ON THE last Friday night of August, in the midst of a lightning storm, King Mswati III of Swaziland received a vision from God. A new name for the system of Swazi government was revealed to him: “monarchical democracy”. Alex Vines, who helped write a report on Swaziland for Chatham House, a London-based think-tank, asked many Swazis what they thought the king meant. No one was terribly sure.

King Mswati’s tale may be bizarre, but its timing is not at all odd. Swaziland is holding elections to its two legislative houses on September 20th. It is all too easy to dismiss their significance. Political parties are banned. The candidates are vetted in primary elections. The king picks ten of the 65 MPs and two-thirds of members of the more powerful senate. But Mr Vines reckons the elections will nevertheless be noteworthy, since more reform-minded candidates than usual are on the ballot. It may presage a shift in power, however subtle, away from the king and towards parliament.

Something is needed to rein in the king’s free-spending ways. His vast household includes his 14 wives and their children, as well as countless courtiers. Public spending is rising, much of it going on the upkeep of 13 royal palaces and the security services. Tax receipts depend heavily on the sugar industry but its output is falling.

Swaziland is kept going by an over-sized share of the revenues generated by the Southern African Customs Union with South Africa, Namibia and Lesotho. The neighbours fret about the way Swaziland is run and may not always be so generous. Swaziland’s other big export is flattery. It receives $200m a year from Taiwan. In return it says nice things about its benefactor at the UN and stays out of China’s circle of African allies.

Not that there is much in Swaziland to interest China. Take away transfers from abroad and Swaziland looks less like a middle-income country than a poor one. At least 31% of adults in the 1.2m population have HIV, the highest infection rate in the world. More than a quarter of the workforce is jobless. Corruption is rife; courts are unreliable. On their present trajectory, Swaziland’s finances are unsustainable, says Chris Vandome, a co-author of the Chatham House report. And if something cannot go on for ever, it will eventually stop. Usually with a nasty thud.