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🎾Malkerns Square Unveils World-Class LivPadel Courts

LivPadel Courts Bring Global Sports Buzz to Eswatini

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Eswatini Edge
July 18, 2025

In today’s email…

  • Malkerns Square Levels Up

  • How One Pig Changed Everything for Nothando

Malkerns Square Levels Up: LivPadel Courts Bring Global Sports Buzz to Eswatini

Malkerns Square, Eswatini’s fast-evolving lifestyle hub, just scored a major upgrade, and it's got Spain’s fingerprints all over it.

In a move that blends luxury real estate with one of the world’s fastest-growing sports, the development has officially launched three high-spec LivPadel courts, imported directly from Spain via a strategic partnership with LivPadel South Africa. This marks the sport’s debut on Eswatini soil and signals the arrival of the country’s first purpose-built padel facility, one that could redefine the leisure and fitness scene in the region.

A New Chapter in Malkerns' Urban Playbook

This launch isn’t just about rackets and rallies. It’s the latest power play in the Malkerns Square development. This 42-hectare mixed-use project already features 147 residential units (including embassy-grade apartments) and a 2,000-square-metre retail plaza, anchored by heavyweights like KFC and Pick n Pay.

The courts themselves? Built to international competition standards, these are not your average backyard setups. Think double-sided, 10-meter-high glass walls, artificial grass flooring, and floodlights engineered for night-time play. Nestled next to the new Sage Café and a secure children’s playground, the padel zone is part of a broader blueprint to turn Malkerns Square into a live-work-play destination for a rising middle class.

“This isn’t just another lifestyle precinct,” said Shawn O’Sullivan, CEO of Pine Acres and Select Group, the minds behind Malkerns Square. “This is an ecosystem. We’ve built through the pandemic, and now we’re pushing into our next phase.”

That next phase? A new commercial centre three times larger than the current one, with 150 additional residential units, new retail and dining options, and more convenience outlets. O’Sullivan says completion is expected in 12 to 18 months.

Padel: The New Playground for the Masses

For the uninitiated, padel is like a hybrid of tennis and squash, played in doubles on a smaller, glass-walled court using low-compression tennis balls and solid paddles. It’s fast-paced, high-energy, and, as backers like to say, social by design.

Enter Craig van Dyk, Director at LivPadel, who’s leading the brand’s Southern Africa rollout.

“We’re thrilled to launch in Eswatini,” van Dyk said at the ribbon-cutting. “We’ve made it easy for anyone to try rackets are available for rent, and we’ll be introducing a league to build a local padel community.”

Van Dyk added that LivPadel holds the official licence for Southern Africa, making this more than a one-off: it’s a strategic expansion play. And for early adopters? An opening special offers full court rental for four players at just E200.

🐷 From 20 Emalangeni to Pick n Pay Shelves: How One Pig Changed Everything for Nothando

Back in 2015, E20 about $1 stood between Nothando Magagula and the opportunity to join Mahamba Piggery, a women-led farming cooperative forming in her rural Eswatini community.

She didn’t have it.

Let that sink in.

While most people would’ve walked away, embarrassed or defeated, Nothando stuck around, interested but hesitant, as she recalls. Her quiet determination caught the attention of one of the founding members, who did something quietly radical:

💡 She gave Nothando a pig.

That’s it. No loans. No paperwork. No speeches about “leaning in.”
Just one pig. And a chance.

Her teenage son, fresh out of high school and working as a janitor in Nhlangano, used part of his first paycheck to buy a bag of feed.

“He would occasionally buy a bag of feed for my pig,” she says, matter-of-factly.

Pigs, Perseverance, and Paydays

Once inside Mahamba Piggery, Nothando didn’t just raise pigs; she raised her standard of living. The cooperative introduced her to a World Vision–supported savings and lending group, where she began to stash away cash and borrow responsibly. Little by little, feed turned into litters, litters turned into revenue, and revenue turned into respect.

Fast-forward to today, and Nothando isn’t just a member.

She’s Chairperson of Mahamba Piggery, now supplying pork to major retailers like Pick n Pay.

The woman who once couldn’t spare E20 now:

  • Runs a small-scale livestock operation

  • Supports her four children with school fees and daily meals

  • Recently sent her daughter on a school trip

  • She is planning to open her butchery

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