Schoolchildren in Swaziland
/ eSwatini are at risk of poisoning because they only have rotten food to eat
after the government failed to deliver supplies because it has run out of
money.
The academic year started
last week and schools, especially in rural areas, have not received supplies.
Children rely on free food to avoid starvation. The crisis
has been going on for many years and there seems to be no end.
The Times of Swaziland reported on
Tuesday (29 January 2019) that some schools have had no supplies of food since
September last year. What food that is left has become rotten, it reported head
teachers saying. It is mainly beans and mealie meal.
It quoted one saying, ‘The
food is now contaminated but we are forced to use it.’ He added, ‘We need
fresh food urgently.’
The Times reported another head teacher said, ‘In these rural schools,
it is impossible for us to teach without giving food to the pupils because for
many, this is their only healthy meal.’
The Times added, ‘The delay in delivering of food to schools is putting
pupils’ health at a high risk of eating contaminated and rotten food.’
The food crisis in
Swaziland is long-running. In February 2018, children were warned
to prepare themselves for starvation as the government once again failed to
deliver free food to schools. The Swazi
Observer reported at the time that schools relying on government aid –
known as the zondle programme – ‘must brace themselves for starvation as the
Ministry of Education and Training has failed to deliver food to schools on
time’.
It quoted one school principal who wanted to remain
anonymous, ‘The pupils should brace themselves for starvation because there is
no available food in the school, and they have exhausted the food that was left
last year.’
In June 2017 it
was reported more than 200 pupils children at
Mphundle High School were treated for food poisoning after
allegedly being served contaminated meat.
In a report in August 2018 the World Food Program said 45
percent of children in Swaziland were orphaned or vulnerable. Chronic
malnutrition was a main concern and stunting affected 26 percent of children
under the age of five. An estimated 77 percent of Swazis relied on subsistence
farming for their livelihoods.
There seems no end to the crisis. In June 2018
headteachers and principals told the Swazi
Observer they
were in huge debt and unable to pay suppliers. It said the problem was with
the government which faced financial challenges.
The Swaziland national budget has been mismanaged for
years. Swaziland is broke and the government is living from hand to mouth. In
June 2018 the then Finance Minister Martin Dlamini told the House of Assembly
that as of 31 March 2018 government owed E3.28 billion. Dlamini said budget
projections indicated ‘exponential growth in the arrears’.
The spotlight on spending in Swaziland intensified
when in April 2018 at a party to mark both his 50th birthday and the
anniversary of Swaziland’s Independence from Great Britain, King Mswati III, the
kingdom’s absolute monarch, wore a watch
worth US$1.6 million and a suit weighing
6 kg studded with diamonds. Days earlier he had taken
delivery of his second private jet. This one, an Airbus A340, cost US$13.2 to
purchase but with VIP upgrades
was estimated to have cost US$30 million.
Meanwhile, seven in ten of the 1.2 million population
live in abject poverty with incomes less than the equivalent of US$2 per day.
See also
Chaos
and confusion across Swaziland as new school year starts
Bad food poisons 200 Swazi pupils
Swazi
Govt ‘runs out of cash’
Lavish
spending leads to food aid cut
Hunger
forces schools to close early
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