00:01In Pretoria, pro-democracy protesters from Eswatini rally outside the U.S. Embassy,
00:06slamming a reported deal that would return U.S.-deported migrants to their homeland.
00:12They're demanding an end to absolute monarchy,
00:14accusing King M. Eswatini of accepting large sums of money in exchange for the deal.
00:20Just the other day, stats came out to say Swaziland is the second highest in suicide rates in Africa.
00:25And, I mean, those are socioeconomic issues that are actually causing that,
00:31because there's just so much poverty.
00:33Yet there's a man who's able to make a deal between himself and the U.S. government
00:37to say he will take $500 million, and none of that is going to be received by the Swazi people.
00:43No way that the Swazi people are going to actually benefit from any of that.
00:46So that's why today we are standing here.
00:48Protesters say the monarchy should be focused on improving the lives of ordinary citizens
00:56and demand accountability.
01:01It is very unfortunate.
01:02We have a king that got 15 wives, and these wives of the king, they've never worked anywhere.
01:09And these two billion that come with these criminals or these people from the United States
01:14is going to continue sustaining the monarch, not necessarily the people of Swaziland,
01:18or even assisting the people of Swaziland to fight crime.
01:22So it is for that reason we came here and say, comrade,
01:25the United States and Swaziland must just take their people out of our country.
01:33Despite being a lower-middle-income country,
01:3663% of the population in Eswatini live below the poverty line.
01:41A staggering 58% of young people are unemployed,
01:45one of the worst rates in the world.
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