The plane, an Airbus A340-300, is reportedly in Hamburg for cabin interior fitting. It was flown to the German city from Taipei in Taiwan.
The plane, according to the Skyliner-aviation website, was
ferried to Hamburg after initial painting. The website published a photograph
of the plane.
The Airbus has been given the registration identification B-18802
/3DC-SDF. The website said the jet was ‘for Swazi King Mswati III’.
The purchase of the jet for the King, who rules Swaziland as
sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, has caused controversy.
In April 2016, Members of the Swaziland Parliament blocked a
move to pay E96 million for a plane. The money had been allocated to the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in the kingdom’s annual
budget announced in February 2016.
In February 2016 the Swazi Observer, a newspaper in
effect owned by King Mswati, reported the E96 million (about US$6.6 million)
was set aside for a jet for the King after members of the parliament, many of
them appointed by the King, urged the Swazi Government to consider buying the
King a plane to replace the DC-9 jet (also known as an MD-87) which he already
has. It has been the subject
of legal disputes in both Canada and the British Virgin Islands.
Once news of the intended spending was made public outside
of Swaziland the King came in for heavy criticism. Swaziland is in the grip of
a drought crisis and in February the Swazi Government declared
a national emergency and said the kingdom would need E248 million
(US$16 million) before the end of April 2016.
Within days, the MPs overturned
their earlier decision and it was announced they had agreed
to pay E200 million (US$13.8 million) – more than twice the original amount
budgeted for – to China Airlines in Taiwan for an Airbus A340-300, built in
2001.
Unconfirmed reports circulating on the Internet said that
King Mswati had refused to sign-off Swaziland’s budget announced in February
2016 unless he got his jet.
The Observer
reported the Ministry of Finance had ‘listened and cancelled the allocation and
the money taken to the Consolidated Funds’. This would allow it to be spent on
other things.
Two days later on 7 April 2016, the Times of Swaziland, the only
independent daily newspaper in the kingdom, reported that ‘following a
three-hour long caucus by both Members of Parliament (MPs) and senators in the
Parliament canteen, the latter agreed that the E96m, which had been frozen by
MPs, be released to pay a deposit to China Airlines, based in the Republic of
China on Taiwan.’
The Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini, who was not elected to
office but appointed directly by King Mswati, later presented a statement. The Times reported, ‘[T]he PM said following
a Parliament resolution that government find a solution to ensure that Their
Majesties are secured a mode of travel, they had sent a ministerial
subcommittee headed by Chief Mgwagwa Gamedze, the Minister of Foreign Affairs
and International Cooperation, to look at the various options available.’
The newspaper reported, ‘The balance for the Airbus
A340-300, which has been identified, will be paid up in the 2017-2018
government financial year.
‘The PM said the jet to be used by Their Majesties for
international trips was a long range and, therefore, it did not have to make
fuelling stops every now and then.’
See
also
KING ‘STEALS FROM CHILDREN’ TO BUY JET
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2016/04/king-steals-from-children-to-buy-jet.html
SWAZI MPs ABOUT-TURN ON KING’S JET
SWAZI MPs ABOUT-TURN ON KING’S JET
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2016/04/swazi-mps-about-turn-on-kings-jet.html
MONEY FOR KING’S JET, BUT NOT DROUGHT
MONEY FOR KING’S JET, BUT NOT DROUGHT
$12m SPEND ON ROYAL DECOR AT AIRPORT
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