The Hindu : International : Once more in Swaziland

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Wednesday, Sep 08, 2004

International

International

Once more in Swaziland

By Christopher Munnion

JOHANNESBURG, SEPT. 7. King Mswati of Swaziland has chosen a 16-year-old beauty queen to be his 13th wife after the annual reed dance ritual in which 20,000 maidens perform in his honour, hoping to catch his eye.

The finalist in the Miss Teenage Swaziland competition was whisked off for the much more modern routine of an AIDS test — 40 per cent of the country's population are HIV positive — before being taken to the protected seclusion of a guest house.

The news was greeted without enthusiasm by most of the mountain kingdom's people, who are becoming increasingly restless with the self-indulgence and profligacy of the 36-year-old king, Africa's last absolute monarch. He has been accused by Opposition politicians, trade unions and human rights groups of heavy-handed rule.

But King Mswati insists he is following another old Swazi tradition of building a palace for each of his wives, a practice that his critics say places an unnecessary burden on state funds.

The International Monetary Fund has advised the monarch against heavy expenditure on luxuries in an impoverished nation with an ailing economy, a record budget deficit and widespread food shortages.

Only last year, the IMF said that Swaziland risked alienating international donors with the purchase of a £27.6-million jet for the King.

Mswati, who was educated in the U.K., has remained defiant in the face of the IMF warnings. "My Government will continue to spend as it sees fit," he said.

Women's rights groups had hoped that King Mswati would be satisfied with 12 wives, although Swazi tradition puts no limit on the number a king may choose.

His father, King Sobhuza, had at least 70.

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