The Swazi Government was so taken in by con man Rudy King it offered him the chance to open an office in Swaziland.
King is the man behind the bogus ‘humanitarian’ award given to Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally appointed Prime Minister.
As I reported on 4 October 2010, Barnabas Dlamini wasn’t the only Swazi Prime Minister who fell for King’s con. The previous Prime Minister Themba Dlamini was taken-in as well.
Following up on my report, the Times of Swaziland discovered in its files that in 2007 Themba Dlamini was quoted as saying members of King’s foundation would be visiting Swaziland to finalise the setting up of an office. King had claimed his organisation funded education by giving grants to primary and high schools, colleges and universities around the world.
Of course, nothing came of this offer and as far as I known Themba Dlamini never talked about it publicly again.
Themba Dlamini was well and truly bamboozled by King, who is a well-known con artist in the Bahamas and the United States.
Themba Dlamini told the media upon his return to Swaziland after receiving his medal, ‘I am humbled for being identified as one of the people to deserve the award and I am dedicating it to the Swazi nation as my efforts would not have been recognised had I not been serving the Swazi nation.’
He was embroiled in a controversy after his return when it was discovered that he had taken his wife and his ‘spiritual advisor’, Pastor Phila Mathunjwa, with him to the Bahamas to collect his award. Mathunjwa flew business class, which cost E39 000 (nearly 6,000 US dollars).
When independent newspapers in Swaziland tried to get the government to come clean over the cost they were told to mind their own business and because there is no freedom of information law in the kingdom, ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, there was nothing much they could do about it.
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