Mswati Iii News

Several thousand people turned out in Guildhall Square in Derry this evening for the Bright Brand New Day event - and heard Martin Luther King III say that peace-building in Derry and Northern Ireland can have an impact around the globe.

A young woman is seeking asylum in Britain after she spurned the advances of the polyamorous King Mswati III of Swaziland and refused to join his harem of 13 wives.

Members of political parties advocating for democracy in Swaziland will not be allowed to become members of the Swazi Senate, the kingdom's Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini has decreed.

South Africa's policy of constructive engagement with Swaziland hit the buffers this week when the kingdom began voter registration for an election charade after scorning advice from the African National Congress to introduce democratic change.

Voters have begun registering for elections in Swaziland, Africa's last absolute monarchy, with unions calling for a boycott of a "rubber-stamp" poll.

Next week's visit to Derry by a son of assassinated US civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.

Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini can't be running a democracy if no challenge to the monarchy or state is possible, writes Musa Ndlangamandla.

King of Swaziland Mswati III and one of his 13 wives disembark from a plane after arriving at Katunayake International airport in Colombo, Sri Lanka, August 13, 2012.

It was astonishing that a Mail & Guardian article could claim Morocco's King Mohammed VI as "one of only two constitutional monarchs on the continent together with Swaziland's King Mswati III". Why did the M&G 's Page 24 not also read Page 35, in the same issue, on repression in Swaziland? It is indeed appropriate to group together the Moroccan and ... (more)

Workers in Britain mobilising for May Day events tomorrow or the coming days should spare a thought for fellow trade unionists in Swaziland who would like nothing better than to freely celebrate international workers day.

The brainchild of local Presbyterian minister David Latimer, the event at Guildhall Square will include hundreds of school children joining with Derry-born singer-songwriter Phil Coulter to sing his new anthem for the city, "Bright, Brand New Day." Also on the programme is the unveiling of the 'Derry-Londonderry Peace Flame' which, David Latimer ... (more)

A youth leader in Swaziland has been charged with sedition because he allegedly tried to organise a meeting to discuss the forthcoming elections in the kingdom.

King Mswati III's US$3.6 million birthday party was privately sponsored and did not cost the Swazi people anything, the government has claimed.

Since independence, Swaziland has tried to square the circle by running a modern democracy and an absolute monarchy in parallel.

But South Africa and other members could block its bid over the vexed issue of Sahrawi autonomy.

King Mswati III has been cited in a A complaint lodged with the African A Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in the Gambia for undermining the judiciary.

Mswati III is the King of Swaziland and head of the Swazi Royal Family. In 1986, he succeeded his father Sobhuza II as ruler of the southern African kingdom.

King Mswati III of the Kingdom of Swaziland at the Southern African Development Community Extraordinary Summit in Johannesburg, June 11, 2011.

While King Mswati the third and his 13 wives live in luxury , it is a much different story for most of his subjects.

The clash of tradition and modernity, the contradiction therein, and the hypocrisy thereabout, is best illustrated by the issue of how women dress in Swaziland Swaziland gained independence from Britain in 1968 under King Sobhuza II, whose nominal reign of almost 83 years is a world record.