Swazilands konge, Mswati II, benyttede ikke den nye lulfthavn, der bærer hans navn i det lille land mellem Sydafrika og Mozambique, men lod sin private jet lande forleden i den gamle Matsapha Airport, da han vendte hjem fra et besøg i den arabiske oliestat, Qatar.
The King opened the airport, formerly known as Sikhuphe, in early March 2014, but since then no commercial airline has landed at the airport and none has agreed to use it in future, writes Swazi Media Commentary Thursday.
King Mswati said the airport was a ‘first-world’ facility. It has been built in the wilderness of south-east Swaziland at a cost of at least three billion elangeni (300 millioner dollar eller 1,6 milliarder DKR.).
Members of the public have been banned from visiting the airport for ‘security reasons’, according to the Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA).
SWACAA Director Solomon Dube said the King wanted people to stay away so the airport could remain in ‘sublime condition’.
No reason has been given by King Mswati why he did not use the new airport on his trip to Qatar.
However, there are doubts about whether the airport has a licence to operate.
In late March 2014, after the King had opened the airport, the Regional Director of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), Meshesha Belayneh, told the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) in South Africa that Swaziland still needed to follow due process before the ICAO could issue a licence for the new airport.
The Swazi airport has been dubbed King Mswati’s ‘vanity project’ (hvide elefant) by critics.
The king is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. He has 13 palaces and a personal fortune once estimated by Forbes Magazine to be 200 million dollar (ca. en milliard DKR).
Meanwhile, seven in ten of his subjects live in abject (ekstrem) poverty with an income of less than two dollar (10-11 DKR) a day. Swaziland has the highest rate of HIV infection in the world.
Se også
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2014/02/press-attack-on-airport-corruption.html
og
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2014/01/airport-terminal-cant-handle-traffic.html
Kilde: Swaziland Newsletter No. 347 – 9 May 2014
News from and about Swaziland, compiled by Africa Contact, Denmark (www.afrika.dk) in collaboration with Swazi Media Commentary (www.swazimedia.blogspot.com), and sent to all with an interest in Swaziland – free of charge.
