- King Mswati III of Swaziland has enraged the people of
his impoverished kingdom once again by splashing out on a fleet of luxurious
German cars at a cost of £500,000.
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- The 36-year-old absolute monarch, under pressure at home
and abroad over his autocratic rule and personal profligacy, has bought
eight S-350 Mercedes Benz vehicles with gold-plated number plates.
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- "He was so taken with the car when he saw it in
a brochure that he ordered eight on the turn as a birthday present for
himself," said a South African dealer.
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- "He could not wait for them to be shipped in the
normal way so they were air-freighted directly from the factory in Germany."
King Mswati, educated at Sherborne School, in Dorset, will be able to show
off the fleet during his lavish birthday celebrations next week. But there
will be few opportunities to take a spin, as Swaziland has only a tiny
network of tarred roads.
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- The monarch pays little heed to growing discontent in
his landlocked kingdom, where 70 per cent of people live in dire poverty
and 40 per cent of adults are HIV positive.
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- Last year, he bought a stretch limousine to add to his
Mercedes S-600 Pullman, which has a television, DVD player, fridge and
21-speaker sound system. Earlier this year, he bought 10 BMW saloon cars
for his 11 wives and three teenage fiancÈes.
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- Three years ago, only the threat from foreign donors
to withhold aid persuaded him not to buy a £27 million personal jet.
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- Musa Hlope, the co-ordinator of the Swaziland Coalition,
the country's largest civil action group, said the king's latest indulgence
was "very unfortunate" considering most Swazi's live on just
50 pence a day.
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- "The king is using public money that comes from
the purses of the poor," he said.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005.
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