King Mswati III, the absolute monarch of Swaziland /
eSwatini, has appointed seventeen members of his own family to the kingdom’s
two most influential advisory committees.
This is in addition to the eight members of the Royal
Family he previously appointed to the Swazi Senate and six to the House of
Assembly.
King Mswati appointed 10 princes and princesses to the
23-member Liqoqo, a supreme traditional advisory body which is also known as
the Swazi National Council Standing Committee. This
group rules on matters relating to Swazi traditional law and customs.
King Mswati also appointed
seven members of his family to the 17-member Ludzidzini Council, a group of
senior traditionalists centred around the King’s Ludzidzini Palace. The
Ludzidzini governor is also known as the traditional prime minister and has
more status in the kingdom than Ambrose Dlamini the man King Mswati appointed
Prime Minister to lead the cabinet the King also hand-picked.
As well as the 17 members of his family he appointed
to Liqoqo and Ludzidzini, King Mswati appointed a further 11 princes and
princesses to five other committees.
The Swaziland Solidarity Network, a group banned in
Swaziland because it advocates for multi-party democracy, said
in a statement, ‘These appointments by King Mswati confirms our long held
view that the king believes that the country is his own farm where he does what
he wants without taking into consideration the people’s views or interests.’
In October 2018, following the national election, King
Mswati appointed
eight members of his Royal Family to the kingdom’s Senate and six to the House
of Assembly. Elections for the House of Assembly were held on 21 September
2018. Political parties are banned from taking part and people are only allowed
to select 59 members; the King appoints a further 10. No members of the 30-member
Senate are elected by the people. The King also chooses the Prime Minister and Cabinet
ministers as well as senior civil servants and top judges.
The full results of the 2018 House of Assembly
elections have
not been made public by the Elections and Boundaries Commission, the group that
ran the election. Only the names of the winning candidate in each constituency is
readily available. Withholding of results is common in Swaziland; the full
results of the previous House of Assembly election in 2013 are not public.
Swaziland was a British Protectorate until 1968. In
the years following independence Swaziland was a parliamentary democracy. In
1973 King
Sobhuza II proclaimed a Royal Decree after he objected to his subjects
electing members of a political party that was not under his control.
He abolished the kingdom’s
constitution and announced,
I have assumed supreme power in the Kingdom of Swaziland and that all
Legislative, Executive and Judicial power is vested in myself.’
Even though Swaziland adopted a new constitution in 2006, the kingdom, now ruled by King Mswati III, remains an absolute monarchy.
Even though Swaziland adopted a new constitution in 2006, the kingdom, now ruled by King Mswati III, remains an absolute monarchy.
Swaziland is a small
landlocked country about the size of the US state of New Jersey. Seven in 10 of
its estimated 1.2 population live in abject poverty with incomes less than the
equivalent of US$3 per day. The King has at least 13 palaces and fleets of
top-of-the-range Mercedes and BMW cars. He and members of his extensive Royal
Family (he has had at least 15 wives) live opulent lifestyles and are
often seen in public wearing watches and jewels worth
hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The King wore a watch
worth US$1.6 million and a suit
beaded with diamonds weighing 6 kg, at his 50th
birthday party in April 2018. Days earlier, King Mswati took delivery of his
second private jet aircraft that with upgrades was estimated
to have cost US$30 million.
In recent years public hospitals have run out of vital
medicines and schools have closed because supplies of food to feed children
have run out. This is because the government failed to pay suppliers.
See also
Anniversary of day Swaziland stopped being a
democracy and became absolute monarchy approaches
Swaziland
King appoints eight of his family to Senate amid reports of widespread vote
buying elsewhere
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