By Zweli Martin Dlamini

SIKHUPHE: King Mswati left the country on Friday afternoon to Zambia,he will be a guest in that country’s international Trade Fair.

But some of his bodyguards who spoke to this Swaziland News said, they were disappointed after Switzerland blocked another trip.

The King was supposed to then proceed to Switzerland for a ‘holiday’ to relax before coming back to preside over Sibaya.

But information in our possession confirmed by the bodyguards suggests that, over sixty(60) members of the King’s proposed delegation applied for visas with the Switzerland Embassy based in Pretoria but unfortunately, their applications were denied.

Each member of the delegation was supposed to receive between one hundred and two hundred thousand Rands(R100,000.00-R200,000.00) as traveling allowance.

This means the alleged decision of the Pretoria based Switzerland Embassy to deny King’s delegation visas resulted to over R10million savings in the public coffers.

“We were disappointed because, some of us had already calculated that we will get a reasonable allowance.Switzerland refused to grant us visas, they asked why is the King traveling with such a huge delegation,” said one of the King’s bodyguard.

Efforts to seek a comment from the Switzerland Embassy proved unsuccessful at the time of compiling this report.

Responding to a questionnaire from this Swaziland News on Friday afternoon,after being asked to clarify if he was aware that the visas applications were denied , King’s Spokesperson Percy Simelane said he was aware.

“I am aware”, said the King’s Spokesperson briefly.