The protests’ target, King Mswati III, is Africa’s last absolute monarch. That he rules at all is a historical curiosity
THABANI NKOMONYE was last seen alive on May 8th. A few days later the body of the 25-year-old law student was found in a field near Manzini in Eswatini. The police say he died in a car crash. Friends and family say the police killed him.
That he rules at all is a historical curiosity. Britain, the colonial power, left in 1968, bequeathing a Westminster-style system. Five years later the then king, Sobhuza II, revoked the constitution and declared “supreme power”. After Sobhuza died in 1982 elders of the ruling Dlamini clan picked as heir his 14-year-old illegitimate son, whom they hoped to control.
Neal Rijkenberg, the founder of Montigny, who was appointed finance minister in 2018, says the country is “surprisingly democratic”. For example the king must get parliament to approve his budget and use his own money to pay for posh cars, he argues. What about the 340m lilangeni annual stipend? That pays for tourist-pleasing cultural events. And appointing a princess to the cabinet? “There are many children he hasn’t given jobs to.