Foreign Policy Blogs

Swaziland in Danger of Bankruptcy

Africa’s last monarch King Mswati III of Swaziland reportedly has cancelled plans for a “silver jubilee” (estimated to be 1.2 million euros) amid warning from the IMF that the landlocked kingdom is teetering on financial collapse. Well, the truth is that King Mswati needs to cancel many things, including:
• He should unban political parties, which his late father King Sobhuza II banned in 1973 in the name of unity. Currently Mswati has absolute power, and appoints the prime minister and cabinet, all judges, two-thirds of the upper house, 15 per cent of the lower house, and is commander in chief of the armed forces.
• He should stop using the annual ‘Umhlanga” or reed dance (in which thousands of chanting bare-breasted-maidens are paraded before him) as a platform to pick an additional wife.
• He should put a stop to the royal family’s affluent and lavish life style, which is in a stark contrast with the reality that the country is faced with the challenges poverty, hunger, unemployment, drought, HIV-Aids epidemic, and tuberculosis.

 

Author

Ndumba J. Kamwanyah

Ndumba Jonnah Kamwanyah, a native of Namibia in Southern Africa, is an independent consultant providing trusted advice and capacity building through training, research, and social impact analysis to customers around the world. Mos recently Ndumba returned from a consulting assignment in Liberia in support of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).
In his recent previous life Ndumba taught (as an Adjunct Professor) traditional justice and indigenous African political institutions in sub-Saharan Africa at the Rhode Island College-Anthropology Department.

He is very passionate about democracy development and peace-building, and considers himself as a street researcher interested in the politics of everyday life.
Twitter: NdumbaKamwanyah