Eswatini’s film Industry gets ready for its close up

For years, Eswatini’s film and television producers have had the talent, ideas and stories. What has often been harder to find is a consistent route from those ideas to the television screen. 

 

That is why the recent Memorandum of Understanding between the Eswatini Television Authority (ESTVA) and the Eswatini Independent Film and Television Producers Association has attracted attention beyond the signing ceremony itself.

 

The agreement creates a more structured relationship between the public broadcaster and independent producers, with ESTVA saying the partnership will support its mandate to inform, educate and entertain while giving local producers greater opportunity to create content for television.

Chief Executive Officer Mlamuli Dlamini said the authority wants to see more stories about Emaswati on television and indicated that the MoU provides for 70% of content to be local and sourced from independent producers.

It will also be about what those programmes look like, how they are written, how they are produced and whether local audiences can see a noticeable improvement in quality from one production to the next.

Eswatini has had local television production for years, but the independent production sector has not always had a steady pipeline into broadcasting. 

A 2023 Eswatini Communications Commission report found that ESTVA was achieving an average of 71% local content at the time, but only 18.8% of that local content was produced by independent producers. The report also noted that ESTVA had cited financial constraints in its ability to buy content from independent producers. 

The new arrangement therefore puts a spotlight on the part of the industry that happens behind the camera. Producers will have to think beyond simply getting a programme commissioned. They will have to compete on concept, storytelling, production value and consistency.

Representing the independent producers, Samkeliso Nxumalo described the partnership as an opportunity to create a home for students and young people trained in film and television production.

“The most important thing is that we have a home for the students who have been being produced by film and TV creatives,” he said. That point is particularly important for a young creative industry.

Film and television training can produce camera operators, editors, writers, directors, actors, producers and other specialists, but training only becomes an industry when there are places for those skills to be used. A stronger commissioning environment can potentially give those professionals somewhere to start building actual production credits.

 It also changes the conversation around local film. For a long time, the discussion around Eswatini’s creative industries has often centred on whether local productions can be made. The next conversation needs to be about what standard they can reach.

The filmmakers and industry players who have welcomed the MoU have also expressed readiness to immerse themselves in the opportunity, with the expectation that it can help create more work and give local productions a stronger route to audiences. That enthusiasm comes with its own responsibility.

If the industry wants television to take local producers seriously, producers will also have to take production seriously. That means stronger scripts, proper pre-production, reliable crews, disciplined schedules, better sound and picture quality, convincing performances and stories that understand the audience they are being made for.

It means treating a local television production as a professional production rather than something that is simply local because it was made in Eswatini. There is already evidence that Eswatini’s creative sector can organise around bigger platforms. The 2026 Eswatini International Trade Fair, for example, has placed significant emphasis on local performers, with more than 70% of its scheduled acts being local. 

 Film and television now have an opportunity to build on that same appetite for local creative work, but with a different kind of discipline. For independent producers, the MoU could mean more than another agreement on paper. 

It could create a clearer commissioning pathway. For students and emerging filmmakers, it could mean a chance to move from training into professional credits. For audiences, it could mean seeing more of their own lives, humour, languages, places and experiences reflected on screen.

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