Swaziland
Newsletter No. 912 – 30 January 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
breaching UN children’s rights convention - Parents
Sunday
Observer (eSwatini) Press Reader edition, 25
January 2026
Parents have joined the Swaziland
National Association of Teachers (SNAT) in condemning government’s handling
of sweeping education reforms.
They warned that the rushed rollout of
Competency-Based Education (CBE) and a new four-year secondary school programme
amounts to poor governance and is a breach of an international children’s
rights convention.
Eswatini Schools Committee and Parents
Association (ESCAPA) President Cedric Chirwa said the association fully
agrees with the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) that the
ministry of education and training was pressing ahead with reforms without
proper consultation, adequate preparation or transparency, despite
schools opening on Tuesday.
Chirwa said parents were neither consulted
nor given access to reports evaluating pilot programmes, leaving them in
the dark about what kind of education their children will receive. “We agree
with SNAT and it is even more alarming that parents have also not been
engaged,” Chirwa said.
“We have not seen any report on CBE or on
the four-year programme. Parents do not know what education will be taught
to their children, and teachers themselves are confused. That is a worrying
state of affairs as schools open,” he added. The criticism comes as government
prepares to introduce CBE across secondary schools and restructure the system
into a single four-year cycle covering Grades 8 to 11.
The ministry says the reforms will prioritise
practical skills, creativity and mastery of competencies, while moving
away from traditional exam rankings and introducing new subjects such as
music, dance, fine art and drama.
Chirwa said the manner in which the
reforms are being imposed may place Eswatini in breach of the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), to which the country is a signatory.
“Article 29 of the Convention defines
the aims of education and also recognises the liberty of parents to choose
the kind of education they want to give to their children,” he said.
“By not consulting parents and other
stakeholders, and by withholding key reports, government is going against
that convention,” he added. While careful to avoid inciting language,
ESCAPA warned that sidelining parents risks deepening mistrust and
entrenching divisions around education policy.
“This is dangerous because it creates a
situation where one party sees itself as always right and the other as opposition.
That is not what we want. We want to move together, to speak openly about how
to improve the system and agree on the way forward,” he stated.
He cautioned that without transparency
and shared ownership, failed reforms could degenerate into blame-shifting
rather than accountability.
“If it fails, people will point fingers,
and others will defend decisions even when they know things were done wrongly,
simply for the sake of defending,” he said.
At the core of parents’ frustration,
according to him, is the absence of publicly available reports on the performance
of CBE at primary school level and on the pilot of the four-year secondary
programme conducted in selected schools last year.
Without these, ESCAPA argues, there is no
evidence base for scaling the reforms nationwide.
“These reports should have been available
not only to parents, but also to the media, so they could be interpreted and
explained to the wider public,” Chirwa said.
Three
years on, justice denied for assassinated eSwatini human rights lawyer Thulani
Maseko as Amnesty International demands independent investigation
By
Abigail Jele, Swaziland News, 28 January 2026
MBABANE: It’s been three solid years
since the assassination of Thulani Maseko, a highly respected human rights
lawyer who was shot dead at his home on 21 January 2023 in Eswatini.
Three years on, no one has been held
accountable for his killing, his assassination sent shockwaves across the
country, the region, and the international human rights community, and remains
a stark reminder of the risks faced by those who defend human rights in
Eswatini.
As demands for justice continue, Amnesty
International has raised serious concerns about the slow pace and lack of
transparency surrounding investigations into his death.
Reached for comments by this Swaziland
News, Amnesty International Southern Africa Coordinator stated that, even
though the motive behind Maseko’s assassination “remains unclear”, they
strongly believe he was murdered for defending human rights.
“Although the motive behind his killing
remains unclear, Amnesty International has reason to believe that Thulani
Maseko was murdered in connection with his work as a human rights defender and
lawyer. Amnesty International is concerned that the search for those
responsible for his violent death is dragging on, despite longstanding calls
from civil society organizations, governments and intergovernmental
organizations for an independent investigation into his murder.
Amnesty International calls on King Mswati
III. to promptly, thoroughly and impartially investigate the unlawful killing
of Thulani Maseko and to bring any responsible individuals to justice in a fair
trial. Amnesty International also urges that Thulani Maseko’s family be granted
access to justice and effective legal remedies. They must also be protected
from intimidation”, said the Amnesty International Coordinator.
Three years after his killing, justice for
Thulani Maseko remains elusive and continued absence of accountability not only
deepens the pain of his family but also entrenches a culture of impunity that
places all human rights defenders at risk.
‘Expel
them’: eSwatini minister sparks alarm with anti-LGBTQ school rhetoric
By Luiz
De Barros, Mamba Online, 28 January 2026
LGBTQ+ young people have come under attack
in Eswatini after the country’s Education Minister called for queer school
pupils to be expelled, comparing them to gangsters.
According to local media, Minister of
Education and Training Owen Nxumalo made the troubling remarks on Tuesday while
visiting schools in the capital, Mbabane, to mark the start of the academic
year.
Nxumalo claimed that learners in the
southern African nation were being “coerced” into what he described as
“unacceptable behaviour”, including gangsterism and homosexuality.
He told scholars and staff that same-sex
relationships had no place in schools because they conflicted with religious
beliefs and cultural traditions.
“We do not know where these practices come
from, and we rebuke them in the name of Jesus,” Nxumalo was quoted as saying.
“One fails to understand why a girl would convince another girl to fall in love
with her.”
The minister added,
“I will not tolerate any issues that come with homosexual relationships in our
schools,” and vowed to personally ensure that any pupils involved in such
relationships were expelled.
Nxumalo reportedly also praised US
President Donald Trump’s stance on the LGBTQ+ community, describing it as the
correct position to take.
LGBTIQ+ advocacy group Eswatini
Sexual and Gender Minorities (ESGM)
expressed its “deep concern” about the minister’s statements, noting that the
Constitution guarantees equality and that every Swazi child has the right to
education.
“Expelling learners on the basis of real
or perceived sexual orientation or gender expression directly undermines these
constitutional and statutory protections,” ESGM said in a statement.
“Such actions risk denying children their
right to education, exposing them to stigma, violence, and long-term harm.”
The group stressed that “sexual
orientation and gender identity are not misconduct” and said that “schools have
a duty to address behaviour in a manner that is lawful, non-discriminatory, and
consistent with child protection principles, not through exclusion or fear.”
ESGM called on the Ministry of Education
and Training to ensure that schools are safe and inclusive environments for all
learners, and to stop making statements that encourage discrimination, bullying
or the exclusion of vulnerable children.
Eswatini remains one of the world’s last
absolute monarchies and has a poor record on human rights. Although not
actively enforced, men “suspected” of sodomy can be arrested without a warrant
under the Criminal Procedure Act of 1938.
ESGM has been engaged
in a years-long legal battle to overturn
the government’s refusal, despite a court order, to register the organisation
as an official entity.
Minister’s same-sex relationships
statement: Minister must retract – CANGO (eSwatini Observer)
https://eswatiniobserver.com/ministers-same-sex-relationships-statement-minister-must-retract-cango/
15
minors raped in just 25 days
By Bongiwe
Dlamini, eSwatini Observer, 26 January 2026
At least 15 children under the age of 18
have been raped since the beginning of the year.
These statistics are according to cases
that were officially reported to the police across the country.
The latest case was reported in Mankayane
on January 21, where a four-year-old girl was raped allegedly by her
18-year-old neighbour. The incident happened at Nhlotjeni in December.
Sources close to the matter said the
four-year-old and other minors usually went to the 18-year-old man’s home to
play.
All seemed normal until early last week
when the four-year-old girl’s mother overheard some children older than her
daughter discussing what the teenager did to them when they went to play at his
home.
Surprised, the mother is said to have then
called her daughter aside and asked her what happened to them when they were
playing at the neighbour’s home.
“The girl narrated that they were violated
by the 18-year-old. Her mother reported the matter to the police, while parents
and guardians of the rest of the children said they were still to discuss the
matter,” said a source.
The suspect has not been arrested yet, as
confirmed by Acting Deputy Chief Police Information and Communications Officer
Inspector Mazwi Ndzimandze.
This case is at least the 15th to be
reported to the police this month.
The cases reportedly happened in various
areas in all four regions of the country.
The Lubombo region leads with six cases,
followed by the Manzini and Hhohho regions with four cases each.
Only one case has so far been reported in
the Shiselweni region.
More than half of the survivors of abuse
are under 14 years, while at least four are aged 10 or below, indicating
extreme vulnerability among younger children.
In the majority of the cases, the alleged
perpetrators are known to the victims, including relatives such as uncles,
cousins, stepfathers, neighbours, and boyfriends.
This points to abuse occurring largely
within trusted environments such as homes, family settings and neighbourhoods,
as previously articulated by SWAGAA in its latest report (December 2025).
To read more of this report, click
here
https://eswatiniobserver.com/15-minors-raped-in-just-25-days/
The
King’s Imbasha: How royal patronage is bankrupting the State
Opinion
by Velaphi Mamba, Swaziland News, 25 January 2026
King Mswati III has long relied on
cultural nationalism as a substitute for democratic legitimacy.
Culture, in his hands, is not simply
heritage but a governing technology that is employed to manufacture obedience,
suppress dissent, and convert public resources into royal loyalty.
Under the banner of tradition, state power
is reproduced not through accountable institutions but through ritual,
spectacle, and increasingly, cash incentives meant to buttress a patronage
system that has now bankrupted the country.
It is within this context that the
practice of imbasha must be understood. Following the weeding of the King’s
fields after the Incwala ceremony, regiments are paid a cash stipend, framed as
cultural appreciation and a symbol of the king’s benevolence.
This year alone, the reported cost of
imbasha reached a staggering E45 million. At E1,000 per regiment member, this
implies that roughly 45,000 people will be paid representing only 3.75% of
Eswatini’s population of approximately 1.2 million. Fewer than four out of
every hundred emaSwati will receive this benefit, while the remaining 96% are
excluded, many facing chronic unemployment, food insecurity, and failing public
services.
It is important to also highlight the fact
that imbasha is paid to men and boys only, who are the ones that culturally
weed the king’s fields. The gender dimensions of the matter should therefore
not go unnoticed.
The imbasha stipend is not a marginal
expense nor a once-off gesture. If imbasha continues at E45 million per year
and the 45 000 regiments’ figure remains constant, the state will have spent
E450 million over a decade buying loyalty from a narrow segment of society.
Nearly half a billion Emalangeni will have been transferred not through
developmental programmes or social protection, but through a patronage system
designed to reward ritual compliance and entrench royal hegemony.
This is not a sustainable national
redistributive program but selective appeasement, financed by a state already
massively failing to meet its most basic obligations. The swelling numbers to
weed the king’s fields are not a sign of the people’s love of culture and the
king.
They are emblematic of the economic
desperation of the masses.
Worse still, the imbasha system is riddled
with corruption and opacity. The money does not reach regiment members through
transparent, auditable payment mechanisms. Instead, it is channelled through
layers of traditional leadership – tindvuna and royal structures where
discretion replaces accountability.
This creates fertile ground for skimming,
favouritism, and exclusion. Numerous accounts indicate that not all regiments
receive the full E1,000, while others receive nothing at all, depending on
their proximity to power. Portions of the E45 million vanish before reaching
the intended recipients, shrinking even further the already tiny share of
emaSwati who benefit.
The absence of beneficiary registers,
payment trails, independent audits, or parliamentary oversight means that tens
of millions of Emalangeni are being moved annually in ways that offend basic
principles of public finance management and potentially violate anti–money
laundering laws. In any functioning state, such cash-heavy, politically
controlled disbursements would trigger an investigation.
In Eswatini, they are normalized and we
are witnessing money laundering by the king in plain sight. This is egregious
exercise of public finances and needs to be revisited.
 |
| King Mswati (centre) during the end of 2025-2026 Incwala ceremony |
To read more of this commentary, click
here
http://www.swazilandnews.co.za/fundza.php?nguyiphi=11208
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