Swaziland’s King Mswati
III’s royal budget has been increased to US$69.8 million in the current
financial year, an international news agency has
reported.
The Anadolu Agency
quoted official figures from the “Government of the Kingdom of Swaziland’s
estimates for the years from April 1, 2016 to March 31, 2019” report. It said the
royal budget was US$55.3 million in the last financial year, but this year it
has been increased by US$13.9 million.
The budget also has an extra
US$6.7 million allocation for the king’s private jet.
Details of King Mswati’s
budget are not made public in the kingdom he rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last
absolute monarch. King Mswati is regularly criticised outside of Swaziland for
his lavish spending. At present 300,000 of his 1.3 million subjects need financial
aid to stop from starving during the present
drought that has hit southern Africa.
Anadolu reported that in addition
to the US$69.8 million, the budget for construction of link roads to royal
palaces has been increased by US$6.4 million. It was US$2 million in the last
budget.
The royal houses budget was
also increased by US$10 million to reach US$17 million, the agency reported.
Royal emolument and civil
list, which includes salaries for the King, the Queen Mother and others in the
royal service, were allocated US$25.8 million in the current financial year.
Since the budget was
announced in February 2016, a further US$14 million will be spent on a 375-seater
private jet for the King.
Meanwhile, Swaziland is
suffering the worst drought in memory. As of the end of May
2016, UNICEF – the United Nations Children’s Fund – estimated 300,320 people in
total in Swaziland were affected by drought of which 189,000 were children. It
estimated that 165,000 children affected were by drought in the two most
affected regions of Lubombo and Shiselweni.
A total of 200,897 people were food insecure, of which
90,404 were children. Of these, 8,460 children aged six to 59 months were
affected by ‘severe and moderate acute malnutrition’.
Meanwhile,
the Swazi Government has released only E22 million (US$1.5 million) of the E305
million earmarked for drought relief in this year’s national budget. The Swazi
Observer newspaper reported on 11 July 2016 that the Deputy Prime
Minister Paul Dlamini announced this to the House of Assembly.
The
newspaper reported he ‘failed to
explain the reasons behind government’s failure to purchase and distribute food
to the affected communities’.
The Swaziland Solidarity
Network (SSN), a pro-democracy organization, strongly criticized the increase
in the royal budget.
‘It's sad that the
country's social expenditure always takes a back seat to satisfy the king’s
greed. It’s a painful act that shows that if he had his own way he would keep
all the country's money to himself,’ Anadolu quoted a spokesperson for SSN
saying.
King Mswati also receives income from a variety of
businesses in the kingdom. For example, he holds 25 percent of all mineral wealth
‘in trust for the Swazi nation’. In reality he uses this money to fund his
lavish lifestyle, which includes 13 palaces, a private jet, fleets of Mercedes
and BMW cars and at least one Rolls Royce.
In March 2016, it was revealed the
King’s share of the just-reopened Lufafa Gold Mine at Hhelehhele in the
Hhohho region of Swaziland could be worth up to US$149 million.
Meanwhile, seven in ten of his subjects live in abject
poverty with incomes of less than US$2 per day.
Anadolu reported the royal
budget was not allowed to be debated by the local parliament or scrutinized by
the Public Accounts Committee. In fact, it is a normal government practice to
not include any details about the royal budget in the budget speech, it said.
While the King’s budget
soared, grants for the elderly was reduced by $488,000 from $12.3 million to
$11.8 million, according to budget documents.
See
also
ELDERLY STAY POOR AS KING
GETS MORE
SWAZI SECURITY BUDGET
SOARS
MONEY
FOR KING’S JET, BUT NOT DROUGHT
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