Swaziland royal plea for wives palace

Swaziland's King Mswati has asked his Government for funds to help redecorate three main palaces and build others for each of his 11 wives, a royal palace source said yesterday.

The Times of Swaziland reported that Mswati - sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch - was seeking about US$15 million ($22.45 million) in a country where landless peasants make up 80 per cent of the population.

The money would have to be raised specially in the small southern African kingdom because the Government did not have the funds at present.

Swaziland, struggling with a devastating drought and a crippling HIV/Aids epidemic, has an economy that has been in decline for 10 years.