12 December 2004
Mbabane based newspaper, Times, reported that King Mswati III of Swaziland bought himself a luxury Maybach 62 sedan worth $500,000 despite his country's economic problems, the dire poverty of the population and the HIV pandemic affecting 38.8 percent of his subjects. This was just a further act of extravagance of the King, not new to controversy, who 'runs a large family and a small kingdom'. On his birthday in April, he bought ten BMW seven series vehicles for himself and several of his wives. He was also building ten new palaces for his wives at a cost of $17m, regardless of the budget deficit standing at 800,million emalangeni.
References

BBC,"Troubled King Mswati",From: BBC,[Online],Available at: news.bbc.co.uk,[Accessed : 25 November 2013]