While AIDS groups in Swaziland are forced to close because their funds have been cut, money is flowing to King Mswati III and his royal family, writes the Swaziland Newsletter Friday (22.04.11.)
A report from IRIN said that one AIDS group, the Swaziland AIDS Support Organisation (SASO), was about to close due to lack of funds. The report said 600.000 people in a population in Swaziland of roughly one million had benefited from community outreach programmes run by SASO, or support organizations SASO has helped organize.
Swaziland’s HIV rate of 26,1 percent is the highest in the world.
SASO is about to grind to a halt. Previous financial benefactors, including the Swazi Government, have had to cut back or eliminate their assistance in the wake of economic meltdown in the Southern african kingdom.
The Swaziland National Network of People Living with HIV and AIDS (SWANNEPHA), the umbrella body with which SASO works closely, announced it was also facing imminent closure if new sources of funding were not found.
SWANNEPHA receives its funding from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, via Swaziland’s National Emergency Response Council on HIV and AIDS (NERCHA). SWANNEPHA had its budget reduced from 130.000 US dollar in 2008 to 100.000 dollar in 2009.
While money cannot be found to keep the HIV AIDS support groups going, the same cannot be said about money for King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.
In February this year the budget for King Mswati and the royal household was raised by 5,88 million dollar for the coming year. By comparison the 130.000 dollar for SWANNEPHA is a drop in the ocean.
This is the second consecutive year that the budget for King Mswati Royal increased by this amount.
The Nation magazine reported this month (April 2011) that the King’s office spent about 1,8 million dollar on internal decor (udsmykning) for three of the royal guest houses.
The decor include furniture, curtains, carpet, wood floor and cladding, bathrooms, artwork and accessories, sound system, multi media system, TV, phones and water meters.
On top of this, a big amount a year is regularly allocated for the rehabilitation, maintenance and construction of state houses. And other means are available for link roads to royal residences.
Recently it was the King’s 43rd birthday and next week is the 25th anniversary of his victory in a power struggle within Swaziland that saw him crowned king.
The budget for the Celebrations Office is roughly 14 times the annual budget of SWANNEPHA.
See also
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/04/swazi-aids-support-going-broke.html
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