James Hall

How is a small country to compete in a global marketplace where size is rewarded? Case in point is the tiny Southern African country of Swaziland, nestled between geographic giants South Africa and Mozambique. Its neighbouring countries also have booming economies, while Swaziland is mired in its 10th year of declining economic growth.

While Swaziland’s soaring HIV prevalence and the spending habits of King Mswati III are issues that often land the country in the headlines, problems also loom on another front: about a quarter of Swazis are currently dependent on international food aid. Just more than 100 000 tonnes of the staple food, maize, will have to be imported in the coming months

A new advertising campaign aimed at curtailing teenage HIV rates by promoting abstinence is using a combination of traditional and modern values in its appeal to Swazi youth. The SiSwati phrase "<i>Ngoba likusasa nelami</i> [because tomorrow is mine]" has been chosen as the theme of the initiative, which got under way with full-page advertisements in Swaziland’s two national newspapers.

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.

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.

<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.

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.

The government of Swaziland has allocated R2-million in its budget for an anti-corruption office that does not function, but is sorely needed. "Corruption is part of any national government, any business, any place from a school headmaster’s office to a religious organisation where money and influence are found," says an Mbabane attorney with the Swaziland Law Society.

A new education initiative has been started in Swaziland to assist children who have lost parents to the Aids pandemic. The government says it will start paying the tuition fees of all Aids orphans, many of whom would not be able to attend school otherwise.