Ezulwini – Eswatini’s minister of information, communication and technology (ICT), Savannah Maziya, urged Emaswati creators to treat themselves as businesses and comply with tax laws on online platforms as she welcomed TikTok’s Tholoana Ncheke Mahlaela.
Maziya made her speech at the TikTok Content Creators Workshop in the Ezulwini ERS conference room as the TikTok head of government relations and public policy for Southern Africa, Tholoana Ncheke Mahlaela, hosted TikTok creators’ masterclass. Also present were parliamentary ICT portfolio committee members, Eswatini Communications Commission (ESCCOM) and ICT ministry officials, as well as content creators.
The masterclass was a way for content creators to gain valuable insights into content creation strategies, online audience growth, digital creativity and innovation and opportunities in the creator economy. 
Maziya stated that, while the world is aware of Eswatini as a player in the field of creativity and content creation, producers have expressed concern that they are unable to monetise their content online from within the country. After she had been briefed that Emaswati are not monetising on social media, including TikTok, Meta and YouTube, she started making inroads to having content creators in Eswatini get monetised.
The minister expressed her excitement for the partnership Eswatini and TikTok are beginning in the area of content creation and monetisation, saying, “I’m very excited.” “TikTok is here. The creators are here. I think we can clock on that.”
After learning that Emaswati, especially the youth, are not getting paid for their content, she took the steps to fixing the problem.
“You will recognise and understand that one of the things that I really concern myself with every day is the employment of young people. And it’s really critical for us who are in positions of unlocking things to really use those keys to open up opportunities for our young people to get work,” she said.
The minister stated that young people need to understand that occupations are changing and that they must be prepared for them and the types of businesses that exist. The minister expressed her support for content creators spreading information about Eswatini around the world, stating it was equally crucial that they be compensated in the same way that the rest of the world is.
She stated that when she discovered Emaswati was not monetised, she instructed her team that she would personally contact TikTok and Meta, stating, “Listen, get me into TikTok.” “I want to start with them because the kids are obsessed with TikTok.” I’ll visit Meta as well.”
Maziya became acquainted with Mahlaela while entering her TikTok workplace recently.
“And so, in talking to Mahlaela, I said, ‘Tholoana, listen, I know that we are talking to our brothers and sisters in the continent. ” But you’ve got to come down here and tell us how we can do it,” she said.
In the negotiations with TikTok, she was briefed that only three people at that office are looking after the entire sub-Saharan Africa and servicing the entire continent of 1.4 billion people. Maziya said while she understood the numbers game and that Eswatini is a small country, she did not tire of pushing for the homeland to do it for themselves.
“It’s the reason why we have the goal to have 300,000 coders and AI specialists in the country, and we’ve been able to give those courses, and we encourage everyone to continue to look into taking those internationally recognised courses.
“What’s really important to me and to the ministry is that every day when we wake up those of us who have a job and are lucky enough to get up and go to a job think about those who do not have jobs and let that be the thing that lives in our minds every single day,” she said.
