On July 26, 2005, King Mswati III signed a new constitution for Swaziland, nine years after he had appointed a Constitution Review Commission. Swaziland had been without a constitution since 1973, when King Mswati’s father, King Sobhuza II, abolished the 1968 constitution signed at independence. Though long-awaited, the new constitution was met with protests by a number of civil society organizations and labour groups that rejected key areas of the document and the manner by which it was adopted. Critics were particularly dismayed that the new constitution upheld a ban on opposition political parties.
A five-year period of chastity imposed on young Swazi women in 2000 ended during the year. This cultural rite—known as umcwasho after the tasseled headgear worn by women to indicate their celibacy—had last been observed in the 1970s. King Mswati had reintroduced the rite partly in an attempt to reduce the high levels of HIV infection in the Swazi nation. There were many claims that the custom of umcwasho contributed to a significant reduction in the HIV infection level among teenagers between 2000 and 2005. Surveillance reports revealed, however, that the national HIV infection rate in 2005 stood at 42.6%, up from 38.6% in 2002.
At the end of August, Swaziland held its first-ever jobs summit, which was aimed at boosting employment and reducing poverty. It helped raise 1.6 billion emalangeni (about $252 million), which would be deposited in a special fund to support small- and medium-sized business enterprises. An estimated 70% of Swaziland’s population lived below the poverty line, and about 300,000 people needed food aid, up from 257,000 the previous year.