For a country struggling with a stubborn unemployment rate of more than 40%, the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) seems a welcome solution to joblessness. So, it comes as no surprise that Swaziland’s Minister of Enterprise and Employment, Lutfo Dlamini, is an enthusiastic proponent of these businesses.
Passions of the heart rather than financial woes account for a growing number of suicides in Southern African nations as diverse and as prosperous and well-developed as South Africa and small, traditional such as Swaziland. Teenage suicide is on the upswing, doubling since 1990 for children between the ages 10 and 14, according to the South African Depression and Anxiety Support Group.
The custom of paying a bride price — referred to in Swaziland as lobola — is a longstanding tradition in this Southern African country, which is also home to Africa’s last absolute monarchy. But changing times and social trends are bringing the custom into question — among men as well as women.
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/ 24 February 2005
There are several reasons why women’s rights activists might welcome Swaziland’s new Constitution, intended to replace the document that was suspended by King Sobhuza in 1973. Then again, there are also reasons why they might not. "The only way to see if the Constitution’s promise can be fulfilled is to test it once it is the law of the land," says a teacher from Manzini.
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/ 24 January 2005
In May last year, teachers in Swaziland were at loggerheads with the government over the delicate matter of admitting Aids orphans to schools free of charge. With the new academic year looming, has the situation improved? Certainly, Minister of Education Constance Simelane is making all the right noises.
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/ 14 January 2005
South Africa’s agreement to take seriously Swaziland’s claim to its national territory has implications for all of Africa, and the pledges African countries have made to honour boundaries drawn up during the colonial era, diplomats have said. Because of colonial-era territorial gerrymandering, more Swazis live outside Swaziland than in the small country left behind within diminished borders.
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/ 2 December 2004
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/142915/aids_icon.gif" align=left>Read the obituaries in Swaziland, and you will discover that many people here die from unspecified "lingering illnesses". Attend funerals, and you may hear that tuberculosis, dysentery, diaorrhea — even flu — are also proving exceptionally lethal. Virtually no-one, it seems, is dying of Aids. This is despite the fact that an HIV prevalence of 38,8% has given Swaziland the highest Aids infection rate in the world.
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/ 14 September 2004
National airports are the primary gateways to nations today. From the design of a terminal building to the swiftness of baggage retrieval, airports give visitors an all-important first impression of a country’s modernity and capacity to provide services. They are also prestige projects for governments, however, which can lead to problems. Take the situation in Swaziland, for example.
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/ 3 September 2004
Southern African meteorologists say regional residents can expect another year of mostly normal rainfall, but with drought-stricken areas repeating dry patterns that have persisted for years and Indian Ocean nations subject to more cyclones. The prognosticators are quite aware that weather has become a matter of political consequence.
Southern Africa is responding to its Aids pandemic with new programmes that promoters say must be as adaptable as HIV itself. "Just as HIV mutates, frustrating efforts to come up with a vaccine, so do our prevention, mitigation and treatment efforts have to be flexible and innovative," says Sylvia Kunene, a counsellor with a voluntary testing centre in Nelspruit, South Africa.