SMVAF – Business Eswatini partnership targets road safety shift

MBABANE – Business Eswatini has thrown its weight behind a new era of collaboration with the Sincephetelo Motor Vehicle Accidents Fund (SMVAF).

This follows a high-level engagement that welcomed Khangeziwe Mabuza as the fund’s new Chief Executive Officer and set the tone for a deeper partnership aimed at strengthening road safety, improving service delivery and enhancing social protection in Eswatini.

The meeting, held on February 10, 2026, marked more than a courtesy call. It signalled growing alignment between the country’s private sector representative body, Business Eswatini, and the public accident compensation agency, SMVAF, at a time when road safety, compensation delays and institutional efficiency remain pressing national concerns.

Barely three months into her tenure, Mabuza told the delegation that her leadership focus is to reposition the fund beyond its traditional role of post-accident compensation towards a stronger prevention mandate, while modernising internal operations to deliver faster and more compassionate service to beneficiaries.

She acknowledged inheriting a capable and committed team, saying internal cohesion was already enabling reforms aimed at streamlining processes, tightening turnaround times for claims and improving client experience.

Business Eswatini was told that payment delays – a long-standing pain point for beneficiaries and service providers – were being addressed with ‘renewed vigour and strategic focus’ through process re-engineering and tighter accountability.

For the business community, operational efficiency at SMVAF is not a soft issue. Delays in compensation affect hospitals, garages, insurers and families that rely on timely reimbursements. Business Eswatini officials said improving turnaround times would have positive knock-on effects for cash flows across the value chain, especially for small and medium enterprises providing services to accident victims.

A key outcome of the meeting was a shared ambition to move the national conversation from reacting to accidents to preventing them.

Both parties agreed that reducing road crashes would save lives, lower the fiscal and social burden of accidents and strengthen the fund’s long-term sustainability.