Are You Kidding Me? £11 To Abstain From Sex For One Month

The Daily Mail reports that virgins in Swaziland, which is one of Africa's poorest countries, are being offered £11 a month to abstain from sex; are you kidding me?

Swaziland's ‘playboy King’, Mswati III, has reportedly approved the benefits scheme in a bid to curb HIV across the state.

However, critics claim the flamboyant ruler - who already has 15 wives - is simply trying to ensure any future brides are disease-free.

The British paper, however, reports that details have to be established about how the girls will be monitored to ensure they are not having sex.

Swazi virgins usually only hit the headlines when tens of thousands of them dance topless before the king at the annual Reed Dance.

King Mswati III 

Each year the 46-year old, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch, chooses a virgin as his new wife from the ceremony.

Thabsile Dlamini, a health care worker in the city of Manzini, told South African website IOL: 'The government will pay girls the allowances so they will have money to purchase necessities and can turn down money offered to them for sex.'

HIV transmission rates in Swaziland currently stand at 26 per cent, one of the highest in the world.

But teenagers say the money is not enough to stop them accepting gifts and money in exchange for sex. 

Thandi Tfwala, 17, said: 'A girl could get R200 (£11) for just one sex act.

“You don't know Swazi girls. If they don't get more money, they will keep on doing what they do now.

“Our king will have to go to Cape Town for his brides.”