King Mswati III of Swaziland who has just taken the
Chair of SADC has been revealed to exploit child labour on his fields. He has
been named in an international report on the trafficking of people.
The Trafficking in Persons Report
2016, issued by the United States Department of State
stated that Swazi chiefs, who are directly accountable to the King, ‘coerce
children and adults—through threats and intimidation—to work for the King’.
It added, ‘Swazi
boys and foreign children are forced to labor in commercial agriculture,
including cattle herding, and market vending within the country.’
King Mswati was at the centre of an international
controversy in January 2015 when it was revealed that schools in Swaziland,
where he rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, were
forced to stay closed after Christmas so children could weed
the King’s fields. As many as 30,000 children were thought to have missed
schooling as a result.
In Swaziland chiefs do the King’s bidding at a local
level. People know they must obey the chief because their livelihood depends on
his goodwill. In some parts of Swaziland, the chiefs are given the power to
decide who gets food that has been donated by international agencies and then
the chiefs quite literally have power of life and death in such cases with
about a third of the population of Swaziland receiving food aid each
year.
The
Trafficking in Persons Report 2016 also stated that
Swaziland was a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and
children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labour.
It added, ‘Swazi girls, particularly orphans, are
subjected to sex trafficking and domestic servitude, primarily in Swaziland and
South Africa. The HIV/AIDS pandemic has contributed immensely to the increasing
number of orphans and other vulnerable children at risk of exploitation through
trafficking.’
It added, ‘Mozambican boys migrate to Swaziland for
work washing cars, herding livestock, and portering; some of these boys become
victims of forced labor. Traffickers use Swaziland as a transit country to transport
foreign victims to South Africa for forced labor.
‘Traffickers reportedly force Mozambican women into
prostitution in Swaziland, or transit Swaziland en route to South Africa. Some Swazi women are forced into
prostitution in South Africa and Mozambique after voluntarily migrating in
search of work.’
See also
SWAZI GOVT MISLEADS ON CHILD LABOUR
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/01/swazi-govt-misleads-on-child-labour.html
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