Swaziland police fine man trying to buy food for destitute children during coronavirus lockdown

Police in Swaziland (eSwatini) fined a man who was out buying food for destitute children during the coronavirus lockdown.

He had to use some of the money that had been donated for food to pay the on-the-spot penalty.

Khulekani Msweli later wrote an open letter to Swazi Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku complaining about the police.

The Swazi Government, personally appointed by King Mswati III, the absolute monarch of Swaziland, has put the kingdom into lockdown. Travel is severely restricted, businesses closed and police are fining people they find on the streets without a ‘legitimate excuse’. 

Masuku told the Swazi House of Assembly last week that more than 300,000 people in Swaziland from a population of 1.3 million needed food aid because they were without an income during the lockdown.

Msweli said he was on his way to buy foodstuff at Tshaneni to prepare meals for destitute residents of Vuvulane, organised by the Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) Outreach Foundation.

The community of Vuvulane: Picture: Khulekani Msweli

New travel restrictions imposed by Police Chief William Dlamini require people to have letters of permission to be travelling. Msweli said he tried to get one from a local leader but his office was closed.

He said he was stopped at a police road block and dragged from the car. He was travelling alone and wore a face mask as required by coronavirus (COVID-19) regulations.

He was taken to Tshaneni Police Station. 

Msweli wrote, ‘Throughout that ordeal, I was consistently trying to explain to them that my shop visit was out of desperation to feed children that are at the brink of survival, but none of my pleas were adhered to.’ He said the police threatened to lock him up.

He added he broke down and pleaded with them to have mercy on those who depended on the food that he was going to buy. 

‘To them, I was just as good as a criminal and deserved to be locked away for caring for others. The accusing policeman eventually fined me E60. I paid on the spot using money which was donated and meant to buy food for the neediest members of my community,’ Msweli wrote.

Msweli added, ‘The government cannot claim to be saving lives yet children might die of hunger not COVID-19. To criminalize, harass and humiliate those that are stepping in, where government is surely failing, is beyond belief. Is the government of eSwatini on a mission to kill all poor people?’

He added that he ‘fought back’ until he eventually bought all the food that was needed.

He told the Deputy Prime Minister, ‘The fact remains that the Government of eSwatini, through its police unit, has “stolen” an impoverished child’s E60, which was meant to buy their food. That E60 was meant to buy food that equates to at least two meals but two children were denied those meals.’

He added, ‘What must I tell the two children that will be without a meal, yet money was allocated to them? This whole week they were looking forward to their best and balanced meal, which other children received, but what will I tell them? What sense of hope must I offer them when the Police are punishing and “stealing” from the only people that seem to care about their welfare?’

He said, ‘As we are all doing our best to contain the spread of COVID-19, let us not find ourselves with a human rights catastrophe of hunger related deaths that could have been avoided.’

The Deputy Prime Minister later contacted Msweli to apologise. He said he had asked the National Police Commissioner William Dlamini to ‘deal with the matter’.

See also

Swaziland Govt. confirms it will not feed the starving in towns and cities during coronavirus lockdown

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2020/04/swaziland-govt-confirms-it-will-not.html

Swaziland Govt. pledges to feed 300,000 facing hunger in next two weeks as coronavirus intensifies

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2020/04/swaziland-govt-pledges-to-feed-300000.html

People face ‘imminent death from hunger’ in Swaziland as coronavirus lockdown hits poorest

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2020/04/people-face-imminent-death-from-hunger.html

Army, police close down Swaziland’s main commercial city in bid to halt coronavirus spread

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2020/04/army-police-close-down-swazilands-main.html
 

Public need written permission to travel in Swaziland in big coronavirus clampdown

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2020/04/public-need-written-permission-to.html

 

Amnesty says Swazi Govt failing to help people forcibly evicted from their homes a year ago

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

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/01/evicted-farmers-take-on-swaziland.html
 

Bulldozers move in to evict families

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/bulldozers-move-in-to-evict-families.html
 

Homes destroyed for King’s vanity project

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2014/09/homes-destroyed-for-kings-vanity.html

TOWN BLACK-OUT AS GOVT BILLS UNPAID

An entire town in Swaziland is suffering a month-long power cut because the government has not paid its electricity bill.

As the blackout continues news is emerging that the Swazi Government is no longer able to pay suppliers and is issuing IOU notes. All new capital spending is reportedly on hold.

The town of Vuvulane has been without power for a month so far, according to the Observer on Saturday newspaper in Swaziland. It reported (2 June 2018) that the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development was responsible for paying the bills. It said Vuvulane Town Council said it had paid the E10,000 a month for electricity supplies but the electricity was no longer supplied. Tenants of the Town Council are angry because the electricity charge is included in rents they pay.

Meanwhile, it was reported that government was issuing IOU notes promising future payment of debts to suppliers. In his budget speech on 1 March 2018 Finance Minister Martin Dlamini reported the Swazi Government owed suppliers E3.1 billion (US$243 million), but according to the Sunday Observer (3 June 2018) he refuted earlier reports this had increased to E5 billion and said the debt had been reduced to E2.2 billion.

The newspaper also quoted unnamed officials at the Ministry of Economic Planning saying that all new capital spending in the kingdom ruled by King Mawati III as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch had been ‘put in limbo’. This included projects where tenders had been awarded.

It reported an employee saying ‘The only tender projects we are involved in are those which are ongoing.’ It added, ‘Their understanding was to the effect that there would be absolutely no funding for anything in the short term.

‘They said they were informed of this decision following the weekly principal secretaries’ meeting which is held every Wednesday following cabinet’s Tuesday meetings. The mitigation measure comes at a time when government is trying to find means of coming out of a financial crisis which has seen it fail to pay some of its obligations on time.’

Finance Minister Martin Dlamini denied the report and said no decision had yet been made. 

The spotlight on spending in Swaziland intensified when in April 2018 at a party to mark both his 50^th birthday and the anniversary of Swaziland’s Independence from Great Britain, King Mswati 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 1.1 million population live in abject poverty with incomes less than the equivalent of US$2 per day.

Children in Swaziland have been told by teachers to prepare themselves for starvation as the government failed to deliver free food to schools over the past year. At the heart of the crisis is the Swazi Government’s inability to pay its suppliers. As a result of unpaid bills, suppliers have stopped delivering food, and medicines. Electricity supplies to government offices, law courts, police stations, libraries, media houses, and border posts have been cut. 

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 that detailed the differences in countries between the top most earners and those at the bottom.

Swaziland is not a democracy even though national elections are due to take place later this year.

Political parties are banned from contesting elections and groups advocating for democracy are banned as ‘terrorists’ under the Suppression of Terrorism Act. Media are severely censored and freedom of assembly is curtailed. Elections are held every five years in Swaziland but people only get to select 55 of 65 members of the House of Assembly. The King chooses the other 10. No members of the Swazi Senate are elected by the people; the King chooses 20 and the other 10 are elected by members of the House of Assembly.

See also

SWAZI GOVT ‘RUNS OUT OF CASH’

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/05/swazi-govt-runs-out-of-cash.html

SPOTLIGHT ON SWAZI INTERNATIONAL AID

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/05/spotlight-on-swazi-international-aid.html

LAVISH SPENDING LEADS TO FOOD AID CUT

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/05/lavish-spending-leads-to-food-aid-cut.html

SWAZI KING’S BUDGET INCREASES US$14 MILLION

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/swazi-kings-budget-increases-14-mil.html 

THREAT TO LIFE AS GOVERNMENT DOESN’T PAY BILLS

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/threat-to-life-as-govt-doesnt-pay-bills.html

ARRESTS UNLAWFUL – FREEDOM HOUSE

Freedom House, the international human rights group, has condemned ‘the unlawful arrests and detentions’ of students carried out by police at the University of Swaziland.

This follows a week of disruption at the university which saw armed police raid student dormitories using teargas and arresting student leaders. The students report they were badly beaten at police stations.

Freedom House has also criticised police for arresting farmers in Swaziland’s Vuvulane area, who were resisting unlawful evictions from land.

In a statement Freedom House said, ‘The government of Swaziland should immediately end these violations of Swazi citizens’ basic freedoms.’

It said, ‘On Sunday, November 17, 2013, university students protested against what they perceived as an unfair change to the exam calendar. Police officers responded by forcefully entering students’ housing, allegedly beating and then arresting students. On another campus, six students were detained and later released without being formally charged.

‘In Vuvulane, the police are increasing pressure on farmers resisting their unlawful evictions from land that they have occupied for generations. In a clear attempt to intimidate the community, police this week arrested and detained a group of five farmers four times. Each time they were released before the 24 hour deadline for a charge to be brought, only to be immediately rearrested.

‘The Swazi government should compel police to refrain from using unlawful, violent means to prevent constitutionally protected free speech and protests.’

A recent Freedom House report on Swaziland reveals the extent of King Mswati’s control over all levers of power in Swaziland. The king has ruled Swaziland for 27 years and is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

Freedom House said his rule ‘has led to the near collapse of the Swazi economy, increasingly desperate poverty and lack of respect for the rule of law and the political rights of citizens. Political parties remain banned in Swaziland, which is rated ‘Not Free’ in Freedom in the World 2013.’

See also

REPORT BLASTS ROYAL FAMILY’S GREED

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/09/report-blasts-royal-familys-greed.html