COUNTING COST OF THE SWAZI KING

King Mswati III of Swaziland, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, has a new Rolls Royce car at exactly the time that his government has ordered huge cuts in public expenditure that put at risk what little education and health service.

The king, who has a personal wealth estimated at 200 million US dollars,(about 2 billion emalangeni) continues to be a drain on the wealth of his kingdom. What follows is a media release from the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) detailing the cost of King Mswati and his family (You might also like to read a blogpost on this subject I wrote in December 2009)

Swaziland Solidarity Network [SSN] Statement

24 April, 2010

Breakdown of expenditure by King Mswati and the Royal family

The Swazi government’s forced budgetary cut backs on all ministries were not accompanied by reduced expenditure on the royal family. This is a fact that many observers predicted. What was not immediately apparent was the extent of king Mswati’s greed. King Mswati and his endless list of beneficiaries, it appears, have deemed it necessary to traverse the world in search of finances to satisfy their insatiable appetites.

According to recent reports, the government of Swaziland has approached the World Bank to plead for a loan amounting to E500 million in order to finance its originally intended budget. A major part of this budget goes towards the maintenance of the royal support system, an undisclosed network of hangers on who happen to be inflicted with the a vile sense of entitlement.

A breakdown of expenditures indicates that despite the personal wealth that the king has from his own investments and the two national trusts, a significant portion of mainstream government spending goes towards the up keep of the royal family. In the past few years the following are annual expenditures associated with the royal family:

· E170 million for Royal Emoluments and Civil List

· E 125 million for rehabilitation, maintenance and construction of state houses.

· E158 million recurrent budget for the Swazi National Treasury under the King’s office.

· E50 million for state houses and E50 Million for link roads to royal residence.

· E95 million for official royal trips by the king.

On top of those fixed annual expenses are the random other expenses such as:

In 2009 five of the king’s wives went on a shopping spree, spending E60 million in the process.

In 2009 the 20 surviving siblings of the king each received E60 000 for merely being royalty. This is a total of E1.2 million.

In the same year, 20 armoured Mercedes Benz S600 Pullman Guards cars were bought for his wives at an estimated cost of E2.5 million (about 250,000 US dollars) each. E 50 million in total.

Recently, he added an E5 million Rolls Royce Phantom to his endless list of luxury cars.

The latter set of expenses are not directly from government coffers but are said to be from his own private accounts, according to his personal secretary, Sam Mkhombe. In total, the amount of money spent by the royal family annually is a little over E700 million. This is an outrageous amount of money especially when it is considered that the failed public funded primary education scheme has a budget of only E839 million this year.

The reason why all aims to borrow money on behalf of the country should be seen as nothing but a front for self aggrandisement is because with reasonable or no royal expenditure by government, there would be no need for this loan. And this is not too much to ask of a royal family that boasts of having its own private finances, investments and receives 10% royalties in every mine in the country.

Issued By the Swaziland Solidarity Network [SSN] South African Chapter.

SWAZI KING’S ROLLS ROYCE, THE TRUTH

As if you needed it, here’s confirmation that King Mswati III of Swaziland has got himself a new Rolls Royce car.

I wrote on Wednesday (14 April 2010) that reports were circulating in Swaziland that King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, had spent E5 million (about 500,000 US dollars) on a new Roller, even though Swaziland was broke and cuts in health, education and every other government department were being made.

Now the Financial Mail, a newspaper in South Africa has confirmed the purchase.

The Financial Mail reports, ‘The free-spending ways of Africa’s last absolute monarch, King Mswati III, continue to amaze his subjects, two-thirds of whom live on food rations donated by UN agencies.

‘The king recently unveiled his latest toy — a Rolls-Royce Phantom worth R5m.

‘Christians attending the annual Easter services held at the Somhlolo National Stadium were surprised when they saw a white Rolls drive in, but then they saw the king’s flag mounted on the car.’

The Financial Mail also published a picture of the king and the Rolls Royce.

As far as I can see no news media in Swaziland have reported on the purchase. The king has told them they must not. So they won’t.

NEW ROLLS ROYCE FOR SWAZI KING

News is circulating in Swaziland that King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, has treated himself to a new Rolls Royce car worth about half a million US dollars.

The purchase comes exactly one year after he spent E2.5 million (250,000 US dollars) each on a fleet of 20 armour-plated Mercedes Benz cars for himself and his family.

I don’t know the truth of this – I haven’t seen the Rolls Royce with my own eyes - but it rings horribly true.

It is difficult to get at the truth of the king’s latest purchase because it is said that the news media in Swaziland have been banned from reporting about it.

The purchase of the Rolls Royce should once again turn the spotlight on a king who now seems to have completely lost touch with his people. In January 2010, the Swazi Government decreed that all government departments should cut their spending by 14 percent because the kingdom was going broke after cash receipts from the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) were slashed from E6 billion to E1.9 billion. SACU receipts accounted for 66 percent of Swaziland’s budget last year.

When the cuts start to bite, it is expected that schools will close, health services will be slashed and many civil servants will be out of a job.

Last month (March 2010), Swaziland’s Minister of Finance Majozi Sithole, announced that the poorest in the kingdom would now have to pay income tax to contribute to what he calls the cost of the kingdom’s ‘social programme’. I’m sure they’ll be pleased to see the king in his new motor.

King Mswati has form when it comes to bullying the media in Swaziland. In May 2009, he threatened the independent Times of Swaziland group of newspapers with sanctions (including possible closure) after it reported that the king had bought the Mercedes cars.

In March 2007, the Times Sunday published a report from the international news agency Afro (click here to read it) that criticised the king and included a reference to the king’s spending, ‘Swaziland is increasingly paralysed by poor governance, corruption and the private spending of authoritarian King Mswati III and his large royal family.’

The article went on to say, ‘The growing social crisis in the country and the lessening interest of donors to support King Mswati’s regime has also created escalating needs for social services beyond the scale of national budgets.’

King Mswati threatened to close down the Times group unless an unreserved apology was printed. It was, and the newspapers survived.