The power of the throne, however, has not gone unchallenged. Sobhuza scrapped the constitution in 1973 and banned political parties. King Mswati has shown no enthusiasm for sharing power. Pressure over the past decade from strikers and demonstrators prompted him to establish a constitutional commission, which, however, has been slow in producing a report. With peaceful change in neighbouring South Africa and Mozambique, Swaziland has been described as an island of dictatorship in a sea of democracy.
Royalists argue that democracy creates division, and that a king is a strong unifying force.
Swaziland is virtually homogenous, most of the population being of the same tribe. Economically, the country is heavily dependent on South Africa, which receives almost half of Swazi exports and supplies nine-tenths of its imports. Mswati III King Mswati III Born in 1968, King Mswati III was crowned in 1986 at the age of 18, replacing his father King Sobhuza II, who died at the age of 82 as the world's longest reigning monarch. Mswati often appears in public in traditional dress and has several wives. He rules by decree and has been criticised for heavy-handed treatment of opponents.