The President of South African trade federation
COSATU met with Swazi sugar cane farmers. She promised to help them regain control
of their land from Swaziland’s absolute monarch King Mswati III, writes
Kenworthy News Media.
COSATU President Zingiswa Losi met with sugar cane
farmers from Vuvulane, Mafucula and Shewula in Manzini, Swaziland on Tuesday (4
December 2018). Here she got first-hand information on the ongoing evictions
and harassment of the farmers by the Royal Swaziland Sugar Company and the
Swaziland Sugar Association, both organisations controlled by King Mswati III.
According to Secretary General of the Media Workers
Union of Swaziland, Sicelo Vilane, who was at the meeting, the COSATU President
promised the farmers that her organisation will meet with the Trade Union
Congress of Swaziland to look at how the farmers could be helped.
“She expressed and offered the solidarity of COSATU
and the Southern African Trade Union Co-ordination Council to all the
communities who are being subjected to such inhuman treatment”, Vilane says.
Democracy
or sanctions
In September, Zingiswa Losi became COSATU’s first ever woman President unopposed. She serves on the ANC national executive committee, but lost out to Jessie Duarte in her bid to become the ANC’s deputy secretary-general last year.
In September, Zingiswa Losi became COSATU’s first ever woman President unopposed. She serves on the ANC national executive committee, but lost out to Jessie Duarte in her bid to become the ANC’s deputy secretary-general last year.
She has advocated for democracy in Swaziland on
several occasions as well as calling
for economic sanctions against the small landlocked country. In 2012, she told
South African newspapers that COSATU “shall be with you [Swaziland] however
long it takes, wherever you are and however painful it feels”.
In 2011, Losi was arrested
and deported from Swaziland during pro-democracy protests. At
the time, COSATU
condemned “in the strongest possible terms the brutal
crackdown on peaceful protests in Swaziland”.
Given land
in 1963
Mpisi Dlamini, a leading member of the Vuvulane Farmers Association, told the COSATU President how he and hundreds of other farmers had been given their land in Vuvulane in 1963 by the Colonial (now Commonwealth) Development Corporation (CDC), says Sicelo Vilane.
Mpisi Dlamini, a leading member of the Vuvulane Farmers Association, told the COSATU President how he and hundreds of other farmers had been given their land in Vuvulane in 1963 by the Colonial (now Commonwealth) Development Corporation (CDC), says Sicelo Vilane.
“They had produced sugar cane which was milled by
the Mhlume Sugar Mill until 1981 when CDC resolved to transfer the land
ownership to them. CDC approached [King Mswati III’s father] King Sobhuza II to
hand over the title deeds to the farmers, but unfortunately the king passed
away before the process was finalised”, according to VIlane.
A few years later, the government had forced the
farmers to sign a document that effectively handed over the rights to the land
to a company controlled by the royal family. Swaziland’s High Court had ruled
in their favour, Dlamini told Losi, but they didn’t get their land back because
“the king has taken sides in the matter”.
Losi was also told about forceful evictions and
forceful relocations of farmers in Vuvulane, Mafucula and Shewula.
Regular
evictions
The Swazi government and Swaziland’s sugar corporations have been harassing, evicting and forcefully relocating sugar cane farmers for many years without compensation to make way for sugar-cane fields controlled by King Mswati.
The Swazi government and Swaziland’s sugar corporations have been harassing, evicting and forcefully relocating sugar cane farmers for many years without compensation to make way for sugar-cane fields controlled by King Mswati.
In 2013 for example, Freedom
House reported several “unlawful arrests and detentions carried
out by the police” against sugar cane farmers in the Vuvulane area. “Police are
increasing pressure on farmers resisting their unlawful evictions from land
that they have occupied for generations”, Freedom House stated.
In February 2016, 22 Vuvulane farmers were evicted
from lands that they and their families had tended since 1963 by Vuvulane
Irrigated Farms and the Swaziland Sugar Corporation.
And an Amnesty International report from September described two cases of forced and unlawful evictions without warning: One in the Malkers, where 60 people were evicted in April, and one in Nokwane, where 180 people were evicted in October 2014.
According to the report, the government “failed to
provide essential services to those affected by the forced eviction: food,
potable water and sanitation, basic shelter and housing, appropriate clothing
or means of livelihood”. The forced evictions were a symptom of “a deeper, underlying
problem” that violates international and regional human rights law, Amnesty
said.
The more recent evictions have happened amongst
other things because the king and his mother wish to use land in Vuvulane to
construct a new town, the
sugar cane famers say.
‘Swazi
gold’
Sugar – known in Swaziland as ‘Swazi gold’ – is Swaziland’s main export commodity. With a population of only 1.3 million people, Swaziland is the 4th largest sugar producer in Africa. Sugar production accounts for over half of Swaziland’s agricultural output and nearly one fifth of Swaziland’s GDP.
Sugar – known in Swaziland as ‘Swazi gold’ – is Swaziland’s main export commodity. With a population of only 1.3 million people, Swaziland is the 4th largest sugar producer in Africa. Sugar production accounts for over half of Swaziland’s agricultural output and nearly one fifth of Swaziland’s GDP.
According to a 2016
report from the International Trade Union Confederation,
Mswati uses sugar profits to sweeten his own life, leaving sugar-cane farmers
and the majority of the population bitterly impoverished.
And a 2017
report by Danish solidarity organisation Afrika Kontakt
revealed how smallholder growers are also left vulnerable by sugar price
fluctuations and transport costs, as well as by the corruption and undermining
of the fight for democracy, that EU-support for Swaziland’s sugar industry,
healthcare and education systems allows.
See also
EU
money pays for lavish Swazi king
Human suffering and Swazi sugar
King exploits sugar workers
https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/king-exploits-sugar-workers.html
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