Shopkeepers in Eswatini are facing a clock. The question of Eswatini foreign businesses has moved from market-stall grumbling to national policy, after Parliament agreed that foreign owners operating illegally should be given at least 12 months to leave.
Local traders push back
The decision follows loud complaints from local traders. They say foreign-owned shops, particularly those run by Asian nationals, have crept into retail spaces that emaSwati traditionally controlled, squeezing small sellers who already work on thin margins. Authorities have begun shutting down some Asian-owned shops, and the government says the new approach is meant to widen economic opportunities for citizens at a time when poverty and hunger could fuel further unrest.
Not everyone wanted a hard stop
The year-long window was a compromise. A legislator named Dlamini opposed an immediate exit, asking whether local entrepreneurs have the skills and experience to run these businesses once the owners are gone. It is a fair question. A shuttered shop does not create a job, and an empty shopfront in a township helps nobody.
Inspections in places such as the capital, Mbabane, found that some shops were meeting the required standards. But the checks also surfaced complaints about how some foreign-owned businesses treat their workers, which gives the debate a labour-rights angle as well as a competition one.
A regional pattern
Eswatini is not alone. In South Africa, anti-immigration campaigns have led to raids, arrests and attacks on foreign-run informal businesses, and the violence has been deadly, with reports of Ghanaian and Nigerian nationals killed. Kenya has also stepped up enforcement, giving foreign traders 90 days to regularise their business and immigration status.
For African readers, the pattern raises an uncomfortable question. The continent talks proudly of free movement and intra-African trade, yet small traders on the ground often see their neighbours as rivals. Eswatini’s 12-month deadline will test whether a country can protect local livelihoods without turning that frustration against people who may simply be trying to make a living.
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