Swaziland’s King Mswati III is the 15th richest royal in the world, with more money than his counterparts in Spain or Japan.
Even though 70 per cent of Swazis earn less than one US dollar a day, King Mswati is said to have a net worth of 200 million dollars.
The most recent estimate from Forbes Magazine in the United States reveals that as some royals get ‘poorer’, King Mswati just keeps coining it in.
So if the rest of Swaziland is so poor, where does King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, get his money from? This is a carefully guarded secret but according to Afrik.com he owns (among other things) 10 per cent of every mining company in Swaziland.
The website also reminds us that the king has a ‘penchant for luxury’ and is reckoned to have 14 wives (no one is really sure about the number he has since this is information the Swazi people are not allowed to have) each with a personal palace.
Forbessays King Mswati is the beneficiary of two funds created by his father Sobhuza IIin trust for the Swazi nation. During his reign, he has absolute discretion over use of the income, which has allowed him to build palaces for each of his wives and stay at five-star hotels when abroad.
We also know that the people of Swaziland have to pay for the king’s extravagances. Last year they were forced to spend about something like 10 million dollars on a party to ‘celebrate’ the king’s 40th birthday and the 40th anniversary of the kingdom’s independence.
As well as his personal wealth, King Mswati receives money from the Swazi taxpayer. In this year’s Swaziland national budgethe gets E130 million (about 13 million US dollars) for his family’s upkeep.
This is more than the money Swaziland will spend on capital expenditure for education (E113 million) or capital expenditure on social security and welfare (E73 million).
Or put another way, 70 percent of the families of one million Swazi people live on less than E10 a day, while the Royal Family gets by on a third of a million a day.
The Princess, aged 21, who is allegedly studying at the Biola University in Los Angeles, California, USA, spends most of her time trying to forge a career as a rap star under the name Princess Pashu.
Now, to add to the various online networks she already has, an ‘official’ website has been opened up. This one plays down her musical ambitions and highlights her life as a member of the Swazi Royal Family.
And what a family. According to the website, King Mswati has 23 children in total, the princess has over 200 aunts and uncles, not including their own spouses as the late King Sobhuza IIhad 102 wives and over 400 children. That’s a lot of mouths for the Swazi people to feed.
The website says that King Mswati has 12 wives, but most observers think he has at least 13. Nobody can be sure because the number of wives the king has is information that the Swazi people are not allowed to know.
The website is meant to show just how much the princess loves Swaziland and all the hard work she puts in for her people. The effect is somewhat undermined on the page devoted to her forthcoming planned events. The most recent - presenting books to students at Lasi High School – was scheduled for 24 July 2008. So she’s not entirely rushed off her feet then.
One of the most striking features of the website is its gaudy attempt to glamorise the Princess through the use of doctored photographs. She is described as a ‘model’ who ‘maintains a respectable yet flexible range of poses’.
I don’t know who set up the website, but it states that she owns the copyright to all the material on it (even though much of it, such as reports from Swazi newspapers about her, was not written by her).
There have been suspicions for some time that she has a public relations firm working for her (her father has at least two working for him), so maybe this is part of an image building exercise. Let’s face it she needs to work hard to dispel the belief that she parties while Swazis starve.
Princess Sikhanyiso of Swaziland is trying to forge a career in acting, modelling and rap music.
To this end she has set up a website where – for a fee – people can download her latest recordings.
The princess, aged 21, who likes to be called Pashu, is the eldest daughter of King Mswati III and in the past she has courted controversy for her extravagant lifestyle and ‘rebel’ qualities.
According to her profile on the reverbnation website, ‘Pashu is a talented Swazi rapper who also happens to be a princess.´
It goes on, ‘She is often called a rebel, but nowhere will you find such a patriot.’
I don’t know if Pashu wrote the profile herself or if it was written on her behalf, but until she tells me otherwise I must assume that she agrees with what her profile says.
Her comments about Swaziland will almost certainly cause offence to many of her father’s subjects.
It includes a long critique of the documentary Without The King, in which she featured prominently. The documentary contrasted the lives of the Swazi Royal Family and ordinary people in the kingdom. About 70 percent of the one million population live in abject poverty earning less than one US dollar a day, while King Mswati III has a wealth estimated at 200 million US dollars (about E1.4 billion).
Swaziland has the highest rate of HIV infection in the world and last year 600,000 people relied on international food aid to fend off starvation.
On the reverbnation website, she says Without The King was ‘sponsored by self-dubbed “progressives” in alliance with murderous South African regressives, they sought to create a political instability in the Kingdom.’
She also says, ‘Between late August and early September 2008, because the king’s wives went on an announced trip to Asia before the 40/40 Celebrationsmarking 40 years of Independence and the King’s Birthday, the opportunists manipulated the Swazis into tolerating their marches [protesting at the celebration]
‘This time; however, criminals from South Africa came in several buses into Swaziland, bringing in bombs and rifles and a hostile spirit that evoked them the passion to physically harm innocent Swazi citizens who chose to abstain from the strike and attempt to work in peace.’
She concludes, ‘Despite zealous efforts of the progressives - through huge sponsorship of media houses - to disdain the monarch for the shortcomings of the Swazi government, the Swazi people remain in love and with increased allegiance for the King, as they see his love for them.’
Meanwhile, there is evidence that the princess may have hired a public relations firm to improve her image. (Her father already has at least two PR firms working for him.)
An Australian website called All News Web, published a report about her rapping career. The website included a professionally taken (and doctored) glamour photograph of the princess. The same photograph also appears on the reverbnation website.
In its report All News Web says of the princess, ‘She is beautiful, talented, intelligent and has carved a successful career for herself in music.’
It goes on, ‘She has become well known in her field and her deep rhythmic voice in demand. She has recorded with some of America’s top rap artists.’
According to the website, ‘Associates of the princess claim that all this frantic activity is not about herself. “She wants to be in a position to make changes, to do something to help the poorer people within her nation, this is what motivates her”, notes one Swazi associate. Indeed Pashu spends much of her time visiting orphanages in her AIDS ravaged homeland. “The children are what drives the princess: to see them live better lives.”
‘What about democracy? “Pashu is so loyal to her father and loves him dearly; she would never challenge his authority despite her rebellious image.” The associate noted “But with the Princess anything is possible, she is such a powerful and strong young woman, who knows what she will achieve in the future. She is not just physically beautiful, she has a beautiful soul”’.
