The Government of Swaziland
/ eSwatini has failed to help the hundreds of people who were forcibly evicted
from their homes a year ago, Amnesty International
reported.
‘Despite Amnesty
International having raised the alarm over forced evictions that left hundreds
of people homeless, the eSwatini government has not taken any steps to provide
reparations, including alternative housing, to the victims of this human rights
violation,’ Muleya Mwananyanda, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for
Southern Africa said on Thursday (29 August 2019).
Mwananyanda added, ‘Many of
the communities who are facing notices of eviction have stopped planning for
their future and they are devastated by the prospect of finding themselves on
the streets. To wilfully ignore their suffering and distress is simply
unacceptable.’
Those who have been
forcibly evicted and others who remain at risk of forced evictions are mainly
subsistence farmers. ‘The forced evictions not only impact their right to
adequate housing but also their livelihoods, thus pushing them deeper into
poverty,’ Amnesty said.
In a report in 2018, Amnesty International revealed that many Swazis were
vulnerable to forced evictions because they lacked security of tenure, due to
the kingdom’s ‘deeply flawed’ land governance system.
Most of the land is Swazi
Nation Land, held in ‘trust’ by the absolute monarch King Mswati III. He has power
to allocate it to individuals or families through his chiefs. The remainder of
the land is title-deed land, owned by private entities or the government.
Amnesty International found
that at least four communities, Sigombeni, Madonsa, Mbondzela and Vuvulane, were
at risk of imminent eviction from their farming land and their homes.
Amnesty reported, ‘In
Sigombeni, at least seven homesteads comprising 75 adults and 29 children are
at risk of imminent eviction after the Central Farm Dwellers Tribunal ruled on
27 March 2018 that they should vacate portion 1 of Farm 246 in the Manzini
region. The farm owner does not want people to live on the farm anymore. The
affected families told Amnesty International that they would lose at least 17
graves on their land if they were finally removed.’
One woman told Amnesty, ‘We
are pensioners. We don’t have money. [The government] should at least
compensate us and give us money. It’s not only us affected [there are other
communities affected]. We don’t want to go.’
In Madonsa, more than 200
people from approximately 58 families are facing eviction from land claimed by
a parastatal authority.
In Mbondzela, approximately
100 people, are at risk of being evicted from title-deed land. The residents
have appealed to the Minister of Natural Resources and Energy who has referred
the matter back to the Central Farm Dwellers Tribunal for reconsideration.
In Vuvulane at least 16
families remain at risk of eviction.
In the past few years,
hundreds of people have been affected by forced evictions in Swaziland. Most of
the evictions were carried out in the absence of adequate notice, genuine
consultation and without adequate compensation, in violation of international
law, Amnesty said.
In May 2019, hundreds of people marched at Malkerns to
protest the forced eviction of people who had been left homeless and destitute.
The march was jointly organised by a variety of civil society organisations.
The Times Sunday, reported at the time one
of the evicted people said, ‘We eat from the bins as we do not have homes and
cannot practice farming.’
See also
Evicted
farmers take on Swaziland absolute monarch to get their land back
Bulldozers
move in to evict families
Homes
destroyed for King’s vanity project
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