By lawani Mikairu with agency report

Forty-Three years after independence, The kingdom of Swaziland will soon have its first medical school .The country achieved independence on 6th September 1968, after four years of limited self-government under King Sobhuza. The private medical institution is being set up by South Korean investors.

Plans are at an advanced state to set up the school, which will be called the Swaziland Christian Medical University. The authorities expect its construction to take about three years.

The government has set aside land and a representative of King Mswati III, Swaziland’s reigning absolute monarch, officiated at a groundbreaking ceremony for the medical school recently.

Swaziland, with a population estimated to be a little over one million people, relies heavily on expatriate doctors. Currently, Swazis who want to train as medical doctors go to other countries within the region, such as Zimbabwe and South Africa, or further abroad.

There are a little over 175 doctors working in the tiny landlocked Southern African country. Expectations are that the private medical school will improve the capacity of the health sector to provide quality health care.

Dr Steven Shongwe, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, is upbeat at the prospect of his country being able to train its own medical doctors.

In his words, “We need a medical school very urgently,” he told University World News in an interview, adding that training doctors at home would be “much cheaper” than sending medical students abroad for training. He further said “If we have professors of medicine, the quality of health care in our hospitals would improve.”

Shongwe said TB was a big problem and Swaziland’s health system was overwhelmed. He said “I think we need about 300 doctors.

We have more than 2,000 nurses but need double that figure.” The national University of Swaziland trains nurses.