They said the house was too expensive and the designs alone cost E1.5 million.
The money was included in
the national budget announced earlier this month.
The Times of
Swaziland reported on
Wednesday (14 March 2018) that the Prime Minister ‘went as far as including the
King’s name’ in his justification for having the house.
King Mswati III rules
Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. Political parties are
banned from taking part in elections. The King appoints the Prime Minister and
senior government ministers. In Swaziland the King’s word is law and if he
gives a directive it is to be followed without question.
The Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by the King, reported
the King, ‘has blessed the site where the house would be built, the PM told MPs’.
It added, ‘Dlamini also told the MPs that the King had chosen a site
where the house would be built.’
A Royal Commission has already been announced to look into the salaries
and benefits of parliamentarians. The E5.5milion (US$467,000) budget for the
house was left unchanged.
Dlamini is aged 75 and in
poor health. He is widely expected to retire at the next national election due
sometime in 2018.
The Prime Minister’s retirement package is set out in Finance
Circular No 2 of 2013. He will
receive 80 percent of his final salary until he dies. In 2016 it stood at
E802,854. In Swaziland seven in ten of the estimated 1.1 population have
incomes less than the equivalent of US$2 per day (about E8,760 per year).
The Swazi taxpayer will
contribute the full amount payable to a medical aid scheme of which the Prime
Minister is a member. They will provide a house and a vehicle of the same
status as the one he has while in office. Dlamini will also ‘be afforded
security in line with the risk profile as determined by the Commissioner of
Police’. He will be provided with a personal assistant.
When the cost of the PM’s
house was included in the 2017 national budget, MPs protested that the amount was too much and should be frozen
to a time when the kingdom could afford it.
Finance Minister Martin
Dlamini did not make reference to the PM’s house in his budget speech, but he did state that the budget only included ‘the most critical
expenditure items’.
See also
SWAZI
BUDGET GIVES PM NEW HOUSE
SWAZI BUDGET A TALE OF WOES
https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/swazi-budget-tale-of-woes.html
MPS SEND BUDGET BACK FOR REVIEW
MPS SEND BUDGET BACK FOR REVIEW
HOSTILE
REACTION TO VAT INCREASE
BUILDING
HOTEL A BUDGET PRIORITY
CABINET
DEFIES KING OVER BUDGET
https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/cabinet-defies-king-over-budget.html
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