Swaziland

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.

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.

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.

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 69 000 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.

The head of Swaziland’s oldest political party has pledged to officially register his organisation, testing whether Swaziland’s new Constitution has really marked the end of decades of a royal decree prohibiting political opposition. At a meeting of the Ngwane National Liberatory Congress president Obed Dlamini offered veiled criticism of King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

Petrol bombings of government targets in Swaziland continue unabated despite the arrest of 16 members of banned political organisations in connection with the attacks. At the weekend, two flats belonging to police officers at a police housing development in the capital, Mbabane, were fire bombed.

The treason case of 16 opposition activists who allegedly fire-bombed government offices in Swaziland was postponed on Tuesday because the accused were not taken to court to attend the hearing. The 16 members of the banned opposition People’s United Democratic Movement were expected to apply for bail but their lawyers asked for a postponement because the group was left behind bars during the court hearing.

Swazi police have arrested a 14th opposition activist for treason related to a spate of petrol-bomb attacks against courthouses and police officers late last year, officials said on Friday. Bonginkose Dlamini, the secretary general of the opposition People’s United Democratic Movement, was arrested on Thursday evening.

Nine democracy activists were remanded in custody in Swaziland on Tuesday after brief court appearances in connection with a spate of petrol bombings in Africa’s last absolute monarchy. A police spokesperson said the nine — all members of the banned People’s United Democratic Movement — were rounded up over the weekend.