Swaziland
Newsletter No. 927 – 22 May 2026
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.
Govt
investigates child safety at discipline camps
By
Melisa Msweli, eSwatini Observer, 16 May 2026
Deputy Prime Minister’s office Director of
Social Welfare Services Mcusi Shongwe met with stakeholders including the
police and youth-based organisations to discuss growing concerns surrounding
the safety and welfare of children in private discipline camps, ahead of
planned engagements with the discipline camp operators.
The meetings form part of government’s
ongoing assessment of the operation of discipline and rehabilitation camps
across the country, amid concerns over child safety, vetting of trainers,
discipline methods and compliance with the Child Protection and Welfare Act.
Shongwe said as the ministry responsible
for children, government had an obligation to intervene in matters involving
the welfare and protection of minors.
According to Shongwe, discussions with
stakeholders focused on whether some of the discipline methods being applied in
the camps were aligned with national laws, child protection standards and
internationally accepted safeguarding frameworks.
This is after concerns from the DPM’s
office over reports that children were being housed in tents in remote bush
settings and subjected to harsh physical exercises, including prolonged
exposure to mud and strenuous drills regardless of age or gender.
Government fears some of the practices may
infringe on children’s rights and conflict with the country’s positive
discipline framework, which promotes non-violent, age-appropriate and
child-centred correction methods.
Section 14 of the Child Protection and
Welfare Act of 2012 states that a child must be protected from cruel, inhumane
or degrading treatment and that discipline must be appropriate to the child’s
age and condition.
Concerns have since emerged over whether
some activities conducted in the camps meet the threshold of humane and
appropriate discipline.
Shongwe also said government remained
concerned about the individuals entrusted with children in these camps and
whether they had undergone proper vetting and training to work with minors.
The DPM’s office had earlier disclosed
concerns that some individuals associated with certain camps allegedly had
criminal records, including convictions related to child abuse, while there
were fears that some trainers could themselves be engaging in substance abuse.
Authorities further questioned whether
boys and girls of different ages were being subjected to the same forms of
training without consideration of their developmental and physiological
differences.
The social welfare director said having
concluded engagements with stakeholders, government would now proceed to invite
discipline camp operators for discussions. He said the purpose of the
engagements would be to hear directly from operators about the programmes they
offer and assess whether their operations comply with the law and child
protection standards.
To read more of this report, click
here
https://www.eswatiniobserver.com/dpm-office-engages-discipline-camp-operators-eswatini/
See also
DPM raises alarm over discipline
camps (eSwatini Observer)
https://www.eswatiniobserver.com/dpm-office-discipline-camps/
eSwatini,
UN pivot to E453M strategy to shield economy from shifting global aid
By Samkelisiwe
Mavimbela, Independent News, eSwatini, 21 May 2026
MBABANE: The United Nations and the
Government of Eswatini have launched an aggressive E453.1 million (US$27.6
million) economic survival plan designed to shield the local economy from a
collapsing global foreign aid market.
Faced with a volatile international
landscape where traditional donor funding has dried up, the two-year Joint Work
Plan represents a drastic shift away from small-scale humanitarian charity
toward massive, system-wide institutional reform and private sector investment.
The strategy officially kicked off at UN
House on Thursday with 77.2% of the required capital already secured, leaving
an E95.4 million (US$5.8 million) funding gap that UN officials and the
Ministries in line intend to aggressively source through corporate
partnerships and domestic revenue mobilization.
UN Resident Coordinator George Wachira
warned that multilateral cooperation is undergoing its greatest test since 1945
as global tensions, rising fuel prices, and security demands squeeze
international budgets.
“This reality informs but does not
paralyse us,” Wachira told senior government and business leaders. “As the
development financing landscape evolves, the implementation of the framework
will depend increasingly on stronger domestic resource mobilization, strategic
partnerships and catalytic investments. Our mindsets and language must shift
away from project funding towards financing and investing at scale to achieve
transformation,” he added.
To survive this tightening fiscal
environment, the plan focuses heavily on overhauling Eswatini’s internal
financial systems. Co-chaired by the Minister for Economic Planning and
Development, Dr. Thambo Gina, the initiative will prioritize tightening tax
collection, streamlining public financial management, cutting waste, and
curbing corruption to expand the national budget internally.
To read more of this report, click
here
King
Mswati appointing brothers and sisters to head Ministry of Home Affairs since
taking over the Throne, these alleged corrupt royal thieves are collapsing the
Government
Opinion
by Zweli Martin Dlamini, Swaziland News, 18 May 2026
It is clear now that, the Ministry of Home
Affairs is regarded as “Liphakelo” within royalty, Ministers are appointed from
the royal family and these alleged royal thieves have been collapsing the
Ministry of Home Affairs.
But let me state that during the then Home
Affairs Minister Prince Sobandla’s term, the Ministry was doing well, other
Home Affairs Ministers who were not deeply involved in corruption include
Prince Gabheni and Princess Tsandzile.
Now we have Home Affairs Minister Princess
Lindiwe, an alleged thief who disregarded a warning from Finance Minister Neal
Rijikernberg and continued to award multimillion tenders to African Drums
Events Management (Pty) Ltd, a company allegedly linked to her ‘JC’ religious
cabal.
As the situation stands, emaSwati are
struggling to access passports and other Identity Documents (IDs) and
corruption contributed to this social crisis.
But the King must never think he will be
divorced from this mess, it’s him who regularly appointed his brothers and
sisters to head of the Ministry of Home Affairs thus turning the Ministry into
“Liphakelo”.
Currently, we have an alleged thief
Princess Lindiwe of the JC syndicate and emaSwati are now struggling to access
passports and other services.
Inside
the secret mission to fly Taiwan’s President to Africa
By Chris
Buckley and Amy Chang Chien, New York Times. 14 May 2026
TAIPEI: From satellite phone check-ins to a borrowed royal plane, new details show how Taiwan’s leader’s team outwitted China and pulled off an audacious journey to southern Africa.
There were no heavy suitcases aboard the
borrowed jet that secretly carried President Lai Ching-te of Taiwan toward
Africa. Instead, to save fuel for a secret, 15,000-mile journey to get around
restricted airspace, his entourage brought only carry-on bags.
The stripped-back, high-stakes mission,
revealed by Taiwanese officials who had been on the flight, and who showed
documents to back up their account of what happened, was aimed at
outmaneuvering Beijing’s latest attempts to isolate Taiwan.
China had been gloating earlier after it
dealt an embarrassing blow to the president of Beijing’s rival, Taiwan, and his
government’s efforts to preserve the island’s standing on the global stage.
President Lai Ching-te of Taiwan had been invited by the tiny southern African kingdom
of Eswatini to attend celebrations in April marking King Mswati III’s 40 years
on the throne. Eswatini is the only African country that still maintains
official diplomatic relations with Taiwan and not China.
Mr. Lai was forced to call off the trip
after three other countries rescinded permits for him to fly through their
airspace to reach Eswatini. The three nations did so apparently because of
pressure from Beijing, which says Taiwan is its territory and has no rightful
place in diplomacy.
Then, in a twist, Mr. Lai announced in
early May: “I’ve arrived.”
He had reached Eswatini on a covert flight
across the Indian Ocean that appeared to have caught Beijing by surprise. The
Chinese government likened Mr. Lai’s actions to a rat running
across a street. Mr. Lai celebrated his trip as a plucky victory against
China’s campaign to marginalize Taiwan.
This account of Mr. Lai’s covert journey
to Africa and back draws on interviews with two officials who had accompanied
him on the trip. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss
sensitive security and diplomatic details and to share related documents, such
as the flight permits that were revoked.
 |
King Mswati III gave Mr. Lai a full
military welcome ceremony, seen in an image provided by the Taiwan Presidential
Office. Credit: Taiwan Presidential Office, via Associated Press
To read more of this report, click here
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/14/world/asia/taiwan-eswatini-china-flight.html
Skills
mismatch fuels unemployment crisis – BE
By
Sibusiso Dlamini, eSwatini Observer, 18 May 2026
Business Eswatini (BE), the leading
private sector organisation, says the country’s unemployment crisis is being
driven by a dangerous combination of slow economic growth, outdated
qualifications and a culture that still trains young people to seek jobs rather
than create them.
BE CEO E. Nathi Dlamini said this
following the release of the country’s 2023 Integrated Labour Force Survey,
which revealed that about 68 000 employed people earn below E2 000 per month
despite being counted as formally employed.
The survey reported that the kingdom’s
unemployment rate stood at 35.4%, while youth unemployment among economically
active people aged between 15 and 24 has climbed to 56%.
Dlamini said the labour market crisis
could not be understood through unemployment figures alone because deeper
structural problems were feeding into one another.
To read more of this report, click
here
https://www.eswatiniobserver.com/skills-mismatch-driving-unemployment-eswatini/
eSwatini
quickly embraced Trump’s deportee program despite doubts over legality
By
Tim Cocks, Reuters, 21 May 2026
MBABANE: Upon learning through the U.S.
embassy that President Donald Trump was looking for African nations to take
in deported third-country migrants, Eswatini was one of the first to
volunteer despite questions over the legality of the program.
According to three senior government
sources briefed on the matter, Prime Minister Russell Dlamini met then-Acting
U.S. Charge d’Affaires Caitlin Piper in mid-February last year to discuss the
matter in private.
Dlamini took the proposal to King Mswati
III, who marked 40 years on the throne of the mountainous southern African
nation in April. Mswati listened and immediately agreed to host the deportees,
two of the sources said, describing previously unreported closed-door talks.
The speed of the agreement, under which
19 migrants have been detained in a prison south of the capital Mbabane so far,
reflects how keen Eswatini was to keep its U.S. partner happy.
“The king embraced the deal as Eswatini’s
contribution to world order,” King Mswati’s spokesperson, Percy Simelane, told
Reuters of the decision.
The U.S. was Eswatini’s largest single
external donor in 2024, according to U.S. Official Development
Assistance figures, with a large share of aid going towards HIV/AIDS
programmes. The landlocked kingdom of 1.2 million people has one of the highest
rates of HIV in the world.
In return for hosting up to 160 deportees,
Eswatini - where a third of the population live below the $2.15-a-day World
Bank poverty line - was to be paid $5.1 million, according to a leaked copy of
the deal seen by Reuters.
To read more of this report, click
here
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