Swaziland
Newsletter No. 886 – 18 July 2025
News
from and about Swaziland, compiled by Global Aktion, Denmark (www.globalaktion.dk) in collaboration with
Swazi Media Commentary (www.swazimedia.blogspot.com), and sent to all with
an interest in Swaziland - free of charge. The newsletter and past editions are
also available online on the Swazi Media Commentary blogsite.
Authorities
must ensure access to justice for opposition MP Bacede Mabuza
Amnesty
International, 14 July 2025
Reacting to the continued delay in the hearing of the
appeal by the detained opposition Member of Parliament, Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza,
Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for East and Southern Africa,
Vongai Chikwanda, said:
“Eswatini’s authorities are failing to safeguard the
independence and integrity of the country’s courts – a failure illustrated by
the persistent delay to hear Bacede Mabuza’s appeal. This undermines
Mabuza’s right to access to justice and effective remedies including to an
appeal to a higher tribunal.
Authorities must end any interferences in judicial
independence – whether direct or indirect, ensure respect for the human rights
of everyone in the country and uphold the rule of law.
Vongai Chikwanda, Amnesty International’s Deputy
Regional Director for East and Southern Africa
“In recent years, the Eswatini courts have been unable
to protect human rights, and advance access to justice in cases of persecution
of opposition leaders, human rights defenders, activists, and journalists.
Authorities must end any interferences in judicial independence – whether
direct or indirect, ensure respect for the human rights of everyone in the
country and uphold the rule of law.”
Background
On 15 July 2024, MPs Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube were sentenced to 85 years and 58 years respectively, after being convicted under the Suppression of Terrorism Act of 2008 and the Sedition and Subversive Activities Act of 1938. They were found guilty of allegedly inciting unrest during pro-democracy protests in June 2021. On 1 June 2023, after almost two years of arbitrary detention, they were convicted of terrorism, sedition, and murder. Mabuza’s case has been omitted from the court roll on three consecutive occasions by the Registrar of the Supreme Court, despite all required documents, including the Notice of Appeal, Record of Proceedings, and supporting pleadings, being properly filed.
King Mswati splashes over R80million public funds for
his over ten wives as shopping allowances, Immigration System exposes secret
trip to Indonesia and Dubai amid shortage of drugs in public hospitals
By Zweli Martin Dlamini, Swaziland News, 12
July 2025
MBABANE: King
Mswati, an absolute Monarch, has once again splashed over R80million public
funds for his over ten (10) wives who left the country on Friday afternoon to
Indonesia and Dubai-the United Arab Emirates (UAE) merely for, shopping amid
social challenges including the worsening health crisis within the tiny
Kingdom.
An
independent investigation conducted by this Swaziland News uncovered that, the
Queens travelled with over seventy (70) royal guards, each royal guard will
receive about five hundred thousand Rands(R500,000.00) as a traveling allowance
while each Inkhosikati to King Mswati allegedly received over R3million.
As a result, the
collective royal extravagant spending amounts to over R80million and this
includes allowances for all the Personal Assistants (PAs), traveling costs and
the security team among other expenses.
But a flight
tracking system suggests that, the King’s wives travelled with Mswati’s Private
Jet or Airbus A340-313X registered 3DC-SDF and, to the same
destination-Indonesia.
Inkhosikati
Nomcebo Hlalanani Zuma, Inkhosikati Siphelele Sicebile LaMashwama, Inkhosikati
Sibonelo Mngomezulu(LaMbikiza), Inkhosikati Angela Dlamini LaGija, Inkhosikati
Noliqhwa Ayanda LaNtenteza and Inkhosikati Zena LaMahlangu are some of the
Queens appearing in the electronic evidence obtained by this publication.
Inkhosikati
Nomcebo Zuma’s passport further suggests that, before taking this trip to
Indonesia, she allegedly travelled to South Africa from the 19th June 2025 and
came back around midnight on the 4th July 2025, this publication previously
reported that, she was at Nkandla-KwaZulu-Natal(KZN) and King Mswati allegedly
sent a royal delegation to negotiate her return.
But
eMakhosikati LaMatsebula and LaMotsa, the senior King’s wives were not part of
the trip and, they were seen with King Mswati gracing the 50th Anniversary for
the Eswatini National Provident Fund(ENPF) on Friday evening at the Mavuso
Trade Centre-Manzini.
Reached for
comments by this Swaziland News on Saturday afternoon, King Mswati’s
Spokesperson Percy Simelane said, his Office “has not yet received information
regarding the travel in question” adding that, he “wouldn’t have known about it
as he handles the official business” for the Monarchy not groceries and
shopping.
“My office
has no information on the travel in question. Logically we are irrelevant to
family grocery purchases or shopping because they don’t fall under the
official business category”, said the King’s Spokesperson.
Eswatini is
facing a health crisis amid shortage of drugs in public hospitals, dozens have
died since the crisis erupted triggered by rampant corruption in the public
administration, with Government struggling to fund the public health system as
billions sustain King Mswati and his royal family’s extravagant lifestyle.
See also
King Mswati’s wife card declines R1.1million
transaction at Bvlgari Indonesia Shop
https://swazilandnews.co.za/fundza.php?nguyiphi=9496
Emaswati claim their right to protest, say police are
not justified in use of force
By Asafika
Mpako and Stephen Ndoma, Afrobarometer, 11 July 2025
Protests erupted in Eswatini on 17 May 2021 following
the death of a 25-year-old law student at the University of Eswatini, Thabani
Nkomonye, allegedly at the hands of the police (Human Rights Watch, 2023).
These protests gained momentum, and in June, about 500 young people blocked
roads and burned tyres in Manzini, demanding democratic reforms and an end to
police brutality (News24, 2021).
After authorities declared a ban on all protests,
security forces confronted protesters with teargas and live ammunition (Civicus
Monitor, 2021). According to the Eswatini Commission on Human Rights and Public
Administration, 46 people lost their lives during the June protests, 245 others
sustained gunshot wounds, and 118 people suffered unspecified injuries (Human
Rights Watch, 2021). To date, no one has been held accountable, and political
dissidents continue to be targeted (Civicus Monitor, 2023).
Freedom House (2024) rates Eswatini as “not free,”
with particularly low scores on political freedoms and civil liberties.
According to Eswatini’s Public Order Act No. 12 of 2017, if a planned protest
involves 50 or more people in a public space, the local authority must be
notified at least four days prior to the gathering. And if the intended
gathering is not prohibited, a compliance certificate will be issued to the
convenor of the protest, including any conditions that may be attached to the
conduct of the gathering (Kingdom of Eswatini, 2017).
Some critics have argued that this legislation gives
“sweeping powers to the national commissioner of police to arbitrarily halt
pro-democracy meetings and protests, and crush any criticism of the government”
(Human Rights Watch, 2018).
Given that context, this dispatch looks at the protest
environment in the country based on Afrobarometer’s public opinion survey
conducted in 2022.
Findings show that a majority of Emaswati say citizens should always be allowed
to protest. But they are divided on whether citizens should be required to seek
permission from the government before engaging in protest action.
The police and protesters are both blamed for violence
during protests, but a majority of respondents believe the police are not
justified in using force if protests turn violent, even to protect lives and
property
Six in 10 citizens believe the police make decisions
that favour certain people, parties, or interests instead of acting as a
neutral body, and three-quarters say they trust the police “just a little” or
“not at all.”
UNAIDS / eSwatini HIV funding cuts
United
Nations, 10 July 2025
The United States used to fund up to 50 percent of
AIDS programmes in Eswatini, one of the countries with the highest HIV
prevalence rates in the world at 25 percent. UNAIDS’ new report, AIDS, Crisis,
and the Power to Transform, documents the impact funding cuts are having around
the world.
HIV is a treatable and preventable disease, but the
unprecedented funding cuts have torpedoed the HIV response in many countries.
The HIV pandemic still claims one life every minute.
While much progress has been made, there were 1.3 million new HIV infections
and 630,000 AIDS-related deaths last year.
Luyengo Clinic in this small southern African country
has up to 350 patients a day with a dozen babies tested for HIV. The United
States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) covered 80 percent
of the clinic's costs. It has more than 3,000 people living with HIV enrolled
on life-saving treatment.
See video here
https://media.un.org/unifeed/en/asset/d342/d3421647
Trump administration resumes third-country deportation
flights
By Hamed
Aleaziz,
New York Times, 15 July 2025
The Trump administration sent five migrants from
Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Yemen and Cuba to a small African nation on Tuesday,
resuming the practice of so-called third-country deportations after the Supreme
Court cleared the practice earlier this month, Department of Homeland Security
officials said Tuesday.
The deportations were announced on social media by the
agency on Tuesday evening.
“NEW: a safe third country deportation flight to
Eswatini in Southern Africa has landed — This flight took individuals so
uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back,” wrote Tricia McLaughlin, a D.H.S. spokeswoman. She
added that the men had been convicted of crimes including murder, assault and
robbery.
Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, is a nation of
about 6,700 square miles surrounded on three sides by South Africa. The New
York Times previously reported negotiations with Eswatini in an investigation detailing how the Trump administration had been
looking to get more than 50 countries to take migrants from other places.
Since the early days of the Trump administration,
homeland security officials have sent migrants to countries they are not from,
including sending hundreds of migrants from countries including China, Iran and
Pakistan to Panama and Costa Rica in February.
Later, the administration sent Venezuelan immigrants
to El Salvador, and earlier this month, after weeks of legal delays, it sent eight
migrants from several countries to South Sudan.
The migrants had spent six weeks in Djibouti, after a
federal judge ruled that the administration needed to allow more time for
migrants to express fear of torture in a third country and to appeal any
potential denial of their claims. That ruling was put on pause by the Supreme
Court.
Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement
officials released internal guidance allowing for such deportations to occur
quickly if the State Department received assurances that the migrants would not
be persecuted in the third country. Even without such assurances, officials
could still deport migrants in as little as six hours in certain circumstances.
The Trump administration has been increasingly
encouraging immigrants to self-deport, emphasizing the potential consequences
for those who remain in the United States without authorization,
including detention at
a center in Florida known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor pushed back against the
practice of third-country deportations in her dissent from the Supreme Court
ruling.
“What the government wants to do, concretely, is send
the eight noncitizens it illegally removed from the United States from Djibouti
to South Sudan, where they will be turned over to the local authorities without
regard for the likelihood that they will face torture or death,” she wrote.
See also
Shock in eSwatini as Trump deports ‘uniquely barbaric’
convicts to the Kingdom
US deports immigrants to African country of eSwatini
amid rights concerns
eSswatini
contradicts U.S. claims on deportees, vows to return them to their home
countries
‘Criminals deported and dumped in eSwatini by the
United States might escape to South Africa,’ respected Swazi editor Bheki
Makhubu tells NewsRoom Afrika TV
https://swazilandnews.co.za/fundza.php?nguyiphi=9513
What to know about the African kingdom of eSwatini,
where the US sent 5 deportees
By Gerald
Imray, Associated Press, 17 July 2025
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The United States has deported
five immigrants from
Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen and Laos to Eswatini, a small country in southern Africa where the king
still holds absolute power.
Eswatini says it is holding the men in correctional
facilities until they can be sent to their home countries, after it became the
latest nation to
accept third-country deportees from the U.S.
Here’s what to know about Eswatini:
The king rules supreme
Eswatini is one of a handful of countries that are
still absolute monarchies, and the only one in Africa. That means the king has
absolute power over
government and is not just a figurehead or a ceremonial ruler.
King Mswati III has ruled Eswatini since 1986, when he
turned 18 and was allowed to take his place as the monarch. He can make
decisions by decree. He succeeded his father, Sobhuza II, who died in 1982.
The 57-year-old Mswati III has long been criticized
for ruling over a government that suppresses political dissent while he lives a
lavish lifestyle in one of the poorest countries in the world.
The king is reported to have 11 wives and has been the
subject of scrutiny for buying luxury cars. His wealth has been estimated at
between $200 million and $500 million, while the World Bank says more than half
of Eswatini’s 1.2 million people live on less than $4 a day.
 |
Eswatini’s King, Mswati III, front, dances during a Reed Dance in Mbabane, Monday Sept. 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File)
No political parties
Political parties were banned by Sobhuza II in 1973.
Some exist now, but they are not allowed to play any role in elections or the
political process and have been reduced to civic society groups. Candidates
seeking public office in Eswatini’s Parliament or Senate have to stand as
individuals without any party affiliation and are generally approved by
traditional leaders loyal to Mswati III.
Pro-democracy protests have grown in
recent years and
Eswatini authorities under Mswati III have been accused of crushing them using
the security forces. Many dissidents live in exile.
Previously Swaziland
The country was previously known as Swaziland but
changed to Eswatini in 2018 after the king announced it should revert to its
traditional name in the Swazi language. It was Swaziland when it was under
British colonial rule, which ended in 1968.
Severely affected by HIV
Eswatini has been severely affected by HIV and has the
highest prevalence in the world, with an estimated 26% of the adult population
HIV positive, according to the United Nations AIDS agency.
It has made significant progress in confronting that
scourge but has been highly reliant on foreign aid to do that, including
assistance from the U.S., which has now
been cut by the
Trump administration.
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