Children as young as eleven years old are being
incarcerated in juvenile correction facilities in Swaziland for up to ten
years, even though they have committed no crimes.
And, the trend to lock innocent children up is
increasing, a United Nations group examining human rights in Swaziland was
told.
Parents collaborate with the Commissioner of
Correctional Services in what was described as ‘the best interests of the
child’.
A report
submitted jointly to the United Nations Human Rights Council
Universal Periodic Review of Swaziland April-May 2016 by SOS-Swaziland, Super
Buddies, Prison Fellowship and Luvatsi – Swaziland Youth Empowerment
Organisation, gave the example of one child aged 11.
Their report stated, ‘There is a growing trend of
child and youth abuse done by the state and the parents purportedly in “the
best interests of the child”. Children and youths are illegal incarcerated in
prison centres by parents in collaboration with the Commissioner of
Correctional Services who claims that the children are unruly.
‘In one incident, Grace (not her real name) who is a
single parent to John (not his real name) wrote a request letter to the
Commissioner of Correctional Services requesting that John be incarcerated for
unruly behaviour. In the letter, Grace states her concerns that eleven years
old John might not finish school; hence her reason for wanting him incarcerated
and attending the juvenile school at Malkerns Industrial School for
Rehabilitation.
‘Responding to the same letter of request by Grace,
the Commissioner of Correctional Services stated that under normal
circumstances, they do not admit persons who have not been sentenced by the
courts and directed therein through committal warrants.
‘However, the Commissioner agreed to rehabilitate John
under the stated conditions; that the 11 years old John is institutionalised at
the juvenile school for 10 years; there is an order from a presiding officer
giving him a custodial order of ten years without remission; and that he will
cooperate with His Majesty’s Correctional Services while under its care.
‘With that response, Grace [sic] the letter to a presiding officer who then wrote a custodial
order for the stipulated time and John was admitted to the juvenile school in
2013. The 11 years old John lodges with other juveniles who have been charged
by the court of law for various crimes they have committed. Grace pays tuition
fees and up-keep fees for John, and she will continue doing so for the next ten
years until 11 years old John is 21 years.
‘This case is one of many, and the children are of
different ages and varying backgrounds. It is only recently that a joint task
team comprising of UNICEF, Prison Fellowship Swaziland, Lawyers for Human
Rights-Swaziland, Save the Children Swaziland working together with the
department of home affairs are exploring means to curb this situation and probably
provide solutions for both the parents and children.’
In 2012, the Times
Sunday newspaper in Swaziland reported
that Isaiah Mzuthini Ntshangase, Swaziland’s Correctional Services
Commissioner, was encouraging parents to send their ‘unruly children’ to the
facility if they thought they were badly behaved.
Ntshangase was speaking at the open day of the
Juvenile Industrial School at the Mdutshane Correctional Institution. He told
the newspaper, ‘Noticing the strife that parents go through when raising some
of their children who are unruly, we decided to open our doors to assist
them.’
The school not only corrected offenders but assisted
‘in the fight against crime by rooting out elements from a tender age’, the
newspaper reported him saying. The children ‘will be locked up, rehabilitated
and integrated back to society’, the Times
reported.
The school accommodates pupils who were both in
conflict with the law as well as delinquents, the Times said. There were 279 children locked up at the time of the
interview.
The Times
interviewed some of the inmates and found a 15-year-old girl locked up by her
guardian because she had developed a relationship with a boyfriend that the
guardian did not like.
Another girl interviewed was an orphan who ‘lived a
town life’. She was reported saying, ‘In our dormitories which we share, we are
deprived all the nice and good things.’
She added the rules at the institution were tough, ‘This
place is not for the faint-hearted because you lose a lot of privileges that
are freely accessible outside. There is neither clubbing, drinking nor time for
boys.’
One unemployed father of an 11-year-old boy said he
put his son in the facility because he did not have money to pay school fees.
‘I am grateful that my son is in school. I cannot afford his education because
I am old. My wish is that he finishes school to earn a decent living,’ he said.
The guardian of one girl said before she was admitted at
the school, she had not been able to contain her behaviour. ‘My biggest problem
was that I had lost her. She dropped out of school together with my niece
(sister’s daughter) who is an orphan,’ she said.
Children reported that they were not beaten but they
were badly fed, getting their supper at around 3pm, which meant they went to
bed hungry.
This was not the first time the Swazi juvenile
correction facility had been under the spotlight.
In August 2010, it was revealed that a 12-year-old boy
was serving one year in Mdutshane because he insulted his grandmother. He had
been sentenced to an E300 fine (about US$40), but was too poor to pay so was
jailed instead.
See also
BOY,
12, JAILED FOR INSULTING GRANNY
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