The Swaziland Government is scraping the bottom of the barrel by sending Lutfo Dlamini to South Africa to rebuild the kingdom’s dented image.
The Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III, reported today (5 April 2011) that Dlamini, the Swazi Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, would meet his South African counterpart.
The Observer reports, ‘Dlamini will also meet the media, where he is expected to give responses to questions relating to Swaziland.’
It doesn’t say what those ‘questions’ are, but we can suppose the ‘uprising’ in Swaziland due to start next Tuesday (12 April 2011) will be high on the list.
I laughed out loud when I read they were sending Lutfo Dlamini to rebuild Swaziland’s image. There couldn’t be a more inappropriate person. He is at the centre of a corruption scandal involving millions of dollars stolen from the Kuwaiti Royal Family that he was entrusted to send to King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.
He is an inveterate liar who is consistently found out. But he has no shame and he just carries on lying as if nothing was the matter.
Then there are his own sexual morals which are constantly discussed in diplomatic circles – and in bars the length and breadth of Swaziland. I won’t detail them in deference to the more squeamish readers, but just think ‘barnyard’ and you’ll get the picture.
Of course, if King Mswati wants to rebuild the kingdom’s dented image, he could stop milking his subjects for all they are worth. He took a 23 percent increase in his income from the Swazi taxpayer this year, while most government departments were forced to cut budgets by 20 percent. The king who has a personal wealth estimated by Forbes in 2009 to be US$200 million also takes money from a raft of Swaziland’s mineral and financial assets.
He could also face the truth: his subjects don’t love him. They put up with him because they have to. It’s mostly fear that has stopped them telling him and the spongers who surround him that their time is up.
See also
RAGE AT SWAZI KING’S LAVISH LIVING
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/03/rage-at-swazi-kings-lashing-living.html
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