King Mswati III of Swaziland has been listed by a top UK media house as one
of the ‘despots’ and ‘rogues’ gallery of dubious characters’ who will meet
Queen Elizabeth II at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Malta
that started Friday (27 November 2015).
The Daily Telegraph, one of the most
conservative and traditionalist newspapers in the UK, reported that the Swazi
Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini was expected to attend the meeting, but that
the King might also arrive.
The newspaper
reported, ‘Swaziland will be represented by its Prime Minister, Barnabas
Dlamini, though the organisers have said the country’s controversial king, Mswati III, may also decide to attend.
‘King Mswati has 15 wives, each of whom, by tradition, had to become
pregnant by him before he would marry them. Amnesty International has accused
him of violating the human rights of women and girls by subjecting them to
forced marriage, and his lavish lifestyle in a country where most people live
on less than £1 per day has also attracted regular criticism.
‘He is reported to spend £37m (US$56m) per year keeping his 15 wives and at
least 24 children in 13 separate palaces. Political parties are banned in
Swaziland and Mswati remains an absolute monarch.’
King Mswati never gets a ‘good press’ outside of Swaziland, where media
regularly report on the abuses of human rights that take place in Swaziland.
Political parties are banned from taking part in elections, the King chooses
the Government (Barnabas Dlamini, the present PM, was not even elected to the
Swazi parliament) and opposition groups are banned under the Suppression
of Terrorism Act.
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