Swaziland is the only absolute monarchy in sub-Saharan Africa

Swaziland's King Mswati III is sub-Saharan Africa's absolute monarch.



King Mswati is often criticized for his lavish spending on luxury cars and palaces for his 13 wives. Each of his 13 wives has been given a retinue, a palace and a new BMW. King Mswati III has a personal fortune of $200 million, according to Forbes magazine. In contrast, unemployment in Swaziland, a nation of 1.4 million people, is about 40 percent, with 70 percent of the population living below the national poverty line.

The nation's gross domestic product was $3 billion in 2009, according to the IMF. He holds stakes in most major businesses, including a venture with Illovo Sugar Ltd., Africa's biggest producer of the sweetener, and Swaziland's only mobile phone services provider, the local unit of Johannesburg-based MTN Group Ltd. Mswati's allocation of 210 million emalangeni in this year's budget is nearly as much as the government spends on medicines, including anti-AIDS drugs.

Forbes magazine recently listed King Mswati as the world's 15th wealthiest monarch. But poverty has entrapped two-thirds of the Swazi people, leaving hundreds of thousands of them malnourished. And these days death casually sweeps away even the strong. The country has one of the worst rates of H.I.V.. infection in the world. Life expectancy has fallen from 60 years in 1997 to barely half that now. Nearly a third of all children have lost a parent.

Mario Masuku head of the banned opposition People's United Democratic Movement (Pudemo) had stated in a protest, "Swaziland cannot remain an island of dictatorship in the sea of democracy, royalty has squandered the economy...We want a government by the people."

The tyrant must fall.