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The Kingdom of Eswatini has denied reports that it was offering nationality to citizens from southern Africa to fill up for shortage of men in the country.
South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has criticised the country's main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party after it requested the US and European countries to monitor the upcoming elections. It follows a viral fake letter purportedly written by King Mswati III expressing concern with "scarcity of men" in the kingdom.
The party made the request in a letter sent last week to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and some European foreign affairs ministers. The letter claimed the king would facilitate the willing men from southern Africa to marry wives and get free houses from the kingdom.
“The DA’s letter to the United States government is quite disingenuous and it is almost trying to sell our country to other powers in the world," President Ramaphosa was quoted as saying by state broadcaster SABC. "The public is notified that this circulating notice is fake," the Eswatini government said in a short statement posted on X.
"And we have regional organisations in the world like Sadc, AU and have the UN as well. They always come to monitor our elections and now for a non-state entity to sell our democracy.” It is not clear who authored the fake letter which had excited some social media users from southern Africa.
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) party also slammed DA for the letter on Saturday, accusing the opposition party of offering "South Africa's sovereignty on a silver platter". Eswatini, Africa's last absolute monarchy, has a population of about 1.2 million people.
South Africa's elections are planned for 29 May.
Polls by
research firms suggest that ANC's
share of the vote could fall below 50% for the first time since it came to
power in 1994, fuelled by widespread dissatisfaction with the state of the
economy, public services and corruption.
Read more:
South Africa's ANC
pitches for votes as majority threatened
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