King Mswati would only attend the Pretoria summit virtually, so the other presidents called it off.

Regional efforts to resolve the crisis in Eswatini hit another major stumbling block this week when a second summit intended to discuss a national political dialogue in the troubled kingdom was cancelled at the last moment.

Ministers and officials had been meeting for days to prepare the summit of the security organ of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for this Thursday, which would have been chaired by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who currently heads the security organ.

Sources said Eswatini's King Mswati had at the last moment said he could only participate virtually, but the other members of the SADC security organ troika, including Ramaphosa, Namibian President Hage Geingob and Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi insisted on a face-to-face meeting with Mswati on such an important issue.

And so the summit was officially "postponed", but with no indication of whether it would take place later, or when. Swazi opposition forces are furious and have demanded that SADC step up the pressure on Mswati to negotiate.

Previous pull-out

In April, Mswati also pulled out of a planned SADC summit to discuss the national political dialogue, which...