The Ministry of Labour and Social Security has issued an urgent mandate to modernize Eswatini’s industrial relations, calling for the legal rescue of gig workers and freelancers who currently fall through the cracks of traditional employment law.
Speaking at the CMAC 2026 Annual Labour Law Seminar held at Happy Valley Hotel yesterday, Principal Secretary Makhosini Mndawe, on behalf of Minister Phila Buthelezi, revealed a five-pillar strategy to overhaul national policy.
The plan ensures that the rise of AI and digital platforms does not leave a new class of invisible workers without dignity, legal protection, or a voice in collective bargaining.
The shift comes as the Kingdom’s workplace moves beyond physical offices into a world of automation and hybrid models.
The Principal Secretary explained that the rise of the gig economy and platform-based employment is effectively challenging traditional notions of social expectations.
While technology offers unprecedented growth, Mndawe highlighted that it also introduces significant representation gaps and legal ambiguities that leave a growing segment of the workforce, particularly freelancers and digital labourers, vulnerable.
“The world of work is indeed undergoing profound transformation, transforming industries, introducing automation, Artificial Intelligence and platform-based employment products,” he said. He cautioned that if these shifts are left unaddressed, they risk eroding the very foundation of industrial harmony that the Kingdom treasures.
“New forms of employment, from gig to the world of hybrid models, are challenging traditional notions of employment. Social expectations are shifting and workers are demanding not only better work conditions but also for dignity, inclusion, flexibility and sustainability.”
The Minister’s five-pillar strategy for this digital frontier is designed to bridge the gap between innovation and protection.
Central to this vision is the urgent need to update labour law frameworks to recognize diverse lines of work, ensuring that a worker’s protection is not dictated solely by their contract type.
This is paired with a call to harness technology responsibly, not as a tool for surveillance or exploitation, but as a mechanism for lifelong learning and more efficient dispute resolution.
Mndawe emphasized that the move is a moral necessity to ensure digitalization does not widen existing inequalities.
He further stressed that the evolving world of work must be harnessed as an opportunity to build a fair, inclusive, and modern Eswatini where no worker remains invisible to the law.
At the heart of this transition stands CMAC.
Traditionally viewed as the arbiter of industrial disputes, the Commission is now being urged to evolve into a laboratory for policy innovation.
By expanding its services to non-traditional sectors and embracing digital transformation, CMAC can provide the real-world data needed to inform national policies that reflect 21st-century realities, including gender equality and workplace diversity.
“The evolving world of work is not a threat; it is an opportunity,” Mndawe said, highlighting that foresight and precision are the only ways to build workplaces that are both fair and competitive.
For Eswatini to thrive in the digital economy, the law must move as fast as the technology it seeks to regulate, ensuring that digitalization does not widen the chasm of inequality, but rather creates a more stable, inclusive foundation for all emaSwati.