Swaziland
Newsletter No. 930 – 12 June 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.
E10 item sold to govt for E1500 as auditor-general
exposes tender abuse
By Mbongeni Ndlela, Eswatini Positive News, 11 June
2026
LOBAMBA: A shocking revelation
that products worth as little as E10 were allegedly sold to Government for as
much as E1500 has triggered fresh concerns over the management of public funds,
with the Auditor-General warning that millions of Emalangeni continue to
disappear through weaknesses in the country's procurement system.
The alarming disclosure was
made by Auditor-General Timothy Matsebula during a Public Accounts Committee
(PAC) sitting with the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday, where lawmakers
launched a scathing attack on procurement practices they believe are bleeding
taxpayers dry.
Matsebula told Members of
Parliament that Government continues to lose substantial amounts of money
through emergency procurement processes, which are increasingly being used to
purchase goods and services at highly inflated prices.
In one of the most startling
examples presented before the committee, he revealed that products valued at
around E10 had, in some instances, been procured by Government for up to E1500
through emergency orders.
The revelation left
legislators questioning whether emergency procurement is being abused at the
expense of taxpayers.
“There is no value for money.
Millions are being lost through tendering processes,” Matsebula told the
committee.
The Auditor-General warned
that despite laws designed to ensure fairness, transparency and accountability
in public procurement, Government continues to face serious challenges that
result in excessive spending and poor value for money.
The issue sparked heated
debate among PAC members, who argued that the procurement system appears unable
to prevent wasteful expenditure.
Deputy Speaker Madala Mhlanga
said the E10-to-E1500 example was evidence of deeper problems within the
country's tendering framework. He questioned how such transactions could pass
through procurement structures without raising red flags.
Mhlanga further recalled
concerns surrounding a controversial E263 million digitalisation tender that
came before Parliament during the 11th Parliament. He alleged that the company
awarded the contract did not possess a valid tax clearance certificate, was not
registered as a taxpayer and allegedly lacked a valid trading licence when the
tender process closed.
“There is something wrong in
the Tender Board. Millions and millions of taxpayers' money are being lost,”
said Mhlanga.
PAC member Hon. Tsembeni
Magongo also expressed frustration over what she described as a recurring
pattern where Government continues awarding emergency contracts to suppliers
who have previously failed to deliver.
 |
Public
Accounts Committee |
To read more of this report, click here
Police tortured suspect to get confession – Judge
By Sibusiso Tsabedze, eSwatini Observer, 8
June 2026
The High Court has found two
police officers responsible for torturing a Lubombo mechanic who was accused of
stealing tractor parts from his former employer.
This was contained in a
judgment delivered by Justice Sabelo Masuku who ruled that Sandile William
Hlongwane was unlawfully arrested, detained, assaulted and tortured by police
officers investigating a theft complaint that later unravelled when the allegedly
stolen tractor parts were found at the complainant’s own workshop.
Hlongwane had instituted
action against the National Commissioner of Police and Eswatini Government for
civil damages in the sum of E2 million.
Court records revealed that he
was tied to a bench, handcuffed beneath it and suffocated with a plastic bag by
police officers who were trying to force a confession.
The court declared Hlongwane’s
arrest and detention unlawful and found that Detective Constable Siyabonga
Shiba and Constable Dumsani Tsabedze assaulted and tortured him while acting
within the course and scope of their employment with the Royal Eswatini Police
Service.
Justice Masuku further ruled
that Hlongwane was entitled to claim damages for unlawful arrest, detention,
assault and torture, with the amount to be determined during a future hearing.
The judgment stems from events
of August 15 and 16, 2020 when Hlongwane, a mechanic who had worked for Moneni
businessman Cedric Ngwenya since 2014, was summoned to Manzini Police Station
over allegations that he had stolen tractor parts from Ngwenya’s workshop.
According to evidence accepted
by the court, Hlongwane reported to the station after receiving a call from
Detective Shiba.
Upon arrival, he was
questioned by Shiba and Tsabedze about tractor parts allegedly stolen from
Ngwenya. Hlongwane denied stealing anything and repeatedly asked police to
produce a list of the parts he was accused of taking.
The officers allegedly refused
and insisted that he already knew what he had stolen. The court heard that
matters quickly escalated.
Hlongwane testified that
Tsabedze slapped him and threatened him with further violence unless he
confessed. He told the court that officers then showed him a wooden bench they
called a “donkey”, forced him to lie on it facing upwards, tied his body and legs
to the bench with ropes and handcuffed his hands beneath it. A plastic bag was
then pulled over his head and mouth, making it difficult for him to breathe.
He said the officers left him
in the interrogation room and instructed him to strike the bench with his
handcuffs when he was ready to reveal where the parts were.
Desperate to end the ordeal,
Hlongwane said he eventually asked to call his family and tell them to
surrender tractor parts kept at his home even though they belonged to customers
and family members.
He testified that the torture
continued until a female police officer entered the room and questioned why he
was being treated that way when there were no exhibits linking him to the
alleged crime.
To read more of
this report, click here
https://www.eswatiniobserver.com/police-tortured-suspect-to-get-confession-judge/
Minister appoints ‘terrorist group member’
By Mfanukhona Nkambule, Times Sunday, 7 June
2026
MBABANE: Did Minister for
Public Works and Transport Chief Ndlaluhlaza Ndwandwe breach the Suppression of
Terrorism Act of 2008?
This follows the minister’s
appointment of a member of an organisation that was specified as a terrorist
entity to the Eswatini Road Safety Council. It has been observed that the
appointment of Nontsetselelo Nkambule, the Treasurer General of the proscribed
Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO) has sparked significant legal and political
controversy.
Adding fuel to fire is the
recent police statement seeking public assistance in locating Nkambule to help
the law enforcers in determining the authenticity of a reported kidnapping and
attempted murder case. The appointment, which was announced on
November 25, 2025, is understood to be a direct violation of the Suppression of
Terrorism Act, 2008.
This is understood to be
raising serious questions about the alignment between government’s
administrative actions and its national security legislation.
While the minister announced
the Board with the intention of ushering in a renewed mandate for the 2025–2028
term, a closer examination of Nkambule’s profile reveals a conflict with the
country’s laws. She serves as the treasurer general of SWAYOCO, the youth wing
of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO).
In its profile, SWAYOCO
describes itself as a militant wing of PUDEMO.
It must be said that both
organisations and two others were proscribed as terrorist entities by the
Eswatini Government, a pronouncement originally made by the late Prime Minister
Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini.
To read more of
this report click here
Ten Cabinet Ministers constitutionally not eligible
for re-appointment
By Zweli Martin
Dlamini, Swaziland News, June
8, 2026
MBABANE: Princess Lindiwe, the
Minister of Home Affairs and nine (9) other Cabinet Ministers are
constitutionally not eligible for re-appointment in the 2028-2033 Government
term.
Constitutionally, the King
cannot appoint Parliamentarians as Cabinet Ministers for two (2) consecutive
terms, other Ministers who are not eligible include Finance Minister Neal
Rijikernberg, Economic Planning and Development Minister Dr. Thambo Gina, Commerce
Minister Mancoba Khumalo, Public Service Minister Mabulala Maseko, Justice
Minister Prince Simelane, Labour Minister Phila Buthelezi, Public Works and
Transport Minister Chief Ndlaluhlaza Ndwandwe, Foreign Affairs Minister Pholile
Dlamini-Shakantu and Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Thulisile Dladla.
Acting Government Spokesperson
Thabile Mdluli was not immediately available for a comment.
Reached for comments by this Swaziland
News on Monday evening, lawyer Sibusiso Nhlabatsi confirmed that,
constitutionally, Cabinet Ministers cannot serve for two (2) consecutive terms.
“It’s Section 68 (6) of the
Constitution, some Ministers have served for two consecutive terms and
therefore, will not come back in 2028”, said the lawyer when asked to interpret
the Constitution.
Education and Training
Minister Owen Nxumalo who served as the Minister of Public Service during the
2013-2018 term is eligible for re-appointment, he was not a Parliamentarian
during the 2018-2023 term and therefore, was not in Cabinet for two (2) consecutive
terms.
It has been disclosed that,
some Cabinet Ministers who are not eligible for re-appointment have embarked on
massive looting of public funds so that they could leave with “Ingcamu” in the
event life “forces them to take a long journey to the political wilderness”.
Home Affairs Minister Princess
Lindiwe and her JC religious alleged corrupt cartel, was exposed by this
publication for allegedly stealing about R100million through African Drums
Events Management (Pty) Ltd, this was during the recently held King Mswati’s
forty (40) years on the Throne and birthday double celebration.
Ousted by the Trump Administration, U.S. immigrants
remain locked up in African kingdom
By Kate Morrissey, Capital & Main (U.S.), 9
June 2026
Held indefinitely,
immigrants imprisoned in Eswatini lack medical attention, food and clothing,
according to complaint.
A military plane carrying
five U.S. immigrants took off from Djibouti in July 2025.
Its destination was Eswatini,
a small country nestled on the border between South Africa and
Mozambique. Ruled
by a king, Eswatini had
made a deal with the Trump administration to receive up to 160 people removed
from the United States in exchange for $5.1 million.
According to a complaint filed
with the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, the men didn’t know
where they were going until the plane had almost landed.
As with the Venezuelan men sent to El Salvador last year by the Trump administration, when the
Eswatini-bound flight arrived, the government there placed the new arrivals in
a maximum security prison, where most remain today with no way to challenge
their detention. Unlike the case for the Venezuelan men in El Salvador,
Congress and the media have spent little time looking into the ongoing
imprisonment of the men in Eswatini.
But for the family members of
the people sent there, the separation has been devastating.
“He’s suffering some major
depression there as I suffer silently here,” said the life partner of a Cuban
man sent to Eswatini who asked not to be fully identified for fear of
retaliation.
She said she’s working two
jobs to take care of their family now that he’s gone.
When asked about the
situation, the Department of Homeland Security, through an unnamed
spokesperson, deferred to the State Department regarding the agreement with
Eswatini.
“The Trump Administration is
utilizing all lawful options to carry out the largest deportation operation in
history, just as President Trump promised,” the spokesperson said. “Anyone who
has been deported received full due process.”
The Eswatini government and
the U.S. State Department did not respond to requests for comment. When the
first flight landed in Eswatini, the Trump administration disparaged the men because
of their criminal records.
Since July, two more flights
have landed in Eswatini,
most recently in March, bringing the total number of immigrants removed from
the United States and then imprisoned there to 19 people. A couple of them have
since been deported to their home countries.
Beatrice Njeri, regional
litigator for Africa at Global Strategic Litigation Council and a lawyer
representing several of the men in the complaint with the commission, called
the conditions the men have been living in inhumane.
“We are seeing African states
being complicit to human rights violations committed by the U.S.,” Njeri said.
Eswatini is among at least
eight African countries that have received people removed from the U.S. who do
not have any ties to the receiving country under agreements with the Trump
administration, according to reporting from journalist Gillian Brockell, who tracks
Immigration and Customs Enforcement flights. The U.S. government has also made
agreements with countries in Asia, Europe and the Western Hemisphere.
A team of lawyers including
Njeri is working to combat those removals by filing complaints with regional
human rights commissions.
To read more of
this report, click here
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