Faith Nyasuguta
The Eswatini government has assessed the recent protests and approximated that some 5,000 jobs were lost during that period.
As the week began, interim prime minister Themba Masuku toured Matsapha, an area where massive business property was destroyed last week over protests.
The state has approximated that the overall national damage is at around 3 billion dollars.
Masuku has also met up with affected business owners and following images shared by the government, damaged business enterprises include car dealerships, ATMs, supermarkets, pharmacies, among others.
The protests were sparked by the youth seeking for major reforms in the monarchy’s constitution.
For a while now, those protesting have urged the reigning king Mswati III to allow for free elections. The king has ruled the absolute monarchy for over 30 years and anger among residents has been building over time.
The demonstrators also called for democratic reforms in the land-locked nation, among them lifting prohibitions on opposition parties outlawed in 1973.
Eswatini is the last African country with an absolute monarchy.
