Mbabane, Swaziland/Johannesburg - A few apples and oranges, some corn on the cob, the odd avocado - a bounty not fit for a king but good loot for some of the impoverished demonstrators who swarmed through the streets of Swaziland's capital Mbabane on Thursday in protest at lavish anniversary celebrations planned for the weekend.
A file photograph dated 31 August 2008 shows Swaziland's King Mswati III (C) marching with indunas (chiefs) during the annual reed dance at the royal residence of Ludzidzini at Lobamba village near Mbabane, Swaziland. EPA/JON HRUSA
Several hundred striking workers and youths brandishing sticks and branches ran through the streets, smashing car windows and looting shops in some of the worst rioting in the normally peaceable mountainous city in decades.
Riot police used water cannon and stun grenades to disperse the protesters, who rallied to a call by trade unions opposed to Saturday's double-bill party in honour of King Mswati III's 40th birthday and the 40th anniversary of Swaziland's independence from Britain.
Mswati, the world's last absolute monarch, has reigned over the landlocked kingdom for 22 years. He is most famous for having 13 wives, whom he selects from a bevy of bare-breasted maidens at an annual Reed Dance at his royal court.
His spending on the party, which includes a fleet of spanking new BMW 7 series cars and 120 cattle for the feast, has angered many in the country where around 70 per cent of people live on less than a dollar a day. The government has defended the party, saying it is a tradition in Swaziland to bestow gifts on the king.
'We are sick and tired of the monarch,' a teacher who wished to be identified only by his surname Msili, said. ' A lot of our government money is being used to cater for the king's personal needs.'
'We don't want this 40-40. It's too much money,' Lungile Sibandze, 23, a worker in a fruit canning factory, said, wielding a carrot in one hand and an onion in the other as a symbol of the rising food prices that have intensified food insecurity in the drought-prone kingdom.
On Wednesday, the unions had already brought several thousand protesters onto the streets of the second city Manzini in a growing show of force ahead of Saturday's feast.
Earlier this month, around 1,000 mostly HIV-positive women had also demonstrated over the party after it emerged that some of the king's 13 wives had treated themselves to a spot of shopping for the party at the state's expense in Asia.
The women said the money would be better spent on improving access to life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs). Swaziland has the world's highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 26 per cent among adults.
The protest comes amid rising discontent over the lack of political freedom on the eve of elections on September 19 that observers have already dismissed as a sham. Political parties are banned in Swaziland. Candidates can only run for election as individuals. The king names the prime minister and the High Court and Supreme Court judges.
'Swaziland cannot be an island of dictatorship and despotism in a sea of democracies,' Mario Masuku, president of the banned People United Democratic Movement told reporters after Thursday's rally.
'The whole (southern African) region, bar Zimbabwe, is democratic.'
Many Swazis look to neighbouring South Africa as a model for democracy and governance. Protesters in Mbabane sang South Africa's stately anthem, Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika, to express their desire for political liberation.
King Mswati has invited several regional leaders, including Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to the party, which takes place in a stadium. The around 60,000 maidens who danced for the king at last weekend's Reed Dance are among the guests.
Apart from the 120 animals being slaughtered for the feast, a giant cake is also being prepared in South Africa.
'To us, it's just an extravagance,' Barnes Dlamini, chairman of the Swazi United Democratic Front.
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