Swaziland building a hotel to host the AU in 2020

Story by Phumlani Dlamini

Government is set to spend E1.5bn in building a conference Centre and five star hotel to host the African Union summit in 2020 that will last for 8 days.

This budget allocation brings some worry in the faces of emaSwati considering recent report from locally media that suggested that government no-longer had money and was now depending on weekly collections from the Swaziland Revenue Authority.

The Times of Swaziland (dated 4 May 2018) reported that government used some of the children maintenance fund in paying some of its debts. In today’s Swazi Observer, it was reported that some University students have not yet received their allowances that were due in February. Last month, Swazi students studying in South Africa had to move out of campus accommodation and sough refuge in flats due to delayed allowances from the Swazi government. Swazi Patients in South Africa were not given treatment though the Phalala Fund due to debts that are set to be paid by our government.

In April Swaziland threw a close to 1 billion party in celebrating 50 years of Independent as well as the King’s birthday. During the party, government presented His Majesty King Mswati III with an airbus worth millions. During the garden party, it was alleged that His Majesty wore a suit wrapped with diamonds.

This makes Swazi’s worry about the priorities of the government because at the moment it seems like they are spending much in projecting a wrong image of the country to outsiders.