Mswati III: married 13 times and due to marry his 14th wife.
Swaziland’s Senate chief said yesterday that lawmakers should not divorce, in a bid to spare the country’s polygamous king from embarrassment.
Gelane Zwane, leader of the upper house in Africa’s last absolute monarchy, said that lawmakers should set a good example to young people in the deeply conservative country and warned them against the temptations of the flesh.
She also urged women lawmakers against allowing their position to make them “disrespectful” to their husbands – while telling men to keep their eyes off female colleagues’ cleavages.
The edict – which Zwane said applied particularly to women – came after King Mswati III said earlier this year that only death can undo a traditional union, even though Swazi culture allows marriages to be terminated.
“Once people become legislators they lose their private lives,” she told AFP. “We discourage divorce because politicians should behave in a moral way to leave a positive legacy.”
Zwane issued the edict at a recent workshop for the lawmakers.
Parliamentarians who had already started divorce proceedings were to hold off until after their term ended in 2018, she said.
“People will have a misconception that when women occupy political positions they then become disrespectful and divorce their husbands,” she told AFP.
“I reminded them that when in this position, being embroiled in messy divorce disputes embarrasses the appointing authority,” she said, referring to the king.
Africa’s 45-year-old last absolute monarch has been married 13 times although three wives have left the royal household in recent years.
In September he became engaged to Sindiswa Dlamini, 18, who will become his 14th wife once she falls pregnant.
Zwane said she also wanted to dissuade men – who account for the bulk of Swaziland’s 95 lawmakers – from forming relationships with female parliamentary officials.
“There are many beautiful ladies working here in parliament, but don’t be tempted to be intimate with them, even if you see their cleavage, treat them like colleagues,” Zwane said. “MPs have to set a good example and be role models to Swazi children who are future leaders of the country.”
The tiny mountain kingdom elected only one woman to the lower house during a vote in September, although the king then appointed three more female members out of the 10 he is allowed to hand pick.
Locked between Mozambique and South Africa, Swaziland remains one of the world’s poorest countries, though its monarch is said to be worth around $200mn.
The king has immense power under the current system, which the African Union faulted for barring political parties.
It allows him to appoint two-thirds of 30-strong parliament’s upper house as well as the prime minister.
