Mswati III

Mswati III (born Makhosetive Dlamini; 19 April 1968) is the Ngwenyama (King) of Eswatini and head of the Swazi royal family. He heads an absolute monarchy, as he has veto power over all branches of government and is constitutionally immune from prosecution.

He was born in Manzini in the Protectorate of Swaziland to King Sobhuza II and one of his younger wives, Ntfombi Tfwala. He was crowned as Mswati III, Ingwenyama and King of Swaziland, on 25 April 1986 at the age of 18, becoming the youngest ruling monarch in the world at that time.

With unrestricted political power and able to rule by decree, Mswati III (together with his mother, Ntfombi Tfwala, now Queen Mother [Ndlovukati]) is the last remaining absolute monarch in Africa and one of the only twelve remaining absolute national or subnational monarchs in the world. Under the constitution, the king is the commander-in-chief of the defence force and commissioner-in-chief of police and correctional services, and Mswati III exercises ultimate authority over all branches of the national government and effectively controls local governance through his influence over traditional chiefs.

Under his reign, political dissent and civic and labor activism are subject to harsh punishment under laws against sedition and other laws. Political parties have been banned in Eswatini since 1973 when King Sobhuza II declared a state of emergency that remained in force until 2005, when the constitution came into effect. Pro-democracy protests from 2021 onwards have been violently dispersed and political activists have been arrested. The government exercises total control over the broadcast media, including the only privately owned TV channel, which belongs to the royal family. Almost all media outlets are controlled, directly or indirectly, by Mswati III.

Mswati III lives an opulent and lavish lifestyle which stands in sharp contrast to the lives of most Emaswazi people. In 2022, an estimated 32% of the population lived below the US$2.15/day international poverty line (measured by price-purchasing parity (PPP) in 2017) while 55% of the population was under the lower-middle-income country poverty line of $3.65/day. As of 2024 Mswati III, who practises polygamy, had eleven wives. Formerly named Swaziland, in 2018 Mswati III renamed the country Eswatini (formally the Kingdom of Eswatini) by decree.