Sanele Dlamini, 19, wakes up with the roosters to prepare for school. Political unrest in eSwatini and the effects of Covid-19 have battered an already ailing education system. He must leave his bed early because his school is on the other side of the border, in South Africa.
Dlamini used to go to Motjane High School near his home and did not have to get going at about the same time chickens climb down from their perch. But now he has to walk for roughly 10km to the border before taking transport to Holeka Secondary School in Mpumalanga’s Gert Sibande District.
The outbreak of Covid-19 prompted eSwatini’s former Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini to declare a national emergency on 17 March 2020. The following day, the ministry of education closed schools. Except for…