Swaziland).
‘Our clients continue to be international leaders, royalty, cabinet ministers, ambassadors and high commissioners as well as many other public figures,’ Eligo says.
But Eligo has been embroiled in controversy for many years. In 2005, the Sunday Times, London, UK, reported (13 March 2005) that Eligo had tried to give the UK Labour Party a donation of 500,000 British pounds (about E8 million).
The Labour Party, although in debt to the tune of five million British pounds, decided not to take the money after it made background checks on Anthony Bailey, Eligo’s owner.
Bailey is known for his love of litigation, so from here on in everything said in this blogpost about him should be viewed as allegations.
The Sunday Times reported, ‘A senior Labour party source said of Bailey: “Questions have been raised about this man and his wealth. We just weren’t happy to take his money.”’
The Sunday Times continued, ‘Bailey first came to public attention in the mid-1990s. He was arrested for allegedly working alongside Prince Michael of Kent’s then private secretary in an attempt to blackmail a man who claimed to be a Libyan prince. The charges were thrown out by the courts.’
Some of the companies Eligo has worked for are also embroiled in controversy. The Sunday Times reported Eligo.s clients included, ‘BAE Systems, the defence firm under investigation by the [UK] Serious Fraud Office; and businesses owned by Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi-born industrialist with legal problems in France.’
According to Eligo’s website, the company has also acted for exiled royals from Libya, Ethiopia and Greece.
I’ll leave it to your imagination to decide why King Mswati III chose this particular company to do his bidding. Any suggestion that it was Eligo’s expertise in working with ‘exiled royals’ is pure speculation.
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