Parents
in Swaziland are paying up to E10,000 a year to have their children locked up
in juvenile jail even though they have committed no offence.
They are incarcerated
at Vulamasango School, ‘with the hope they might develop desirable attitudes
and behaviour towards society and the environment’, the Observer on Saturday newspaper reported (13 May 2017).
The
children who are at both primary and high school level are, ‘mixed with hard
core criminals, some held for serious crimes and are members of different
notorious prison gangs’, the newspaper said.
It
reported, ‘The children are surrounded by guards everywhere, every time of
their lives in that prison school even during lessons and also in the cells
called dormitories. They are reportedly forced to remain within the
correctional facilities with none allowed to commute like it used to happen.
‘The
girls are accommodated at the Mawelawela Women Correctional Services whilst the
boys are accommodated within the school.’
Child
rights NGO Save The Children told the newspaper that a number of children have
been committed to correctional facilities without being convicted, of a crime.
The Observer on Saturday reported, ‘the
institution allegedly charges these children at primary school E7,500 and E10,000
(US$760) at high school, annually and respectively’.
This latest report is one of many from Swaziland about innocent children
being locked up. In June 2016, it was
reported that children as young as eleven were incarnated in juvenile
correction facilities in Swaziland for up to ten years, even though they had
committed no crimes.
And, the trend to lock innocent
children up was increasing, a United Nations group examining human rights in
Swaziland was told. Parents collaborate with the Commissioner of Correctional
Services in what was described as ‘the best interests of the child’.
A report submitted
jointly to the United Nations Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review of
Swaziland April-May 2016 by SOS-Swaziland, Super Buddies, Prison Fellowship and
Luvatsi – Swaziland Youth Empowerment Organisation, gave the example of one
child aged 11.
Their report stated, ‘There is a
growing trend of child and youth abuse done by the state and the parents
purportedly in “the best interests of the child”. Children and youths are
illegal incarcerated in prison centres by parents in collaboration with the
Commissioner of Correctional Services who claims that the children are
unruly.
‘In one incident, Grace (not her
real name) who is a single parent to John (not his real name) wrote a request
letter to the Commissioner of Correctional Services requesting that John be
incarcerated for unruly behaviour. In the letter, Grace states her concerns
that eleven years old John might not finish school; hence her reason for wanting
him incarcerated and attending the juvenile school at Malkerns Industrial
School for Rehabilitation.
‘Responding to the same letter of
request by Grace, the Commissioner of Correctional Services stated that under
normal circumstances, they do not admit persons who have not been sentenced by
the courts and directed therein through committal warrants.
‘However, the Commissioner agreed
to rehabilitate John under the stated conditions; that the 11 years old John is
institutionalised at the juvenile school for 10 years; there is an order from a
presiding officer giving him a custodial order of ten years without remission;
and that he will cooperate with His Majesty’s Correctional Services while under
its care.
‘With that response, Grace [sic] the letter to a presiding officer
who then wrote a custodial order for the stipulated time and John was admitted
to the juvenile school in 2013. The 11 years old John lodges with other
juveniles who have been charged by the court of law for various crimes they
have committed. Grace pays tuition fees and up-keep fees for John, and she will
continue doing so for the next ten years until 11 years old John is 21
years.
‘This case is one of many, and
the children are of different ages and varying backgrounds. It is only recently
that a joint task team comprising of UNICEF, Prison Fellowship Swaziland,
Lawyers for Human Rights-Swaziland, Save the Children Swaziland working
together with the department of home affairs are exploring means to curb this
situation and probably provide solutions for both the parents and children.’
In 2012, the Times Sunday newspaper in Swaziland reported that Isaiah Mzuthini Ntshangase,
Swaziland’s Correctional Services Commissioner, was encouraging parents to send
their ‘unruly children’ to the facility if they thought they were badly
behaved.
Ntshangase
was speaking at the open day of the Juvenile Industrial School at the Mdutshane
Correctional Institution. He told the newspaper, ‘Noticing the strife that
parents go through when raising some of their children who are unruly, we
decided to open our doors to assist them.’
The school not only corrected
offenders but assisted ‘in the fight against crime by rooting out elements from
a tender age’, the newspaper reported him saying. The children ‘will be locked
up, rehabilitated and integrated back to society’, the Times reported.
The school accommodates pupils
who were both in conflict with the law as well as delinquents, the Times said. There were 279 children
locked up at the time of the interview.
The Times interviewed some of the inmates and found a 15-year-old girl
locked up by her guardian because she had developed a relationship with a
boyfriend that the guardian did not like.
Another girl interviewed was an
orphan who ‘lived a town life’. She was reported saying, ‘In our dormitories
which we share, we are deprived all the nice and good things.’
She added the rules at the
institution were tough, ‘This place is not for the faint-hearted because you
lose a lot of privileges that are freely accessible outside. There is neither
clubbing, drinking nor time for boys.’
One unemployed father of an
11-year-old boy said he put his son in the facility because he did not have
money to pay school fees. ‘I am grateful that my son is in school. I cannot
afford his education because I am old. My wish is that he finishes school to
earn a decent living,’ he said.
The guardian of one girl said
before she was admitted at the school, she had not been able to contain her
behaviour. ‘My biggest problem was that I had lost her. She dropped out of
school together with my niece (sister’s daughter) who is an orphan,’ she said.
Children reported that they were
not beaten but they were badly fed, getting their supper at around 3pm, which
meant they went to bed hungry.
This was not the first time the
Swazi juvenile correction facility had been under the spotlight.
In August 2010, it was revealed
that a 12-year-old boy was serving one year in Mdutshane because he insulted
his grandmother. He had been sentenced to an E300 fine (about US$30 at the then
exchange rate), but was too poor to pay so was jailed instead.
See also
JUVENILE CENTRE ‘HELL ON EARTH’
KIDS WHO
COMMIT NO CRIME LOCKED UP
BOY, 12,
JAILED FOR INSULTING GRANNY
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2010/08/boy-12-jailed-for-insulting-granny.html
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