Here’s a story to warm the cockles of the heart of any Swazi Royalist. King Mswati III is reckoned to be the most influential monarch in Africa.
But once you go beyond the headline, things aren’t quite so rosy.
A report just published by Stakes Capital Limited’s International Corporate Research (ICR) under the trade name Research Intelligence, puts King Mswati top of the pile based (mostly) on the fact that he is an absolute monarch. Or put another way the research model was skewed in favour of dictators.
In the report called Powers That Be researchers used three criteria (i) the size of the territory the monarch reigns over; (ii) is his word law and if so over how many people? and (iii) the amount of recognition the monarch gets and the respect he is held by in by the international community.
King Mswati wins by virtue of being sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch (his word is most definitely law) and the inflated role he took this year in the activities of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
I can’t quite see what the point of the research is. The ‘institute’ that produced it seems to be an outfit from Nigeria. Not to be confused with the International Corporate Research organisation in the United States.,
The report published on the Internet is riddled with spelling mistakes and bad grammar (I know signs of pot calling kettle black here), but it doesn’t read to me like a professionally produced report.
Anyhow, to wipe the smile of the faces of the Royalists and to pre-empt any crowing the Swazi media might do - here are some quotes about King Mswati from the report
· Today he is described as Africa's last absolute monarch in the sense that he has the power to choose the prime minister, other top government posts and top traditional posts.
· He is ranked 17th on the list of richest heads of government with a net worth of $100m. [Actually 200 million US dollars according to Forbes].
· Is currently ranked 18th on Parade Magazine's 2009 World's Worst Dictator list.
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