President Cyril Ramaphosa receiving a courtesy call from King Mswati III of eSwatini. The landlocked kingdom with no refineries of its own imports all its refined petrol and diesel almost exclusively through South Africa. As South Africa’s smaller neighbour nation signs a significant oil reserve deal with Taiwan, can this gamble truly secure its energy future, or will it deepen existing economic woes?
Eswatini is a country standing at a crossroads – and increasingly, at the edge of a cliff. The latest World Bank data paints a stark picture: one in three citizens is unemployed, and nearly half the population lives in poverty, surviving on less than $3 a day. Youth unemployment hovers near catastrophic levels, and the economy, though showing flickers of growth, remains too small, too fragile, and too undiversified to absorb the thousands of young people entering the labour market each year.
Against this bleak backdrop, under the absolute leadership of King Mswati III since 1986, eSwatini government officials have signed a USD 300 (12 billion Emalangeni) financing agreement with Taiwan for the construction of the Phuzumoya Strategic Oil Reserve – a project pitched as a cornerstone of national energy security. The deal, formalised in Taipei, commits eSwatini to a 36‑month build of an 80‑million‑litre fuel reserve, split evenly between petrol and diesel. It is the largest infrastructure financing agreement eSwatini has entered in years.
