The African National Congress (ANC) Woman's League and Congress of South African Students (Cosas) have called on King Mwatsi III to return the three girls allegedly abducted by the king to the care of their parents immediately. ANC Woman's League representative Lulu Xingwane said the woman's league supported and respected cultural and religious practices as long as they were not harmful and did not violate women's rights or dignity.

Women lawyers in Swaziland have embarked on a campaign to alert both genders to the need for women's rights in a proposed new national constitution.

A concerned mother took southern Africa's last absolute monarch, King Mswati III of Swaziland, to court this week, challenging the selection of her daughter as his bride. Lindiwe Dlamini told the Mbabane High Court on Tuesday her daughter, Zena Soraya Mahlangu (18) was abducted by two men employed by the king of Swaziland, a small kingdom landlocked between South Africa and Mozambique.

Ted Reilly, founder of Swaziland's wild animal park systems, surveys the green early spring hills of October, noting that "the Southern African region enjoyed some good rains this past week, but meteorologists tell us not to think a few showers can break this drought. We are in for more of the same next year.”

The Swaziland Royal Police, acting on a court order, raided Channel S, the only privately-owned television station in the country, and confiscated a video tape containing a sermon that has been termed by the Swazi government as "threatening the foundations of the kingdom."