Luyengo – The 2026 MTN Bushfire Bring Your Fire live dialogues kick off at Malandelas, where possible solutions, especially for the youth, on the energy sector took centre stage.
Themed “Powering the Future: Balancing Development, Sustainability and Access”, these precede the upcoming 19th MTN Bushfire Festival.
The session was co-presented by Thabelo Dlamini and Siyabonga Dlamini and moderated by Zwelakhe Dlamini, where five panellists responded to the broader question of whether the development of nowadays could be blamed for limiting future generations to equally enjoy the limited resources. 
Mpendulo Simelane from World Vision Eswatini, Zandisile Howe from the Eswatini Environmental Authority, Sibusiso Nhleko, Head of Corporate Services and Sustainability, MTN Eswatini, Duduzile Nhlengethwa-Masina, Director, Eswatini Meteorological Service, and Dr. Constance Van Zydam, Head of Environment Unit, Eswatini Electricity Company, were among the panellists.
The panellists were also asked whether there were any limitations to access or not and how to break the barriers.
Dr Van Zydam talked of where Eswatini is as far as energy security is concerned as well as her projections for the next 10 years. Nhlengethwa-Masina said Eswatini is complying with climate policy and that it is aligning itself with global energy conversations. She said the climate policy was not divorced from the international and national development policy.
“If you look at our convention, which we normally call UNFCCC, which is the Framework Convention on Climate Change, one of the key words there is ‘sustainable development’. It’s there, entrenched in the objectives of the convention. So, as we do all the work that we do, we do that within that frame,” she said.
Howe spoke about some of the environmental problems, stating that more energy growth needs to mean an increase in production and consumption too, which then accumulates to environmental waste.
“And more waste in our environment means more pollution, which then also degrades our ecosystems. Yet, these are the ecosystems that help us even adapt to climate change when we have wetlands out there that protect us from floods or even release water during droughts. So, now when there’s pollution in our wetlands, they even work as natural purifiers,” Howe said.
Howe warned of biodiversity loss when production and consumption expand. She said certain trees that were helping us medically became lost in the process.
“We just came back from COVID. There were many plants that helped us recover. But now with this development, it’s not interlinked with environmental protection. We stand to lose a lot”, she said.
