Mbabane - eSwatini's King Mswati III on Friday appointed Cleops Dlamini as the southern African nation's new prime minister, replacing Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, who died in December.
Dlamini was previously Chief Executive of the Public Service Pension Fund. Mswati made the announcement at a public meeting at one of his residences broadcast online and state radio.
King Mswati called an open public meeting known as a Sibaya, usually only held once a year, for Friday, and pro-democracy campaigners called demonstrations to coincide with it.
Earlier on Friday eSwatini police fired teargas and water cannon at anti-monarchy protesters, the head of a teachers' union said.
"Police have dispersed us ... at the moment they are driving us out of the town's outskirts," Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) Secretary General Sikelela Dlamini said from Manzini, eSwatini's second-largest city.
He said they had fired tear gas and used water cannon on the protesters, and that shops and offices were closed.