Swaziland’s King Mswati III has once again shown his
contempt for his own kingdom and the university he heads by sending his own
children to be educated abroad.
The King, who is presently on tour of Taiwan, the home
of the companies that control most of the textile sweatshops in Swaziland,
stopped off at the Shih Chien University in Taipei to visit one of his sons, Prince
Buhlebenkhosi, who is studying for a BSc in International Business Management.
The King, who rules Swaziland as an absolute
monarch, is Chancellor of the University of Swaziland (UNISWA), which has a
large business faculty, but clearly he has no confidence in the standards of
education at the institution. What is good enough for his subjects is not good
enough for his own children.
In April 2015 it was
reported that the university was ‘bankrupt’ and could not pay the Swaziland
Revenue Authority (SRA) an E60 million (US$6 million) Pay-As-You-Earn income
tax debt.
Buhlebenkhosi is not the only one of the King’s
children to have studied at
university abroad. The king is estimated to have 25 children (so far) but we
cannot be certain, because like the number of wives he has, this is information
that the Swazi people are not allowed to know.
His eldest daughter,
and first child, Princess
Sikhanyiso graduated
from Sydney University, Australia, in 2012 with a Masters in Digital
Communication. She completed a bachelor degree at Biola University, in Los
Angeles, California, in the United States. She also took acting classes while
in the US.
Prince Bandzile
Dlamini studied international relations at Zayed University, in the United
Arab Emirates (UAE).
Meanwhile, ‘the King’s Office Correspondent’, writing
in the Swazi Observer, a
newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, reported on Wednesday (20 May 2015), ‘Prince
Buhlebenkhosi’s humble and courteous nature has earned him glowing accolades
from his university’s administrators.’
The newspaper added, ‘The university’s President
Michael Chen, said he had no doubt that Prince Buhlebenkhosi would be an asset
to Swaziland.’
He added, ‘“It would not surprise me to see him sit
as one of the top company executives in the near future.”’
See also
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