By Velaphi Mamba.

Eswatini’s poverty is neither natural, accidental nor inevitable. 

It is engineered and royally manufactured. In a country of just 1.2 million people – small enough to govern efficiently, plan coherently, and deliver universal social goods – mass deprivation persists not because of scarcity, but because of pervasive royal extraction. 

The concentration of wealth and power in the royal household has distorted the political economy, diverted public resources, and foreclosed the possibility of a shared national future. 

Governed correctly, Eswatini could deliver a spectacular demographic dividend in which no LiSwati lives in poverty. 

It is my conviction as the founder of Visionary Perspectives eSwatini that this country should not be having poor people. There is more than enough wealth to go around for all emaSwati. 

That wealth is concentrated in the hands of a greedy royal elite and its selectorate. And that must change.

In Eswatini’s case, the demographic dividend is not blocked by population structure, but by political structure – by a system that captures national wealth instead of converting it into broad-based and inclusive human development. By regional standards, Eswatini’s macroeconomic fundamentals are not catastrophic.

GDP per capita compares favourably with many SADC peers; the country has arable land, water, customs revenue, and a strategic location. What it lacks is accountable and visionary governance.

The state is organized not to maximize social welfare, but to sustain an anachronistic and parasitic royal system that treats national wealth as private patrimony. 

This is the central contradiction: a modern economy yoked to a pre-modern political order. This cannot and must not be allowed to continue.Poverty in Eswatini is clearly and consistently manufactured. It is the outcome of systematic misallocation: of budgets bloated to maintain palaces, stipends, security apparatuses, and opaque commercial interests, while health, education, housing, and youth employment remain chronically underfunded. 

The opportunity cost is staggering. 

Every Lilangeni absorbed by the bottomless pit of royal consumption is a Lilangeni stolen from sustainable and inclusive social development. This is not only grossly inefficient; it is morally indefensible.

A democratic transition and the re-engineering of the Swazi nation state offer a clear and credible alternative. Reassigning national wealth away from the royal household and toward public purposes would immediately expand fiscal space.

Two major institutional reforms are foundational together with the political program of re-asserting the sovereignty of the people.These two interventions must necessarily be preceded by an irreversible takeover of the instruments of state from the royal family.

The restoration of the dignity and sovereignty of our people is an unavoidable generational mission that we must fulfil with utmost urgency and clear minded intensity. It is only under these circumstances that these two institutional reforms can thrive.  

First, the transformation of Tibiyo TakaNgwane into Tibiyo TemaSwati Sovereign Fund – currently a secretive royal conglomerate – into a transparent sovereign wealth fund under complete parliamentary authority. 

International experience demonstrates the power of such institutions when properly governed. Despite current challenges, the Botswana Pula Fund, built from diamond revenues, has historically helped stabilize the economy, smooth fiscal cycles, and invest for future generations – anchoring one of Africa’s most consistent development stories.

Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, now the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, has converted finite oil wealth into enduring public prosperity through transparency, ethical investment rules, and democratic oversight. 

Tibiyo TakaNgwane on the other hand operates as a private piggy bank for the royal family.

It throws crumbs to emaSwati – crumbs from a table they not only should be sitting and eating at but also a table they historically own, which has been appropriated for exclusive royal squander.

Second, the nationalization of the Inyatsi Group of companies and other strategic national companies in which the king holds shares in trust for the nation into the Tibiyo TemaSwati Sovereign Fund. 

This proposal is not an act of ideological hostility, but of rational and transparent democratic governance. 

Inyatsi already functions as a quasi-public monopoly benefiting from privileged access to state contracts and royal patronage. 

Incorporating it into a public investment vehicle would end preferential accumulation, enhance competition, and redirect profits toward national priorities – education, healthcare, infrastructure, and productive employment.

The Inyatsi Group has effectively taken over the entire Swazi economy outstripping Tibiyo TakaNgwane in both net worth and assets. This is in large part king Mswati’s grand legacy plan to rob emaSwati of their heritage while breaking from King Sobhuza II’s legacy that is embedded within Tibiyo TakaNgwane. Therefore, the nationalization of the Inyatsi Group forms an important ingredient in attaining restitution for emaSwati in a post-Tinkhundla era.

The return of the land currently stolen by Mswati from the people through Silulu Royal Holdings and Temaswati Farms shall complete the nationalization process. These proposals are not radical by global standards. 

What is radical and unacceptable is the idea that a royal household should sit above the nation, beyond audit, beyond accountability, and beyond the law, while citizens are told to endure austerity, unemployment, and indignity in the name of culture and royal privilege.

The demographic dividend Eswatini stands to gain is immense. With a youthful population, targeted investments in quality education, AI and advanced technologies, vocational skills, and entrepreneurship could rapidly reduce unemployment and dependency ratios. Universal healthcare would raise productivity and life expectancy.

Land reform and agricultural support would strengthen food security and rural incomes. 

Urban housing, transport, and industrial policy would unlock labour mobility and inclusive growth. Royal autocratic rule has exhausted its historical justification and forfeited its moral authority to govern. Sovereignty does not reside in bloodlines, rituals, or decree – it resides in the people.

A free Eswatini must be founded on the principle that public power exists solely to serve the public good.

Eswatini is not poor but emaSwati are. EmaSwati do not need to beg in their own country – they owe the royal family nothing. What is required is a decisive break with a system that privatizes the nation and normalizes deprivation. By reclaiming public wealth, building accountable institutions, and asserting popular sovereignty, Eswatini can become a just society that delivers dignity, opportunity, and freedom for all. 

The task at hand is therefore clear: the monarchy must be removed from power and be replaced by a sovereign and democratic people’s government. This is the moral injunction and clarion call of our times. It is time.