Swaziland soldiers and police turned away demonstrators from Mbabane and the union group was declared illegal, leaving the protests quite futile.
<b>Louise Redvers</b> reports that ordinary people are losing patience because of the worsening economic crisis — but the king has no answers.
King Mswati III of Swaziland has cancelled plans for a lavish "silver jubilee" as his kingdom tries to claw its way out of a financial crisis.
Two leaders of the pro-democracy protests in Swaziland will stay in jail for now after the judge, who lives near one of the men, recused himself.
Swazi cops raided homes and detained activists amid claims of torture, on the eve of protests against King Mswati III, Africa’s last absolute monarch.
Zambia on Wednesday became the first AU member to call for Madagascar’s suspension from the bloc after Marc Ravalomanana was toppled as president.
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/ 20 September 2008
Observers monitoring elections in Swaziland expressed concerns on Friday over the exclusion of political parties in Africa’s last absolute monarchy.
More than 1 500 mostly HIV-positive women staged an unprecedented protest in Swaziland on Thursday against a foreign shopping tour.
A Cabinet minister is one of 30 Swaziland businessmen who are to be investigated by the country’s main anti-corruption unit over how they amassed their fortunes. Prime Minister Absalom Themba Dlamini told Parliament earlier this week that a Cabinet minister had amassed more than 30-million emalangeni in his bank account.
Officially, Swazi opposition leader Gabriel Mkhumane died at the hands of criminals when he was shot dead in Nelspruit at the beginning of this month. But fellow opposition supporters reject the official explanation for his murder and believe that he was assassinated by government operatives.
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.
A substantial increase in the number of Swazis requiring food aid has raised some questions in this Southern African country. Why the rise, and how long are the higher numbers likely to prevail? More fundamentally, what has caused such widespread and enduring hunger to begin with?
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/ 29 November 2007
Hundreds of people have been left homeless in the landlocked kingdom of Swaziland after a severe storm wreaked havoc, disaster officials said on Thursday. Ben Nsibandze, chairperson of the National Disaster Management Agency, said 76 households had been given tents and blankets after the heavy rains that began sweeping through Swaziland on Tuesday.
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/ 24 November 2007
Nearly one-third of Swaziland’s children are considered orphaned and vulnerable as Aids takes its toll on the country, a study commissioned by the state’s emergency-response council said on Friday. Life expectancy in the country dropped from 60 years in 1997 to the world’s lowest of 31,3 in 2004.
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/ 24 October 2007
Swaziland is in the grip of another drought, and withered maize stalks in dusty fields, rural women who spend ever more time searching for potable water, residents of urban informal settlements forced to use polluted streams, and dropping river levels all testify to a water crisis.
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.
Trade-union leaders in Swaziland have threatened more strikes to force Africa’s last absolute monarchy to reform, arguing that the lack of democracy is crippling the economy. A two-day strike, the biggest in a decade, brought the tiny landlocked country to a standstill last week, and union leaders are threatening further stoppages.
Down on two occasions in a protracted, vacillating penalty shoot-out, a youthful Bafana Bafana team won 5-4 on penalties after a goalless and sparsely attended Cosafa Cup game against Malawi at the Somhlolo Stadium in Mbabane on Saturday afternoon. The ultimate hero of the game was goalkeeper and captain-of-the-day Moeneeb Josephs.
At least 60 cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) have been detected this year in the Southern African kingdom of Swaziland, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday. Swaziland’s TB programmes manager, Themba Dlamini, said that none of those with the disease had died but added that they had all been placed in isolated wards in hospital.
Africa’s last absolute monarch, Swaziland’s King Mswati III, has secretly married his 13th wife, whom he chose in 2005 amid outrage over her age, a newspaper reported on Sunday. Phindile Nkambule, now 19-years-old, was attending high school in the capital Mbabane before she dropped out in 2005 to assume royal duties.
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/ 12 February 2007
Premier Soccer League champions Mamelodi Sundowns qualified for the second round of the Confederation of African Football’s Champions League at a canter in beating Royal Leopards 2-0 in a second-leg, first-round game at the Somhlolo Stadium on the outskirts of Mbabane, Swaziland, on Sunday afternoon.
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/ 2 February 2007
Male nurse Moshoeshoe Makhubu has helped in many circumcisions but is visibly nervous as he prepares to undergo the snip himself, a procedure he grudgingly admits may boost chances of remaining HIV-free. In Swaziland, staying clear of the virus is hard as close to 40% of adults are living with HIV/Aids, the highest infection rate anywhere in the world.
A government Aids-awareness campaign that mimics SMSs between lovers has angered activists in HIV-ravaged Swaziland, who say it implies people living with the disease are promiscuous. The campaign features pictures of a cellphone screen bearing SMSs such as ”Let’s have a quickie, my husband’s not around.”
Swaziland’s education minister on Wednesday dismissed a threat by school teachers to expel more than 69Â 000 orphaned or poor students in Swaziland because the government had not paid their fees. ”There is nowhere in law where such a provision exists … It is government’s policy that they should all go to school,” Constance Simelane said on local television.
Sugar production and textile manufacturing in Swaziland are on their way out, taking tens of thousands of jobs with them. Just how far Swaziland’s employment figures have deteriorated is evidenced in research being carried out by the International Labour Organisation.
Swaziland’s home-based caregivers are too few and too poorly paid to cope with the growing numbers of bedridden Aids patients, but in the absence of adequate health facilities and trained professionals, they are seen as the immediate answer to a national emergency.
An initiative by the child-welfare NGO Save the Children is managing to overcome the timidity of urban dwellers in Swaziland about ”getting involved” in neighbours’ domestic disputes. ”Looking the other way … has led to tragedies,” says Elizabeth Kgalolo, programme director at Save the Children.
The Royal Swazi Sun Golf Club in Swaziland’s majestic Ezulwini Valley promises a wonderful challenge for the Sunshine Tour field arriving for the R550 000 Samsung Royal Swazi Sun Open, which tees off this week from May 3-6. The evergreen course, playing to an increased yardage of 5 983m, has now grown into several changes affected by course superintendent Gaerun Wilkinson over the last two years.
Africa’s last absolute monarch has invited banned opposition parties to enter the political playing field in Swaziland, speaking publicly on the issue for the first time in a rare interview. King Mswati III this week will celebrate 20 years since he ascended to the throne at the age of 18 in the small mountainous kingdom.
A police officer’s flat was firebombed in Swaziland in the first such incident since the release on bail of 16 opposition members accused of staging a string of arson attacks, an official said on Tuesday. The attack on Monday targeted an apartment in eastern Swaziland, about 200km from the capital, Mbabane, police said.
Sifiso Mamba wades through his dense, waist-high maize, uprooting every second stalk. He planted during a time of optimism over expected rains in Swaziland, but is now being forced to destroy part of his crop to save the rest. He farms on communal land in Lavumisa, about 10km from the South African border in southern Swaziland.
About a dozen opposition members, accused of carrying out a spate of firebombings in Swaziland, have been beaten in prison, a defence lawyer told a high court on Thursday. Three of the 16, accused of high treason, stated they were attacked late on Wednesday by about 50 prison warders.