Poverty in Swaziland / eSwatini got worse over the
past three years, according to a survey
just published.
More than half the people interviewed reported going
without enough food and without needed medical care.
The numbers going without food was 56 percent (up from
51 percent from a similar survey taken in 2015). Those going without medical
care was 53 percent (up from 33 percent).
The survey of people in Swaziland was undertaken by Afrobarometer
and published on 4 December 2018. Interviews took place in March 2018.
Afrobarometer, a pan-African non-partisan research
network that works in 37 African countries, identified what it called ‘lived
poverty’ (a lack of basic life necessities).
It reported, ‘Afrobarometer assesses the prevalence of
“lived poverty” by asking respondents how often, over the previous year, they
or their family members went without enough food, enough clean water, needed
medicine or medical care, enough cooking fuel, and a cash income.’
It added, ‘While lived poverty had been declining in
eSwatini between the years 2013 and 2015, there has been an increase since
then. The share of citizens who went without enough to eat at least once during
the previous 12 months increased by 5 percentage points between 2015 and 2018,
from 51 percent to 56 percent, while those who experienced a lack of clean
water grew by 7 points, from 47 per cent to 54 percent.
‘The largest increases were observed among those who
experienced shortages of medical care (from 33 percent to 53 percent) and
cooking fuel (from 30 percent to 49 percent).
‘More than seven in 10 respondents (71 percent) say
they went without a cash income at least once during the previous year, up from
68 percent in 2015.
‘High lived poverty (or frequently going without basic
necessities) was experienced by one in four citizens and is twice as common in
rural areas as in cities (27 percent vs. 14 percent). It declines steeply as
respondents’ education level increases: 62 percent of people without formal
education experienced high lived poverty, compared to 34 percent of those with
primary education, 20 percent of those with secondary schooling, and 11 percent
of those with post-secondary qualifications.
‘And lived poverty increases with age, ranging from 16
percent of 18- to 25-year-olds to 39 percent of those who are 56 or older.’
Afrobarometer gave figures from a 2018 World Bank
report on Swaziland. Afrobarometer said, ‘Six in 10 citizens (60.3 percent)
live in poverty, including 38 percent in extreme poverty, which
disproportionately affects children, the elderly, the unemployed, as well as
female-headed and single-headed households.’
Afrobarometer is not the first organisation to
identify the state of poverty in Swaziland where King Mswati III rules as
sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. In 2017, the global charity Oxfam
named Swaziland as the most unequal country in the world in a report called Starting
With People, a human economy approach to inclusive growth in Africa
detailing the differences in countries between the top most earners and those
at the bottom. The Oxfam report stated the government, which is handpicked by
King Mswati, ‘failed to put measures in place to tackle inequality, with poor
scores for social spending and progressive taxation, and a poor record on
labour rights’.
Despite the extreme poverty, the Swazi
Government still found US$30
million to buy the King a private jet plane in 2018. King Mswati
now has two private planes, 13 palaces and fleets of top-of-the-range BMW and
Mercedes cars. He wore a watch
worth US$1.6 million and a suit
beaded with diamonds weighing 6 kg, at his 50th birthday party in April
2018. He received E15 million (US$1.2 million) in cheques, a
gold dining room suite and a gold
lounge suite among his birthday gifts.
Meanwhile, the World Food Program has said it cannot raise the US$1.1 million it needs to feed starving children in the kingdom.
Meanwhile, the World Food Program has said it cannot raise the US$1.1 million it needs to feed starving children in the kingdom.
Last week it was reported that elderly people in Swaziland had not been
receiving their state pensions (known as elderly grants) for the past six
months because the Swazi Government did not have the money to pay them.
See also
New drive against corruption in Swaziland leaves out
King Mswati, the biggest drain on the public purse
Seven
in ten Swazis go hungry
https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/12/seven-in-10-swazis-go-hungry.html
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