Swaziland : News

[IPS]Maphungwane -The overcast sky is a sign that it might rain, and Happy Shongwe, a smallholder farmer from rural Maphungwane in eastern Swaziland, is not exactly happy. (AllAfrica)

[Swazi Media]A demand by a chief in Swaziland that his subjects pay him E5,000 (more than two years' income for some of his people) as a 'tribute' highlights the power chiefs have over people in the kingdom of the autocratic King Mswati III. (AllAfrica)

[Gender Links]Siphofaneni -Members of the Swaziland Rural Women's Assembly (SRWA) along with gender activists in Swaziland and beyond are still reeling in shock after the Royal Swaziland Police Service (RSPS) effectively silenced activists and shut down a peaceful women’s solidarity march that the SRWA organised on 29 May. (AllAfrica)

[Swazi Media]Three members of the pro-democracy group SWAYOCO charged with sedition for carrying a banner at an election rally in Swaziland say they have been beaten up while in prison awaiting trial. (AllAfrica)

[Swazi Media]MTN, which has absolute monarch King Mswati III as a major shareholder, and is the sole mobile phone company in Swaziland, has been attacked for sponsoring registration for the kingdom's controversial national election. (AllAfrica)

[Swazi Media]Swaziland is to train more police cadets for the discredited government of Equatorial Guinea. (AllAfrica)

[Swazi Media]Swaziland's Sikhuphe Airport, the multi-billion rand vanity project of King Mswati III, has construction flaws and is likely to be unusable, a South African newspaper has claimed. (AllAfrica)

Three members of the pro-democracy group SWAYOCO charged with sedition for carrying a banner at an election rally in Swaziland say they have been beaten up while in prison awaiting trial.

MTN, which has absolute monarch King Mswati III as a major shareholder , and is the sole mobile phone company in Swaziland, has been attacked for sponsoring registration for the kingdom's controversial national election.

This was announced only days after President Teodoro Nguema Obiange of Equatorial Guinea claimed that his party, the ruling Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea , had won 99 of the 100 seats in the lower house of assembly and 54 of 55 senate seats in elections held last month.

Swaziland's Sikhuphe Airport, the multi-billion rand vanity project of King Mswati III, has construction flaws and is likely to be unusable, a South African newspaper has claimed .

[Swazi Media]Armed police stopped a youth group in Swaziland from holding an election workshop at a local church. (AllAfrica)

[Swazi Media]Swaziland's Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) Chair Chief Gija Dlamini is backtracking over the number of people expected to be registered for this September's national poll. (AllAfrica)

[Swazi Media]King Mswati III of Swaziland, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch, has announced the controversial elections to the House of Assembly in his kingdom will be held on 20 September. (AllAfrica)

[COSATU]The oppressed people of Swaziland via their pro-democracy organizations, namely the People's United Democratic Movement [PUDEMO], the Swaziland Youth Congress [SWAYOCO], the Communist Party of Swaziland [CPS] and the April 12 Movement [A12] engaged the Swaziland Solidarity Network [SSN] to use its network within South Africa and abroad to spearhead the boycott against the oppressive king Mswati's dictatorship. (AllAfrica)

A senior government engineer has warned that construction flaws in Swaziland's new Sikhuphe International Airport are likely to render the R2.36-billion facility unusable.

King Mswati III of Swaziland, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch, has announced the controversial elections to the House of Assembly in his kingdom will be held on 20 September.

Eight farmers and officials from the Kingdom of Swaziland were given certificates of success over the weekend at the completion of their 2-week training course in Bangkok provided under the initiative of HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.

Swaziland, Africa's last absolute monarchy, will hold elections on September 20, officials said, a poll that unions and opposition leaders have dismissed as a mere "rubber stamp" of the autocratic rule of King Mswati III.

[OSISA]Swazis have long known that there is one law for King Mswati and his cronies and another for everyone else - and this has just been brutally confirmed by a Supreme Court ruling that will see 150 people evicted from their land and homes without any form of compensation. (AllAfrica)

[Swazi Media]The national elections have started in Swaziland amid chaos. As it sets out to register voters, the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) is unsure how many people are eligible to vote in the kingdom and has almost certainly under estimated the number substantially. (AllAfrica)

[Swazi Media]One of Swaziland's most senior traditionalists Ntfonjeni Dlamini, who once made international news for whipping virgins, has died. (AllAfrica)

[Swazi Media]Kenworthy News Media June 3, 2013 (AllAfrica)

[WFP]Mbabane, Swaziland -The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is joining forces with Zumba Fitness-the world's largest dance-fitness company - to hold a Zumba Fitness Party in the capital today. The event will celebrate "The Great Calorie Drive," a campaign created by Zumba Fitness that supports WFP's efforts to fight hunger in Swaziland and Nicaragua. (AllAfrica)

[OSISA]The Swazi authorities might have removed political parties from the electoral playing field, but they seem to have totally failed to remove corruption. Indeed, the convoluted laws governing campaigning in national elections have only served to entrench the use of dubious means to canvass for votes. (AllAfrica)

[MISA]New evidence has been heard in the defamation case against the Times of Swaziland, which resumed today after proceedings came to a halt earlier in the week owing to faulty recording equipmnet in the High Court. (AllAfrica)

[Swazi Media]Swaziland is eager to expand its ties with Iran, the Iranian news agency FNA reported this week. (AllAfrica)

[Swazi Media]Police refused to allow women in Swaziland to march in protest against gender-based violence. (AllAfrica)

[Swazi Media]Starving people in Swaziland are being denied food by the government because it is punishing the kingdom's members of parliament for passing a vote of no confidence against it, local and international media have claimed. (AllAfrica)

[Swazi Media]Voter registration in Swaziland is in chaos - even the electoral board running the election does not know how many people are eligible to vote in the kingdom. (AllAfrica)

[VOA]The chairman of Swaziland's Elections and Boundaries Commission says he is confident that this year's national elections would be transparent and credible. (AllAfrica)