A Swazi Member of Parliament has urged the government to hike taxes on traditional healers and soothsayers to help solve a funding crisis in Africa's last absolute monarchy.
The mediums, known as sangomas in the landlocked southern African nation, pay an annual 10 emalangeni ($1.15) licence fee, but MP Majahodvwa Khumalo said they should pay more.
Swaziland's budget deficit ballooned to 15 per cent of its annual economic output in 2010, but the government managed to keep itself afloat by running through central bank reserves.
The International Monetary Fund declined to launch a bailout because of reluctance by King Mswati III, who has at least a dozen wives and a personal fortune estimated at $200 million, to cut royal or military spending
