King Mswati III,
who rules as an absolute monarch over the destitute kingdom of Swaziland,
appears to have a God delusion.
The King and his
family say they have a direct-line to God. In 2013, King Mswati’s elder
brother, Prince Masitsela Dlamini, told African Eye News Service that God had given the royal family
authority to rule over other Swazi clans. ‘The Dlaminis are closer to God,’
said Dlamini.
In 2011, the King
said God spoke to him through a TV remote control. It happened at the Lozitha
Palace, near Mbabane. At the time the King told his subjects about his
‘miraculous experience’.
The Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only
independent daily newspaper, reported in October 2011, ‘His Majesty saw a
miracle yesterday when he was preparing a sermon [to preach to a group of
evangelical Christians.] The King said a remote control lay at the centre of a
coffee table but something mysteriously brought it down.
‘He said there was no person or wind that could have brought it down. The
King said he realised that God was with him. It was Him who brought the
remote control down.’
Reverend Jonas
Dlamini, one of the king’s preachers, said, ‘The King preached to us. He was
filled with the light of the Lord when he told us that God had given him a sign
when he was getting ready to meet us. He said a TV remote on his table
dropped to the floor with no one touching it and that is how he knew God was
communicating with him.’
In September 2013,
the King himself told his subjects he had received a
vision during a thunderstorm
and was told that the political system in Swaziland that puts the King at the
head and bans political parties should from then on be called ‘Monarchical
Democracy.’
It helps the King
and his supporters if people think King Mswati is chosen by God. It suggests the
King has special abilities and wisdom. For that reason, his word must be
obeyed. Those who speak against the King, speak also against God and who can
dare criticise God?
Of course, King Mswati wasn’t chosen by God. A political group plotting within
the ruling elite of Swaziland chose him.
The
Nation, a
monthly magazine of comment in Swaziland, in July 2008 reported extensively
about a documentary called
Without
The King that revealed how the present King came to the throne – and the
manoeuvrings were positively Shakespearian.
Unlike in many societies that still have monarchs, in
Swaziland the eldest son doesn’t simply become king once the reigning monarch
dies. The king is chosen ‘by virtue of the rank and character of his mother in
accordance with Swazi law and custom’. But the part of Swazi law and custom
relating to the selection of a successor to a king is unknown to a majority of
ordinary Swazi. It may include the mother to the heir.
The Nation
reported, ‘In the documentary, King Mswati III shed some light on how he got to
know that he would be the next King of Swaziland.
‘He said then he was about 12½ years of age and it was after
the demise of his father,
King
Sobhuza II when
the news were broke to him.
‘King Mswati III did not say anything about his mother who
was then an ordinary wife to the late king. It was not until the then Supreme
Council (Liqoqo) removed the then Queen Regent for the biological mother to the
then Crown Prince that she was appointed to office.
‘The act drew reprisals for the Liqoqo members who ousted
the then Queen Regent.
‘After the King was crowned, the Liqoqo members were charged
with high treason arising from their decision to remove the Queen Regent
Dzeliwe. Some were found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment terms as high as
15 years.
‘The King subsequently pardoned them.’
One biography of King Mswati says the story of how King Mswati, who was
known as Prince Makhosetive as a child, became the monarch goes like this.
‘King Sobhuza II
had deftly managed to hold rivalling power factions within the royal ruling
alliance in check, and so his death in August 1982, left a power vacuum.’
At this time
Makhosetive was 15 years old and a schoolboy at Sherborne in England.
‘In keeping with
tradition, Makhosetive’s appointment by his father was not publicly announced.
Before his death the King had chosen one of his queens, the childless Princess
Dzeliwe, to preside over the monarchy as regent until the prince turned 21
years of age.
‘It was in keeping
with tradition that she be childless, so that she would not involve herself in
a factional struggle to advance the position of her own son. Factional quarrels
broke out into the open, however, in the interregnum period, while the prince
was [at school] in the United Kingdom.
‘Continuing
disputes led members of the Liqoqo, a supreme traditional advisory body, to
force the Queen Regent to resign. In her stead the Liqoqo appointed Queen
Ntombi, Prince Makhosetive’s mother, who initially refused to take up the position.
Further disputes
between royal factions led to his coronation as King Mswati III, at the age of
18, in April 1986, three years earlier than expected.
At the time, the
King was the youngest monarch in the world.
‘Observers saw the
early coronation as an attempt on the part of the Liqoqo to legitimate the
usurpation of Dzeliwe and consolidate their gains in power. Prince Makhosetive,
now King Mswati III, acted quickly however to disband the Liqoqo and call for
parliamentary elections.
In May 1986 Mswati
dismissed the Liqoqo, the traditional advisory council to regents, which had
assumed greater powers than were customary. In July 1986 he dismissed and
charged with treason Prime Minister Prince Bhekimpi and several government
officials for their role in the ejection of Queen Regent Dzeliwe, though he
eventually pardoned those who were convicted.
Another biography of King Mswati says, ‘King Mswati’s first
two years of rule were characterized by a continuing struggle to gain control
of the government and consolidate his rule.
‘Immediately
following his coronation, Mswati disbanded the Liqoqo and revised his cabinet
appointments. In October 1986 Prime Minister Bhekimpi Dlamini was dismissed and
for the first time a nonroyal, Sotsha Dlamini, was chosen for the post.
‘Prince Bhekimpi
and 11 other important Swazi figures were arrested in June 1987. [Prince]
Mfanasibili, [Prince] Bhekimpi, and eight others were convicted of high
treason. Eight of those convicted, however, were eventually pardoned.
In 2011, court
papers relating to the treason trial that was held in secret come to light
after 23 years. The papers that had been deliberately removed from Swaziland
after the trial in 1987 were unearthed in Namibia.
They have not been
released to the public and might contain details about the plotting that
surrounded King Mswati’s rise to power. The papers might also remind the King’s
subjects that he is really only where he is today because of political intrigue.
See also
SWAZI KING’S PRIVATE LINE TO GOD
IS SWAZI KING SENT BY GOD?
FEARS OVER KING’S MENTAL
HEALTH
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/10/fears-over-kings-mental-health.html
