Swaziland Newsletter No. 897 – 3
October 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.
UNAIDS
shutdown could disrupt HIV response - NERCHA
By
Khulile Thwala, Times of eSwatini, 29 September 2025
MBABANE: The National Emergency Response
Council on HIV/AIDS (NERCHA) is concerned that shutting down UNAIDS by 2026, as
proposed, could destabilise the HIV response.
In a UN80 progress report published on
September 18, the United Nations (UN) agency, focusing on the HIV/AIDS
pandemic, disclosed that it could close by the end of next year as the UN
restructures in the face of a funding crisis. The document states that UNAIDS
will “sunset” by the end of 2026, part of a set of proposals from the UN to
member States, which they will have to decide on. It adds that UNAIDS’
expertise should be shifted into the wider UN system in the following year.
NERCHA says through its multifaceted
technical, strategic and advocacy support, alongside its coordinating role
within the United Nations system, UNAIDS remains an indispensable partner to
NERCHA and the nation at large in the collective pursuit of HIV epidemic
control in Eswatini.
“AIDS is not over and the global response
is facing its greatest disruption since the early days of the epidemic. We are
concerned that sunsetting UNAIDS by 2026, as proposed in the UN80 progress
report, would further destabilise the HIV response,” said Manager - Information
and Knowledge Centre Sibusiso Ngubane.
He further mentioned that UNAIDS plays a
critical leadership and coordination role in the global HIV response, driving
progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target of ending AIDS
as a public health threat by 2030.
Ngubane further detailed that UNAIDS’
engagement encompasses strategic, technical and advocacy assistance, which
collectively strengthen the national response to HIV across various critical
domains since its establishment in Eswatini in 1996.
To read more of this report, click
here
The
U.S. Government remains a steadfast partner in strengthening eSwatini’s public
health systems
US
Embassy, eSwatini, Facebook post, 30 September 2025
The U.S. Government remains a steadfast
partner in strengthening Eswatini’s public health systems. Yesterday, Chargé
d’Affaires Marc Weinstock officially handed over 14 vehicles previously used by
PEPFAR implementing partners to the Ministry of Health. These vehicles will
support ongoing research, clinical services, and oversight as PEPFAR phases out
support in certain areas.
The vehicles will benefit critical health
programs including the National Cancer Control Program, National TB Control
Program, Health Promotion Program, and the Eswatini National AIDS
Program—boosting efforts in cervical cancer, TB, and HIV prevention, care, and
treatment.
CDA Weinstock reaffirmed the U.S.
Government’s commitment to continued collaboration under the new U.S. Global
Health Strategy, released last week at the United Nations General Assembly
(UNGA).
Female
workers in Asian-owned shops allege sexual abuse in Siteki
By Wonderboy
Dlamini, eSwatini Observer, 29 September 2025
An undisclosed number of women employed in
Asian-owned shops have reported cases of sexual abuse to the ministries of
commerce and labour.
According to ministry officials, the women
allege they were subjected to sexual abuse in exchange for jobs, promotions,
and salary increases. They further claimed to have faced other forms of
physical abuse.
This was revealed during a meeting with
Asian employers from Siteki last Wednesday evening.
Lubombo Licensing Officer Siboniso
Magagula said the meeting was called in response to the rising number of
complaints reported to both the commerce and labour ministries in Siteki.
Magagula said he had personally received
many calls from women who chose to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of
their cases.
The anonymous callers alleged they were
pressured into sexual relationships by their employers and supervisors of Asian
origin. In exchange, they were promised permanent jobs and better salaries,
promises that were never fulfilled.
Some women further reported being falsely
accused of theft and then coerced into sexual acts with their employers to
clear their names.
Magagula noted that many victims were too
shy or embarrassed to report their cases to the police.
To read more of this report, click
here
https://eswatiniobserver.com/female-workers-in-asian-owned-shops-allege-sexual-abuse-in-siteki/
Swaziland
Unemployed People’s Movement (SUPMO) members stage silent protests across the
country amid scarcity of jobs
By Nontsetselelo Nkambule, Swaziland News, 1
October, 2025
MBABANE: The Swaziland
Unemployed Peoples’ Movement (SUPMO) staged silent protests across various
parts of the country on Wednesday, drawing attention to the escalating
unemployment crisis, widespread inequalities, and persistent poverty in the
tiny undemocratic Kingdom of eSwatini.
The peaceful protests were
visible along major roads in areas including Fairview, kaKhoza and Gilgal,
where participants held placards bearing messages that highlighted their
demands and grievances.
Eswatini is facing escalating
levels of poverty and unemployment, about 70% of the population lives below the
poverty line.
SUPMO members called for
urgent Government action to address the unemployment crisis, demanding the
creation of jobs and the provision of land grants to all unemployed
citizens.
But among the key demands was a living grant of one thousand five hundred Rands(R1,500.00) for unemployed individuals, aimed at alleviating financial hardship and providing basic standard of living.
Swaziland
Unemployed People’s Movement (SUPMO) members stage silent protests across the
country amid scarcity of jobs in the tiny undemocratic Kingdom
Swaziland
monarch’s call for UN recognition of Taiwan is ‘not sovereign diplomacy, but
imperial control’: Communist Party
By Pavan
Kulkarni, Peoples Dispatch, 29 September 2025
Swaziland is the only African country to
recognize Taiwan, which helps perpetuate the continent’s last absolute
monarchy, enriching the royal family and arming its repression, while grabbing
Swazi land and exploiting its cheap labor.
Condemning King Mswati III for advocating
Taiwan’s secession from China in his
address to the UN General Assembly last
week, the Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) said that his call for UN
recognition of Taiwan is “not sovereign diplomacy, but imperial control.”
The last absolute monarch in Africa,
Mswati reigns over Swaziland, which is the last African country to recognize
Taiwan’s sovereignty. It is one of eleven worldwide, mostly Caribbean and some
small Pacific islands, which recognize the island nation.
However, the US itself officially endorses
the one-China policy, which is the UN’s position. Mswati’s foreign policy
against this international consensus “does not represent the aspirations of the
working people of Swaziland”, where political parties are banned. It only
“reflects the monarch’s role as a client of imperialist forces,” added the
CPS’s statement on September 27.
Taiwanese aid to Swaziland “never reaches
the working class and poor, but is diverted to sustain the lavish lifestyles of
the royal elite” of the country, over a third of whose population survives on
less than a dollar a day.
One example is the “donation of two Bell
UH-1H decommissioned in Taiwan in 2020,” recalls CPS head of publicity, Sandile
Xaba. “Though formally in custody of the army, a royal prince has been seen…
flying it to visit his girlfriend”, sharing images and videos online.
Such a conspicuous display is in line with
the royal tradition of Mswati, who flaunts his palaces, a fleet of Rolls-Royce
cars, and private jets before a population struggling to eke out a living.
Anti-monarchist sentiments have long been brewing in the population.
Pro-democracy protests, mostly limited to
urban, working-class areas in the past decades, had spread across the rural
swathes, manifesting in country-wide mass demonstrations in mid-2021. When
attacks on these peaceful marches by security forces provoked an uprising,
Mswati, with his properties under attack, fled his kingdom, returning only
after his army violently crushed the insurrection, killing dozens and wounding
hundreds.
“It is widely known that Taiwan supplies
arms and also provides training for the army,” Xaba, who is also an activist in
the Swaziland Solidarity Network, told Peoples Dispatch. “During
the 2021 uprising, helicopters, weapons, and ammunition supplied by Taiwan were
used by the Swaziland army to kill protesters.”
To read more of this report, click
here
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