Domestic Politics

Pro-democracy groups made calls for regime change, while the country geared itself up for national elections due in 2018. For example, the International Union of Socialist Youth called on governments, regional bodies and multilateral organisations to pressurise the Swazi regime to introduce multi-party elections. The Swaziland Solidarity Network also called on governments and activists across Africa to support the campaign for freedom in Swaziland ahead of a ‘Mobilising International Solidarity for the Democratisation of Swaziland’ conference that took place in July in South Africa. The People’s United Democratic Movement, the largest opposition group in Swaziland, stated that they would not contest the national elections in 2018. As part of its voter education tour, Swaziland’s Elections and Boundaries Commission (ebc) called for an end to ritual killings around voting time. The ebc was concerned about reports of people mysteriously disappearing across Swaziland as there had been evidence of ritual murders in past elections.

Strikes and protests also took place throughout the year. In January, approximately 100 non-academic staff at Limkokwing University in Mbabane protested about working conditions and short-term contracts. Nurses engaged in strike action over the severe shortages of medical drugs. A bus protest against a corrupt police official and a student protest over the late payment of grants took place during February. In October, members of public sector unions such as the National Public Service and Allied Workers Union, the Swaziland National Association of Teachers and the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union protested to call for salary increases.

Governance indices reflected a poor human rights record. In November, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation released its Index of African Governance, in which Swaziland came 50th out of 54 African countries, with a score of 48.9 out of 100 in a range of four areas of governance and a score of 24.6 out of 100 in participation and human rights. Human rights abuses were evident in the excessive use of force by the Swazi police. In February, police fired warning shots during the bus protest to disperse crowds as well as firing live rounds during the student protest. Police also exercised severe force during the public service workers’ strike. There was growing concern both locally and internationally about the level of police control, given that 35% of the entire Swazi government workforce was assigned to security-related functions. The us State Department’s 2017 Human Rights Report on Swaziland reported that, while there were “mechanisms in place to investigate and punish abuse and corruption, there were few prosecutions or disciplinary actions taken against security offices accused of abuses”. The police were accused of spying at a Pensioners’ Association meeting, for example. This had been an ongoing occurrence in previous years and distrust of the police continued to grow. Anti-religious policies were implemented in contravention of civil liberties. The Swazi Ministry of Education introduced a ruling that the only religion to be taught in public schools would be Christianity. Print and technological media censorship continued throughout the year. It was reported that two journalists from the Swaziland’s state-controlled television almost lost their jobs for covering the protest march by public sector workers calling for salary increases.

Gender discrimination continued. According to a unicef report in October, one in three females suffered some form of sexual violence during their childhood, one in four experienced physical violence and three in ten experienced emotional abuse as children. Discriminatory laws against women and girls remained prevalent. Married men continued to enjoy more privileges and status than their wives. For example, the Swazi Customary Law and Marriage Act specifies that “married women require the consent of their husbands to enter into certain contracts, including accessing credit from financial institutions”. In August, the Southern African Litigation Centre, and Swaziland’s Women and Law in Southern Africa Swaziland went to court to challenge these discriminatory laws. The case was ongoing at year’s end.

Foreign Affairs

The eu and the government met in February to review the performance of their cooperation in 2016 and to plan key priorities for 2017 and beyond. The review indicated satisfaction with Swaziland’s cooperation with the eu, which fell within the Cotonou Partnership, a treaty between the eu and the acp countries. As part of the epa ratified in October 2016, the eu would support two new programmes related to education and training with a total value of E (elangeni) 45 m for the period 2017/18. A Water Harvesting Small Earth Dam Project with a total value of E 42 m was also approved for the next five years, which was to construct 75 small dams and reservoirs to respond to the drought situation and promote water accessibility. These programme estimates were endorsed by the eu delegation in December 2016 and January 2017, when the partners also signed a new Financing Agreement worth € 5 m in support of capacity strengthening and technical cooperation for the government and non-state actors.

In March, King Mswati made a business visit to India accompanied by his ministers of foreign affairs, trade, economic planning, health and agriculture. It was reported that talks with the Indian government included plans to revive the Ngwenya Mine, which had collapsed in 2014.

A joint meeting was held in Swaziland in June for the sadc ministers responsible for education and training, science, technology and innovation to review the progress and implementation of on-going programmes and initiatives in their respective sectors, particularly in relation to the regional priority agenda.

Swaziland continued with claims for land in parts of South Africa. The state-owned newspaper ‘The Observer’ reported that the Border Determination Special Committee, appointed by King Mswati, aimed to recover all the Swazi land lost during the colonial era, which extends as far as Pretoria and the Limpopo province. The claim also applied to parts of Mozambique.

King Mswati addressed the un General Assembly in September. The key issues he raised included commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals (sdgs); pledges for assistance with drought relief; and support from educated facilitators and the international community for the sadc University of Innovation and Technology, which would produce skilled manpower and provide solutions to meet the skills gap. King Mswati also declared the intention that Swaziland would be free of aids by 2022, highlighted malaria eradication efforts, and recalled that Swaziland had been elected Chair of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance during the au summit in January. In closing, he called for the participation of Taiwan in the un, stating that the country had demonstrated commitment and aligned itself with the un’s priorities.

In December, us President Donald Trump endorsed the re-admission of Swaziland into agoa , and the country’s eligibility for trade benefits in 2018. Swaziland had been suspended from agoa in January 2015 after it reportedly failed to meet five benchmarks, including: the full passage of amendments to the Industrial Relations Act; full passage of amendments to sections 40 and 97 of the Industrial Relations Act relating to civil and criminal liability of union leaders during protest actions; and establishing a code of good practice for the police during public protests. The failure to respect workers’ rights, including freedoms of assembly, association and expression, also contributed to its removal from the list of beneficiaries.

South Africa’s African National Congress called for Swaziland to be referred to sadc for abuse of human rights and suppression of dissent and political activity. In 2004, Swaziland had ratified the un International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its progress report had been due in 2005. In view of the failure to submit this report, the Human Rights Committee scheduled a review of the kingdom in July.

Socioeconomic Developments

Swaziland continued to be classified as a lower-middle-income country, but its income distribution was highly skewed, with an estimated 20% of the population controlling 80% of the nation’s wealth. Swaziland had the world’s highest hiv prevalence rate, with more than one-quarter of the adult population infected by hiv/aids.

In terms of its exports, sugar and soft drinks concentrates were the largest foreign exchange earners. Other exports included wood pulp and cotton. Mining had declined in importance in recent years and the only iron ore mine had closed in 2014, but coal, gold and diamond mining, and stone quarrying, continued on a small scale. South Africa continued to be Swaziland’s most important trading partner, accounting for 90% of imports and 60% of exports. Swaziland continued to rely heavily on the sugar industry and Coca-Cola’s concentration plant contributed about 40% to the country’s gdp. Many casual labourers in the sugar industry earned around $ 5 a day. Real gdp growth declined to an estimated 1%, down from 1.3% in 2016. According to the AfDB’s Economic Outlook, growth was sluggish, particularly in the wholesale and retail trade, but also in financial services, where output was hindered by reduced government spending due to ongoing fiscal challenges. In spite of progress in the agricultural sector following the El Niño-induced drought of 2015, livestock production fell. The manufacturing sector improved, driven mainly by investment in textiles. Construction activity decreased due to limited fiscal space, which stalled the implementation of public projects.

Unemployment and poverty rates remained high. Unemployment stood at 40%, and two-thirds of the population survived on less than a dollar a day. In September, unicef released its Swaziland Humanitarian Situation Report, which outlined the severity of the drought and its consequences. A study by the National Disaster Management Agency indicated that total revenue lost due to the 2016 drought stood at $ 296 m, which represented 7% of Swaziland’s gdp in 2016. Apart from the lost revenue, the drought also created severe food shortages. One in three people were in need of emergency food assistance, with 640,000 potentially affected by some degree of food insecurity. The consequent increased level of malnutrition, particularly in children, was further exacerbated by the collapse of the school feeding scheme.

Following a year of anti-Indian sentiment, private and public schools were forced to conduct lessons in Siswati. The government also ordered schools to provide religious education only in Christianity. Other religious groups slammed this, saying that it fuelled intolerance. Swazi schools opened for the new school year with new religious education textbooks that referred only to the Bible. Schools were obliged to submit their religious studies syllabi at the start of each term to show that they contained no Islamic or Jewish references. Criticism was particularly strong from the Muslim community, which made up one-tenth of the population. People with albinism were also victimised and targeted by witchdoctors, who used body parts to make spells that they claimed brought good luck.

The health sector faced severe shortages of medical drugs, which led to a strike by nurses. $ 18 m was owed to drug companies in May and delivery of medicines was suspended until bills were paid. The Ministry of Health, with support from who, conducted a sensitisation workshop for technical officers and senior officials on the sdgs to provide a platform for senior health systems technical officials, policy makers and key stakeholders to review, discuss and coordinate efforts towards attaining the health sdgs. At an hiv conference held in Paris in July, a Swazi Health Ministry official indicated that the rate of new infections had been halved in the last five years as a result of boosting access to antiretrovirals.

In the education sector, the government approved a Ministry of Education and Training decision to introduce school fees, effectively ending free primary education, which had been available in the country since 2005. The Swaziland National Association of Teachers criticised the decision as a violation of the right to primary education guaranteed in the country’s Constitution.

In September, following the annual Umhlanga or Reed Dance ceremony, King Mswati picked his fourteenth wife; about 40,000 young women participated in the event. The ‘Business Insider’ reported that King Mswati was the third-wealthiest king in Africa with an estimated $ 200 m.