King Mswati III of Swaziland will celebrate
his 47th birthday at Buhleni, one
of his 13 palaces, in the Hhohho region, one of the poorest
regions of his kingdom.
Details of the celebrations on 19 April 2014 have
yet to be announced, but if they follow celebrations in recent years King
Mswati III, who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch,
will ensure that many millions of dollars are spent on him.
In 2013 his birthday
party cost US$3.6 million, but Percy Simelane, spokesperson for the Swazi
Government, which is handpicked by the King, said this money did not come out
of the kingdom’s budget for celebrations and national events. He told Voice of
America radio, ‘The king’s birthday was privately sponsored this
year, as [was] the case was last year.’
He did not say who sponsored the event.
Also in 2013, the People’s United Democratic
Movement (PUDEMO), a banned political party in Swaziland, reported
32 BMW cars had been delivered to King ahead of his 45th
birthday celebrations.
In 2012, the King was embroiled in a row
when he took delivery of a private
jet plane, worth an estimated US$46 million. He claimed that the McDonnell Douglas
DC-9 twin-engine jet was a gift from an admirer, but declined to say who it
was. This led to speculation that the jet had been purchased out of public
funds.
Every year the King demands that his subjects, seven
in ten have incomes of less than US$2 a day, slaughter their cattle for his
feast.
The King choses a different area of his kingdom to
visit for his birthday celebrations. In 2012, the venue was Shiselweni, Swaziland’s poorest region. Locals were forced to give up
their cattle for the King. At the time, the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN),
a banned organisation in Swaziland, called for the party to be cancelled.
It said in a statement, ‘Shiselweni is the
country’s poorest region, the same area where the country’s poorest citizens
live. Areas like Lavumisa are so poverty stricken that its residents have at
times been reported to be living on poisonous shrubs. Despite this abject
poverty in the region, the king has insensitively decided to throw a lavish
birthday party and rub his stolen riches in the people’s poverty stricken
faces.’
Last year (2014), the King’s birthday party received
global attention when world-famous hip-hop and soul singer Erykah Badu sang for
the monarch.
King Mswati’s grip on power in his kingdom is so
great that at present magazine editor Bheki Makhubu and human rights lawyer
Thulani Maseko are serving two years in jail for contempt of court after
calling the independence of the Swazi judicial system into question in articles
in a small circulation magazine, the Nation.
Also, seven people are in
jail awaiting trial for wearing T-shirts supporting the
pro-democracy group PUDEMO.
It was against this background that Badu, who in the
past had been a vocal supporter of human rights, sang the King’s praises and
gave him a US$100 note as a gift.
Badu was so
stung by the criticism that followed she went on Twitter
to defend herself. She refused to apologise, saying, ‘I can’t be held responsible
for the situation in the kingdom because I signed up as an artist, not as a
political activist.’
.
See also
KING DEMANDS COWS FROM THE POOR
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