King of eSwatini names political novice as PM

King Mswati III of eSwatini on Saturday named a political novice as prime minister of the former Swaziland, to replace Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini who died last month.

The new PM is Mandvulo Ambrose Dlamimi, national head of Africa's leading mobile operator MTN.

Mswati, one of the world's last absolute rulers, has 14 wives, more than 25 children, and a reputation for lavish spending on private planes and royal palaces while 63 percent of his subjects live below the poverty line.

Without warning or consultation, he changed the country's name from Swaziland to eSwatini ("land of the Swazis") in April.

Diamini was the king's close aide, and ran the government twice, from 1996-2003 and from 2008 until his death in late September.

His death came a week after largely symbolic legislative elections were held.

The fifty-something Dlamimi, by contrast, has no political experience. Before joining MTN he was chief executive of Nedbank, one of biggest South African banks.

"I urge the nation to cooperate and support the new PM for the prosperity of the nation," King Mswati III said, addressing some 1,500 supporters in the Ludzidzini palace royal residence outside the capital Mbabane.

The role of head of government is extremely limited in eSwatini -- a poor landlocked nation of just 1.3 million residents wedged between South Africa and Mozambique -- where the king has anointed ministers and controlled parliament since 1986.