The conglomerate of businesses that partly finances
the lavish lifestyle of Swaziland’s absolute monarch King Mswati III increased its
revenue by 26 percent in the year ending 2017, according to official figures,
recently released.
The profits of Tibiyo TakaNgwane are
said to be held in trust for the Swazi Nation but the way they are spent is
clouded in secrecy. The South African Sunday
Times newspaper in August 2014 reported
‘several sources’ who said it was ‘an open secret’ that although money
generated by Tibiyo was meant to be used for the benefit of the nation, Tibiyo
in fact channelled money directly to the Royal Family.
The annual accounts
for the financial year ending April 2017 were recently released. They show that
dividends from investments were E162 million, an increase from the E118.5
million recorded in 2016.
Net income increased from E145 million to E250 million, a 72 per cent
increase. Total assets grew from E1.8 billion to E2 billion, a growth of nine
per cent.
According to the annual report Tibiyo, spent E144
million on ‘Swazi national development’. The accounts do not give full details
of how this money was spent except to say E56 million went on ‘sundry expenses’
and a further E36 million was spent on ‘national ceremonies’. This compared to
E2 million spent on health care and E38 million on scholarships and bursaries.
Tibiyo owns outright or has substantial interests in a
number of businesses including sugar refining giants Ubombo Sugar and Royal
Swaziland Sugar Corporation (RSSC), dairy company Parmalat Swaziland,
spirits manufacturer Swaziland Beverages and hotel chain Swazi Spa Holdings. It also owns the Swazi Observer, one of only two daily newspapers in the kingdom.
Separately from his money from Tibiyo, King
Mswati also holds 25 percent of all mining royalties in Swaziland ‘in trust’
for the Swazi Nation.
This unaccounted spending took place at a time when the Swaziland
government was deeply in debt and unable to pay its suppliers. Public services
across the kingdom renamed eSwatini by the King in 2018 have ground to a halt
with reports
of people dying for lack of medicines and children
going hungry because the government, handpicked by King Mswati,
was unable to pay suppliers of meals for children.
In 2017 King Mswati was named the third wealthiest
King in Africa by the international
website Business Insider. It reported he had a
net worth of US$200 million (about E2.8 billion in local Swazi currency). The
King rules a population of about 1.3 million people and seven in ten of them
live in abject poverty with incomes of less than E30 per day.
In 2009, Forbes named King
Mswati among the top 15
wealthiest royals in the whole world, with a net worth of US$200
million.
In February 2011 the Mail & Guardian
newspaper in South Africa reported King Mswati also had US$10
billion that was put in trust in King Mswati’s name for the people of Swaziland
by his father, King Sobhuza II.
King Mswati and his family live a lavish lifestyle, at
the expense of the people of Swaziland.
The Swazi Government paid US$30
million to buy the King a private jet plane in 2018. King Mswati
now has two private planes, 13 palaces and fleets of top-of-the-range BMW and
Mercedes cars. He wore a watch
worth US$1.6 million and a suit
beaded with diamonds weighing 6 kg, at his 50th birthday
party in April 2018. He received E15 million (US$1.2 million) in
cheques, a
gold dining room suite and a gold
lounge suite among his birthday gifts.
His family regularly travel the world on shopping
trips spending millions of dollars each time.
Meanwhile, the World
Food Program said it could not raise the US$1.1 million it needed to
feed starving children in the kingdom.
See also
Lavish
spending leads to food aid cut
Swazi
Govt ‘runs out of cash’
Report
blasts royal family’s ‘greed’
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