Background
Allen was born on February 14, 1921, at Manzini, son of one of the King advisors who became Secretary to the Swazi nation.
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Allen Mkaulo Malabane Nxumalo
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Educated at Matsapa Swazi National School and Inkamana High School at Natal, South Africa. He returned to Matsapa as a teacher in 1943 after teaching at Mponomo Primary School and Zombode National School. He studied at Fort Hare University College where he got a Bachelor of Science degree in 1948. After further teaching he went to Johannesburg.
Career
After graduating with MB and ChB degrees, he worked as a doctor at Baragwanath Provincial Hospital for a year before returning home to be a medical officer at the Swaziland Government Hospital in Mbabane. His organising ability on committees was quickly recognised and he was appoin-ted President of the Swaziland Civil Servants’ Association.
On resigning from the public medical services in May 1963 he plunged into politics with the Swaziland Democratic Party founded by his cousin Simon Nxumalo. He was elected President of the party but he failed to win a seat in the June 1964 elections. He wound up the party within a year and joined the ruling party in the conviction that he could influence the direction of politics more effectively there than from outside.
He became a member of the Swazi National Council and took an active role in the work of the Central Education Advisory Board. At independence on September 6, 1968, he became Minister of Health, a post he held until the government was reshuffled after the elections in May 1972. He owed his cabinet position entirely to the King because he failed to win party nomination at the elections and had to rely upon being nominated to a seat in the House of Assembly by the King.
Politics
After an unsuccessful bid in opposition politics he joined the Imbokodvo National Movement in 1965 and progressed quickly to the upper ranks of the party. Earnest and bespectacled, with a good analytical mind, he has served on many committees and taken a special interest in developing educational facilities.
His political activities began with the African National Congress Youth League. For three years he was chair man of the Youth League in Wes Johannesburg. He remained an eager ANC member while working as machine operator in a factory Krugersdorp and as a labourer in a Johannesburg factory. He continued with student politics when he studied medicine at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg. He was chairman of the Non-European Scholarship Trust Fund at the university for five years.
Personality
Swaziland's first Minister of Health who worked his way up to be a doctor from a factory bench in Johannesburg. His medical reputation gave him a highly respected status as a minister when the country became independent. Although an ardent nationalist in South Africa with the African National Congress before and during his student days there, he did not turn to politics in Swaziland until 1963 when he was 42 years of age.
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Born
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Nationality
Swazi -
Political Party
Swaziland Democratic Party
Education
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1948
Career
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June 2, 1972