ROYAL JET-SETTING WHILE THE NATION STARVES: THE REAL COST OF MSWATI’S TRIPS
As emaSwati continue to face deepening poverty, unemployment, collapsing healthcare, and a failed education system, King Mswati’s international trips are being defended as national investments. But to the struggling citizens of Eswatini, these trips are nothing short of taxpayer-funded luxury getaways for a royal elite that continues to live far removed from the suffering of ordinary people.
Percy Simelane, the King’s official spokesperson, recently attempted to justify these globe-trotting excursions. Speaking to Swaziland News, Simelane insisted that the international trips were not a waste of public funds but were meant to strengthen diplomatic, cultural, and economic ties. According to him, Eswatini needs to “attend and participate in meetings organized by formations it is a member of,” to avoid isolation in the “global village.”
But this PR spin does little to convince a nation that has seen no tangible results from these royal travels. The harsh reality is that every time Mswati boards his private jet, millions are spent—money that could have fixed our hospitals, built schools, improved rural roads, or provided food aid to starving families. While King Mswati and his entourage dine in palaces abroad, many emaSwati go to bed hungry.
The King’s lavish lifestyle, funded by the very people he denies democratic freedom, continues unchecked. There is no transparency about how much these international trips cost or what direct benefit they have ever brought home. It is laughable to think that attending cocktail meetings and posing for photos in foreign capitals has solved any of Eswatini’s structural problems.
Simelane’s explanation that the King’s presence in these meetings helps secure development funding is weak at best. The country’s record speaks for itself. Despite all these so-called “beneficial” trips, the economic situation is worsening. Youth unemployment is sky-high, nurses go unpaid, teachers strike, and our roads are crumbling. There is simply no evidence that these royal adventures are doing anything other than draining public funds.
If diplomacy and trade relations were truly the goal, then why can’t a capable and accountable Prime Minister or Foreign Minister attend these events? Why must it always be the King? Why is the taxpayer footing the bill for royal sons and daughters, bodyguards, and luxury accommodations in five-star hotels?
This is not how democracy works. This is not how public funds are supposed to be used. In a functioning democracy, leaders are held accountable for public expenditure. In Eswatini, however, there is no such accountability. The monarch decides how and when money is spent, and no one dares to question it—except for the oppressed people who suffer the consequences daily.
We need to be honest: these trips are not about economic diplomacy. They are about maintaining royal status and enjoying international prestige while the people back home suffer in silence. It’s all part of a system designed to preserve absolute monarchy and crush any form of democratic governance.
The truth is, the only international trip that will benefit the nation is the one where the King goes to sign a democratic handover of power to the people.
Until then, this remains what it has always been—royal joyrides funded by a bleeding nation.
As citizens, we must refuse to be fooled. No more pretending that these state visits are anything other than a gross misuse of taxpayer money. No more silence. We must demand transparency, accountability, and above all, a democratic government that truly serves the people—not a King that flies above us, literally and politically, while we drown in misery.
