The fact that Swaziland isn’t a ‘poor’ country, even though seven in ten people live in the most abject poverty, is becoming international news.
Following my report last Friday (24 October 2008) that Swaziland’s new resident United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Coordinator Musinga Timothy Bandora. reckons that if wealth were evenly distributed in Swaziland each person would be an emalangeni millionaire (about 100,000 US dollars), the news agency IRIN has returned to the subject.
IRIN reports, ‘In per capita income terms, Swaziland ranks somewhere between Armenia and Paraguay, with export earnings based on agriculture and textiles; but, in terms of the share of the national wealth, the richest 10 percent of Swazis control over 50 percent of the country’s income, a level of inequality worse than in Brazil or South Africa, and beaten only by Namibia.’
It goes on, ‘UNDP figures show that about 70 percent of Swaziland's one million people live in chronic poverty. A record 60 percent of the population relied on food assistance from the World Food Programme and other aid groups in the past year due to drought, and the country has the world’s highest HIV prevalence rate.’
IRIN adds, ‘The royal conglomerate, Tibiho TakaNgwane (wealth of the nation), owns shares in most of the significant business enterprises in Swaziland, and the king controls all mineral rights in the country.’
There is serious concern among democrats in Swaziland that poor people in the kingdom are suffering because international donor agencies do not see Swaziland as ‘poor’ (in development circles Swaziland is considered to be a ‘middle income’ nation). As a consequence less aid is sent to the kingdom than to some other countries.
The real problem is that a minority of people (mostly the Royal Family and its allies) are taking more than their share of resources, leaving ordinary people with the crumbs. The international community recognises this and doesn’t see why it should give aid when it knows that crooks are robbing the people blind.
The solution to this doesn’t rest with the donors, it rests with the people of Swaziland who need to make sure that they get their fair share and that means some people who have the most now must have less in the future.
PS After I wrote about Bandora’s ‘millionaire’ statement a reader wrote to say his arithmetic was way out. To read more click here and scroll to ‘comments’
To read more of the IRIN report, click here.
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