President Thabo Mbeki has invited Swaziland’s King Mswati III to visit South Africa, but it was not clear on Monday morning whether the meeting would take place, Mbeki’s office said.
”The president invited the king some time back. But I don’t know whether the meeting has been finalised and neither can I confirm whether a meeting between the two will take place before the end of the month,” said presidential spokesperson Bheki Khumalo.
Khumalo said he could not give details about a date or an agenda for the meeting until he was ”informed that meeting could be confirmed”.
On Sunday, the IOL website said Mbeki had invited the king for the first formal talks since Mbeki became president in 1999.
The report said Swaziland’s opposition was pressing Pretoria to encourage the monarch to embrace democracy.
Swaziland’s opposition accuses Mbeki of doing little to use South Africa’s economic power over its tiny neighbour to prod the king towards greater democracy, it said.
Political parties are banned in the landlocked former British colony, which is ruled by sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarchy.
According to the report, a senior official of the Swaziland Chamber of Commerce and Industry said: ”Because Swaziland is utterly dependant on South Africa, Pretoria can exert pressure for democratisation any time they choose. We hope he displays a political will to press the king into modern times.”
Mbeki has not paid a state visit to Swaziland. South Africa provides 80% of the kingdom’s imported goods and services and absorbs 60% of Swazi exports, according to Swaziland Treasury data.
Swaziland is dependant on South African road, rail and air links, and receives most of its electricity and all its petroleum products via its giant neighbour.
Mswati (36) has a dozen wives and fiancées, some chosen from the traditional annual ”reed dance” of thousands of maidens.
His lavish spending on cars and luxurious homes has come under domestic and foreign criticism.
Most of his roughly one million subjects live in poverty and must contend with food shortages and the world’s highest per capita rate of HIV. – Sapa