5 Emalangeni - Mswati III Independence

The 2008 issue marks the fortieth anniversary of Swazi independence from Britain, achieved on September 6, 1968, when the Kingdom of Swaziland became one of the last territories in sub-Saharan Africa to decolonize. Mswati III, who ascended to the throne in 1986 at age eighteen following the regency period after his father Sobhuza II's death, presided over a country that retained absolute monarchy through the entire post-independence period — Swaziland never adopted multiparty democracy, a fact that drew sustained international criticism through the 2000s.

The brass composition for this denomination replaced an earlier bimetallic approach, a quiet cost-driven decision by the Central Bank during a period of significant fiscal strain in the kingdom.