{"id":20410,"date":"2020-12-14T14:27:53","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T11:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/?p=20410"},"modified":"2020-12-14T14:28:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T11:28:00","slug":"eswatinis-pm-dies-after-testing-positive-for-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/14\/eswatinis-pm-dies-after-testing-positive-for-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Eswatini&#8217;s PM Dies After Testing Positive For COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The government of Eswatini says Prime Minister Ambrose Dlamini has died, four weeks after he tested positive for coronavirus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A government statement said Dlamini, 52, died on Sunday afternoon in hospital in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No cause of death was mentioned, but Dlamini had recently been receiving treatment for Covid-19 in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dlamini had been prime minister of Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, since October 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The tiny landlocked country in southern Africa is one of the last absolute monarchies in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With a population of about one million, the country has recorded 6,768 coronavirus infections and 127 deaths linked to the pandemic, according to the health ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dlamini announced he had tested positive for coronavirus on 16 November. At the time, he said he was asymptomatic and was feeling well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A few weeks later, on 1 December, the Eswatini government said Dlamini had been moved to a hospital in South Africa, with the aim of fast-tracking his recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But on Sunday the government said Dlamini died &#8220;while under medical care in a hospital in South Africa&#8221;, without giving more details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Government in collaboration with the family will keep the nation informed of subsequent arrangements,&#8221; Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku said in the statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure><iframe allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/index.html?creatorScreenName=BBCWorld&amp;dnt=false&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-1&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1338238842038587401&amp;lang=en-gb&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Fworld-africa-55297472&amp;siteScreenName=BBCWorld&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&amp;width=550px\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dlamini was among a number world leaders to have contracted Covid-19 during the pandemic, including US President Donald Trump, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Have any world leaders died of Covid-19?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many presidents, prime ministers and royal family members around the world have contracted Covid-19 since the pandemic began, however there is no confirmed case of any figures dying of the virus while in office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Former French president\u00a0Val\u00e9ry Giscard d&#8217;Estaing died of complications from coronavirus\u00a0this month. India&#8217;s former president\u00a0Pranab Mukherjee died 21 days after testing positive\u00a0in August. The two men were 94 and 84 years old, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Republic of Congo&#8217;s former president Jacques Joaquim Yhombi-Opango died of complications from the illness in March. He was 81.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A former banker, Dlamini was a political novice when he was appointed prime minister by King Mswati III.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The head of government&#8217;s role is limited in Eswatini, where the king names all ministers and controls parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-style-rounded\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1632\/idt2\/idt2\/efdea08e-754a-484e-a7b4-e9aec614bb6e\/image\/816\" alt=\"Map\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">King Mswati III was crowned in 1986 at the age of 18, succeeding his long-serving father King Sobhuza II, who died at the age of 82.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The king rules by decree and has been criticised for the heavy-handed treatment of opponents and for requesting public money to pay for new palaces and luxury cars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2018 he announced he was\u00a0renaming the country &#8220;the Kingdom of Eswatini&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More than 39% of the country&#8217;s population lived below the poverty line in 2016 and 2017,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldbank.org\/en\/country\/eswatini\/overview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according to the World Bank<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The government of Eswatini says Prime Minister Ambrose Dlamini has died, four weeks after he tested positive for coronavirus. A government statement said Dlamini, 52, died on Sunday afternoon in hospital in South Africa. No cause of death was mentioned, but Dlamini had recently been receiving treatment for Covid-19 in South Africa. Dlamini had been [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27983,"featured_media":20411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[161],"tags":[5321,5322],"class_list":["post-20410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-ambrose-dlamini","tag-eswatini"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27983"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20412,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20410\/revisions\/20412"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}