Swaziland - Infrastructure, power, and communications

Swaziland has a good road network with 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) of roads, 28 percent of which were paved by 1997. In 1997, there were 78,900 motor vehicles licensed, 4,320 of which were government-owned. Rail service is for freight only. The Kadaka-Goba line links up with Mozambique's Maputo line (providing Swaziland with access to the sea), and since 1986 there has been a direct heavy-duty connection between Mpaka and South Africa. Matsapha International Airport is 8 kilometers (5 miles) from Manzini. The national airline, Royal Swazi National Airways Corporation, operates flights throughout the region.

Swaziland generates its power from coal and hydropower. Oil and the coal used for domestic energy generation are imported from South Africa. Swaziland Electricity Board imports over 80 percent of its electricity from South Africa and generates the balance from diesel and hydropower. In 1998 Swazis consumed 198 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity. On-site power generation takes place at the large sugar and wood pulp plants (from waste sugar cane or scrap wood), but they only generate for their own needs. Wood is still an important fuel for the rural population.

English language dailies are The Times of Swaziland and The Swami Observer. There were 27 daily newspapers in 1996. The Swaziland Broadcasting Service runs several radio stations, broadcasting in siSwati and English. There is a television channel, run by the Swaziland

Television Authority (STA), which covers 80 percent of the population and 60 percent of the country. STA has a monopoly in the TV rentals market. There were 170 radios and 23 TV sets per 1,000 people in 1996.

All the main population centers have post offices. International direct dialing is available. The telephone network comprises 14 digital, 5 analog, and 3 manual exchanges. There were 33,500 telephone main lines in use in 2000, in addition to 20,000 cellular phones.