Swaziland’s Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini told newspaper editors that a major achievement of his government was to reduce poverty in the
kingdom from 69 percent of the population to 63.
But, he was wrong on two counts.
First, although he did not reveal this, the statistic
comes from a report called Poverty in a
Decade of Slow Economic Growth: Swaziland in the 2000s, published in 2011.
It looked at what had happened in the previous 10 years. Dlamini’s government came
into power in 2008, so the report mostly refers to a time before he took
office.
Second, and more importantly, the reduction in poverty is
not at all impressive. The report released by the Swazi Ministry of Economic
Planning and Development showed the actual number of poor people in Swaziland fell
from 678,500 to 641,000 within the decade. That is a drop of 37,500 over ten
years. That averages out at 3,700 per year.
When the report came out there were still 641,000 people
in poverty in Swaziland and at the rate of 3,700 per year it would take 173
years before all the people were out of poverty.
‘Poverty’ in the report was defined as households with an
income of less than E461 (US$65) per month, per adult. Or US$2 per day.
The report also stated that every day nearly three in 10 people
did not have enough to eat and the situation remained the same as at the
beginning of the decade.
Dlamini and his government have a history of misleading
the Swazi people and the international community about poverty levels in
Swaziland.
In October 2010, the Swaziland Government doctored a report to the United Nations to make it seem that it may eradicate poverty in
the kingdom by 2015.
A report it commissioned to review the progress the
government was making to achieve Millennium Development Goals’ (MDGs) said clearly and with
evidence that it was ‘not likely’ to meet the target of ‘eradication of extreme
poverty and hunger’.
When they saw the report the Swazi Cabinet decided to
change the conclusion so that it read it could ‘potentially’ meet the target.
At the time, a source told the Times of Swaziland, the Cabinet ‘edited’ the report because they
felt it would portray the kingdom negatively. The report with the
Cabinet-ordered changes was sent to the UN.
The source told the Times
that Cabinet ministers demanded the changes because the truth ‘made it seem as
if they were not doing their jobs’ and ‘might actually lead to their
dismissal’.
Prime Minister Dlamini made his most recent claim about
poverty at a meeting with editors.
According to a report in the Swazi Observer, ‘He said there was a lot that had been done by
government but had never been noticed. He implored editors to make that
information known so people would be aware of government’s achievements.’
See also
GOVERNMENT MISLEADS ON POVERTY
SWAZI POVERTY: MINISTERS LIE TO UN
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