Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland until 2018, is a small landlocked kingdom in southern Africa. It is surrounded almost entirely by South Africa, with a short border also shared with Mozambique to the east. The country runs on SAST (South Africa Standard Time), UTC+2, year-round.
There is no daylight saving time in Eswatini, in alignment with South Africa, which also does not observe DST. For a country this closely integrated economically and geographically with South Africa, sharing the same clock simplifies everything.
The name change
In April 2018, King Mswati III renamed the country from Swaziland to Eswatini, the name Swazi people have used in their language for centuries. “Swaziland” was an English colonial construction; “Eswatini” means “land of the Swazis” in Swazi (siSwati).
The renaming generated international confusion but no timezone change. South Africa Standard Time is an appropriate descriptor regardless of what the nation calls itself.
An absolute monarchy
Eswatini is one of the world’s last absolute monarchies. Political parties are banned. The king rules by decree. This governmental structure means timezone policy, to whatever extent it is considered, is determined at the pleasure of the monarch rather than through parliamentary process.
There have been no serious proposals to change Eswatini’s timezone. The alignment with South Africa is so practically sensible that questioning it would be eccentric.
Two capitals
Eswatini has two capital cities: Mbabane (administrative capital, where government ministries are located) and Lobamba (royal and legislative capital, where the parliament meets). Both are close together in the western highlands.
This dual-capital arrangement is interesting administratively but has no timezone implications. The sun sets at the same time in both.
