Country Profile: SWAZILAND

This country profile was published in November 2010 in our annual 'Africa in 2011' issue. The next edition, 'Africa in 2012' will be on sale in November 2011.

CountryProfile StatsSwaziland

Thy kingdom come into trouble

The lack of human and democratic rights in Africa’s last absolute monarchy could soon become a major issue for King Mswati III. A ‘Global Week of Action for Democracy’ in September 2010 unnerved the government to the extent that activists were intimidated by police and foreigners summarily deported.

?The action angered a number of foreign governments and could make them less willing to provide aid essential to the country’s deteriorating economy.?

Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini caused international outrage when he said that foreigners who went to Swaziland to support the democracy movement should undergo sipakatane, a form of torture that involves flogging the bare soles of a person’s feet with a spiked wooden or metal implement. ?

Amnesty International issued a special appeal to support political activists, human-rights defenders and trade unionists, who it said were at risk of harassment, ill-treatment and arrest as the authorities use the Suppression of Terrorism Act to muzzle dissent. The US State Department has reported that the human-rights issues in the country range from extrajudicial killings by security forces to restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly.?

Politics within the king’s palace and within the halls of government now resembles the stuff of soap operas. The government was rocked by a scandal in mid-2010 when King Mswati III sacked and jailed Justice Minister ?Ndumiso Mamba after he was caught sleeping with the king’s 12th wife.

?The economic pinch could become severe in 2011 following a sharp decline in revenues from the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU). The annual revenue for 2010-11 fell from $750m in the previous year to $250m. Previously, SACU revenues had accounted for about 70% of government income. The government estimated total revenue in 2009 at $1.1bn, while expenditures rose to $1.3bn.

?In 2010, Finance Minister Majozi Sithole called on all government departments to reduce budgets by 14% but was unable to secure full cooperation. Cuts averaging 8% were eventually agreed, placing a big strain on education and health services because 69% of the population live in poverty and 40% are unemployed.

?The government’s refusal to cut public sector salaries or sack workers resulted in punitive action in August 2010 from the IMF and World Bank, which refused to support Swaziland’s application for a $500m loan from the African Development Bank. As 2011 begins, Sithole will be searching for alternative sources of finance, and he has already warned that non-SACU government revenues were insufficient to cover the government wage bill. At the end of the year, the government said that it would try to work with the IMF to reduce the deficit from 13% of GDP to 5%. ?

Subsistence agriculture occupies approximately 70% of the population and the manufacturing sector has diversified since the mid-1980s. Sugar and wood pulp remain important foreign-exchange earners. Mining has declined in importance, with only coal mines and stone quarries remaining active. The government has been trying to increase the number and size of small and medium-sized enterprises and to attract foreign direct investment, but with little success. In the World Bank’s 2010 Doing Business Report, the Swazi business environment was ranked lowest in the SACU region. ?

Real GDP grew at only 1.2% in 2009, but the IMF predicts 2% and 2.5% growth in 2010 and 2011. However, much depends on developments in South Africa, from which the country receives more than 90% of its imports and to which it sends 60% of its exports.