BY: MANDLENKHOSI SITHOLE
The recent analysis by Agribusiness Media regarding the sugar value chain laid bare a critical, uncomfortable truth: Eswatini’s sugarcane growers are facing a severe, margin-crushing paradox.
On paper, local farmers look highly favoured, capturing a commendable 68.1% of divisible industry proceeds under the current Division of Proceeds framework.
On the ground, however, skyrocketing input costs – fuelled by fertilizer inflation, transport overheads, and the biting 11.74% electricity tariff hike implemented on April 1, 2026 – are rapidly consuming those returns.
Sugar farming has transformed into a high-risk, low-margin enterprise. While the sector celebrates revenues in the billions, the actual profits left in the pockets of the small-scale growers, who make up over 90% of the independent farming base, are growing thinner by the day. This cost crisis forces a fundamental question: Are Eswatini’s sugar farmers truly receiving equitable value for their land, risk, and labour?
ENTER THE CITIZENS ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT ACT
Coincidentally, this economic squeeze happens at a historic legal turning point. The Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Trade is actively pushing to operationalize the Citizens Economic Empowerment Act, 2023, alongside the newly drafted Citizens Economic Empowerment Regulations. This legislative framework is explicitly designed to shift indigenous Emaswati from being mere contract laborers and passive participants to active owners of their economy.
However, macro-economic laws always look pristine on paper; their true value lies in their execution within foundational industries. When applying the lens of the Citizens Economic Empowerment Act to the Eswatini sugar landscape, two major systemic realities emerge.
TIBIYO TAKA NGWANE: SOVEREIGN WEALTH VS CITIZEN EQUITY
Proponents of the status quo might argue that the sugar industry was way ahead of its time. After all, Tibiyo Taka Ngwane maintains dominant, powerful equity shares across all three of the nation’s major sugar mills.
Yet, looking at this through a strict legislative lens reveals an institutional mismatch. While Tibiyo functions structurally like a domestic strategic investment fund, it is a sovereign wealth entity held in trust by the Sovereign, operating independently of the statutory frameworks managed by the Citizens Economic Empowerment Council (CEEC).
Ordinary citizens and independent farmers exercise no legal or corporate voting control over its portfolio, nor do they directly dictate the deployment of its yields. While Tibiyo aggressively funds vital national development projects and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, it does not fulfil the Act’s primary mandate: driving direct, verifiable equity ownership into the hands of ordinary citizen business owners.
MOVING FROM GROWERS TO SHAREHOLDERS
If the Citizens Economic Empowerment Act is to catalyze real structural change, the deep gap in the sugar value chain must be filled by direct citizen equity. The logical pioneers for this transformation are the very farmers who plant, irrigate, and harvest the crop.
The current contract-farming model frequently confines local growers to receiving farm-gate revenue solely for the sucrose content of their cane. Meanwhile, the broader commercial upside – generated from industrial by-products like molasses, filter cake, and bagasse used for electricity co-generation – remains largely locked away at the milling level.
To move local farmers up the value chain, the next logical step for the Ministry and financial institutions is to create specialized, structured empowerment financing. Giving growers the financial muscle to buy direct corporate shares in the milling infrastructure and commercial by-product streams will change the game.
Only when a farmer evolves from being a vulnerable supplier of raw cane to a legal shareholder in the entire processing value chain will Eswatini truly achieve the deep, inclusive economic empowerment envisioned by the law.
