Time is tight for the African king with 13 wives and 3 fiancees
Whether or not he manages to find the time to come to Thailand for His Majesty King Bhumiphol Adulyadej's 60th anniversary celebration, Swaziland's King Mswati III may still feature in the event as people reflect on the fact that he is one of the last absolute monarchs. Swaziland is in dire financial straits, and King Mswati has his work cut out trying to balance governing with his extended family of 13 wives, three official fiancees and an unknown number of unofficial fiancees.
For Mswati III, being king is not easy. His Kingdom of Swaziland is among the smallest and poorest countries in Africa, as well as having the highest rates of HIV/Aids infections in the world. Family matters, a growing number of wives and fiancees and an increasingly vociferous democratic movement, however, are occupying much of his time.On the death of his father, King Sobhuza II, Mswati was crowned king in 1986, when he was 18. He and his mother rule jointly. He is her only child, and she holds the title of "Indovukazi" ("Great She-Elephant"). Mswati was the second of 67 sons, and today, with more than 200 brothers and sisters, he is responsible for taking care of them all. In addition, he has 13 wives and three official fiancees (those who have not yet borne him a child). He may also have some "unofficial" fiancees. Maintaining so many wives and fiancees does not seem to provide His Majesty with a restful life. His first wife, Queen LaMbikiza, has defied the royal tradition that the queen cannot hold a job. Trained as a lawyer, LaMbikiza is now an advocate of law at the high court. Sources say she is trying to ensure her first-born son, Prince Lindani, succeeds to the throne, another blow to the tradition that the sons of the king's first two wives cannot become king. Nevertheless, he has bought a fleet of BMWs for his wives and built and renovated palaces to house them, financed by the public coffers. He has also restricted civil and media freedom of speech and either imprisoned or exiled major critics of his regime. On the other hand, he has restored the kingdom's parliament, which his father had dissolved. In 2001, he appointed a committee to draft a new constitution, but drafts released for comment in 2003 and 2004 have been strongly criticised by civil society organisations in Swaziland and human-rights organisations elsewhere. About 39 per cent of adults in Swaziland are afflicted with HIV; life expectancy at birth for the total population is slightly more than 32 years. His Majesty has not ignored the great problems of this devastating illness. Apart from travels abroad to attract funding, he is involved in recording an album by world-famous musicians like Michael Jackson to raise funds for the more than 70,000 Aids orphans in Africa. More than 80 per cent of Swazis are involved in subsistence agriculture, but the manufacturing sector has diversified since the mid-1980s. Sugar and wood pulp are important foreign-exchange earners, while earnings from mining have dropped. Swaziland is heavily dependent on South Africa, which surrounds it, apart from a short border with Mozambique, and which supplements the country's domestic income through customs duties and worker remittances. Nine-tenths of Swaziland's imports come from South Africa and about two-thirds of exports are sent there. GDP per capita was estimated in 2005 at US$5,500, although about 34 per cent of the population are unemployed. "I find very little time with my family most of the time. I normally work until 11pm ... and this makes me feel stressed because I'm being over-worked, but I have to do everything possible to satisfy my people," Mswati said in a 2001 BBC interview. He remains Africa's last absolute monarch. Laurie Rosenthal The Nation
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