02/05/2025
SWAZI ROYAL LEECHES WRITES:
R100 MILLION SPENT ON KING'S BIRTHDAY WHILE HEALTH SECTOR CRUMBLES
Now that the celebrations have ended and the dust has settled, the real cost of Mswati’s 57th birthday is coming to the fore. According to reports, the festivities cost Swazi taxpayers over R100 million. This is a mind boggling amount for a country where poverty runs deep and unemployment is rampant. Was this extravagant celebration really worth it?
Just two days after the extravagant birthday party, public healthcare workers at Mbabane Government Hospital, the country’s largest referral hospital, marched to the Ministry of Health to deliver a petition regarding challenges they face in the workplace. They included doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, ordelies and support staff. They were concerned that the hospital had a serious shortage of essential medication and laboratory and radiology equipment. They also stated that the hospital had turned to a death chamber as many basic medical services had been suspended and the theatre was attending to emergencies only.
These challenges are not the inevitable consequences of a poor country’s meager resources but they are the results of deliberate choices and misplaced priorities. The R100 million spent on a single day of celebration could have been diverted to bolster the country’s collapsing health system. The health workers believed that these are man-made failures caused by a government that places royal comfort above public survival.
It is not only the health sector but students too, that could have benefited from the R100 million. Every year, hundreds of young people are denied access to higher education because they come from poor families and government cannot fund their scholarships. Annual fees at the University of Swaziland average R30 000. The R100 million spent on birthday festivities could have paid the tuition of more than 3 400 students. This could have given 3 400 student a better chance at a better future but the tinkhundla government of Mswati decided to spend it all in one day, celebrating a 57 year old man.
The youth too, were left behind. They youth unemployment rate in Swaziland is around 70 percent. The R100 million could have been used to establish a Youth Development Fund to help young people launch small businesses, build self-sustaining projects and create jobs for themselves and others. Instead, the government chose to lavish resources on a single day that was of benefit to no one but the monarchy itself.
Even in the agricultural sector, the possibilities are numerous. Many families rely on subsistence farming but lack the implements and inputs needed for meaningful production. A portion of the birthday budget could have provided vital support to small-scale farmers and in turn boosting food security and rural livelihoods. It could have strengthened commercial farming, creating employment opportunities in a country desperate for jobs.
In every sector of public life, the needs are urgent and the resources scarce yet the government continues to prioritize the king’s comfort over the people's survival. Officials often refer to it as "His Majesty’s Government," and it’s not just a figure of speech. It is really his government. The machinery of the state serves the monarchy, not the people.
It is time for all Swazis to understand that a government that lavishes scarce public funds into royal ceremonies while hospitals crumble, students sit idle at home and families starve is not a government of the people. It is an instrument of repression and self-interest.
Those who still believe that we need the monarchy, should have their heads examined. For sure kukhona kugula lokubaphetse. Bukhosi likatane lelimunya ingati yemaSwati ngaso sonkhe sikhatsi. Kute lelikuletsako etafuleni. Abasebenti, baphila ngetitfukutfuku temaSwati.
Let's get rid of this family of royal idiots. We do not need them. We can survive without them. They, on the other hand, cannot survive without us.
