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/ 19 September 2008
Voters lined up on Friday to cast their ballot in Swaziland to elect lawmakers under a Constitution that still bars political parties.
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/ 18 September 2008
Swaziland, Africa’s last absolute monarchy, faced protests on Thursday on the eve of much-criticised elections.
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/ 15 September 2008
Mediation between the Swazi government and labour movements and opposition parties is due to start within weeks.
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/ 13 September 2008
Financial assistance from the African Development Bank could bolster negotiations, writes Jason Moyo.
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/ 6 September 2008
Swaziland’s King Mswati III promised better times for his subjects on Saturday at a lavish celebration marking 40 years of independence.
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/ 6 September 2008
Robert Mugabe received a rousing reception in Swaziland on Saturday as he joined King Mswati III for the king’s lavish birthday celebrations.
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/ 4 September 2008
Swaziland and its king are throwing a joint 40th birthday bash this weekend, but the mood is far from celebratory in this land of paupers and princes.
The women participating in the reed dance in KwaZulu-Natal must not expose themselves in public, the African National Congress Women’s League said.
Traditional sexual practices including polygamy and promiscuity are driving rampant HIV-Aids in Swaziland where nearly 40% of adults are infected.
Scores of Swazis took to the streets to demonstrate against the king’s wives’ trip abroad while people go hungry.
Swaziland’s King Mswati III on Thursday sent more than 50 000 young women into the fields to cut reeds for an annual ritual next week.
Swazi women have challenged King Mswati III on the monarchy’s lavish lifestyle in the face of abject poverty and disease.
More than 1 500 mostly HIV-positive women staged an unprecedented protest in Swaziland on Thursday against a foreign shopping tour.
Cosatu and organisations from Zimbabwe and Swaziland led a march in Johannesburg on Saturday against Robert Mugabe and King Mswati III.
Cosatu is to launch a week-long boycott of goods destined for Zimbabwe and Swaziland.
Swaziland’s King Mswati III summoned his subjects to the country’s traditional capital for a meeting on Tuesday, amid speculation he was to dissolve Parliament ahead of a national election.
If there was ever a period that so ably demonstrated the febrile nature of politics it has been the past week or two. As Jacob Zuma strode into Downing Street after having met with the British prime minister, looking surprisingly at ease in the media glare, Thabo Mbeki was quietly meeting King Mswati III which, with all due respect to the Swazi monarch, pretty much sums up the state of play: Zuma on the ascendant, Mbeki on the slide.
When was the last time you heard from Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa, Free State Premier Beatrice Marshoff, Northern Cape’s Dipuo Peters or even KwaZulu-Natal’s S’bu Ndebele? I reckon not lately. It may be true that some, such as Marshoff and Peters, have always had a low public profile anyway. But Shilowa and Ndebele?
The government of Swaziland, one of Africa’s poorest and most Aids-ridden countries, has defended plans to spend nearly ,5-million on celebrations to mark the 40th anniversary of independence. The opposition has called for the celebrations, which will also mark King Mswati III’s 40th birthday, to be scrapped or scaled down.
Swazi maidens started arriving on Monday at the country’s spiritual capital, Ludzidzini, ahead of this week’s annual reed dance, where bare-breasted virgins dance before Africa’s last absolute monarch. A royal announcement aired on state radio summoned all maidens to register on Tuesday.