Photos of king's luxury limos banned

The palace in Swaziland has instituted a press ban on photographs of King Mswati's cars, following negative publicity that resulted from his purchase of a Maybach 62, the world's most expensive automobile. Some local photographers, however, managed to snap pictures of his latest luxury acquisition when Mswati arrived at the opening of parliament on Friday: A Mercedes-Benz S600 V12 stretch limousine, the only one of its kind in Africa. "The police ordered us to down our lenses when the king's new car appeared, but some of us got some snaps," said one photographer, who also managed to photograph some of the new luxury cars recently purchased for Mswati's 10 wives and two fiancés. The Maybach reportedly cost more than US $500,000, and the new limousines sell for around $300,000 each. The government has declined to comment on the press ban. "This was a palace command, and it is for them to comment," a source at the Ministry of Information told IRIN. Pro-democracy activist Bheki Matsebula's reaction to the new cars was similar to sentiments expressed elsewhere in civil society. "The prime minister said he was not aware that there is a standard price for the car of a head of state, but surely it is relative, and we have to consider appearances," he told IRIN. "The king has a fleet of cars, and these two new ones alone could cost R6 million [$1 million]. By contrast, when he opened parliament the king could find only R27 million [$4.5 million] to provide bursaries to educate the tens of thousands of Swazi children whose parents have died of AIDS," commented Matsebula.