A chief
in Swaziland is forcing his subjects to pay for him to have a new car.
Chief
Mlotjwa II of KaLiba in the outskirts of Hlatikulu town in the Shiselweni
region has demanded E100 (US$8) contributions from residents, the Sunday Observer newspaper reported (28
January 2018). In Swaziland seven in ten people live in abject poverty with
incomes of less than US$2 per day.
Chiefs
are the local representatives of King Mswati III who rules the impoverished
kingdom as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. The chief wields
tremendous power over their subjects and can, for example, determine whether
people are allowed to live in the area, or whether children can attend
universities and colleges. In some cases they decide who lives and who dies as
they are in charge of distributing international food aid to starving
communities. About a third of the population of Swaziland
receiving food aid each year.
The Observer reported, ‘Some of the
residents have been questioning why they should buy the chief a motor vehicle.
The residents were allegedly told to make E100 contributions towards buying the
chief’s car.’
It added,
one resident complained, ‘We don’t understand why we have to buy him a car, a
personal car for that matter. This is not part of paying allegiance to the
chief.’
The chief’s
representative Obert Hlatjwako said residents had been asked but not forced to
contribute.
He then demanded that the newspaper reveal the names of the people
who had made the complaints.
Chiefs in
Swaziland have a long history of abusing their subjects. In November 2017 it was reported about 20
families in Mvutshini in the Southern Hhohho region, were fined E900 each (US$64)
for not attending community meetings and paying homage to their chiefdom.
In June 2017 Chief Somtsewu
Motsa of Lushishikishini threatened too banish all single mothers from the area
he rules over to ease the burden to the community of children born out of
wedlock.
The Observer on Saturday (17 June 2017) said Chief Somtsewu Motsa had
called a meeting of all ‘single mothers, pastors and those known to have
impregnated girls without marrying them’. The newspaper reported, ‘Reliable
sources said the traditional authorities were threatening to evict anyone to be
seen to defy the chief’s order.’
Chiefs can and do take
revenge on their subjects who disobey them. There is a catalogue of cases in
Swaziland. For example, Chief Dambuza Lukhele of Ngobelweni in the Shiselweni
region banned his subjects from ploughing their fields because some of them defied his order to build a
hut for one of his wives.
Nhlonipho Nkamane Mkhatswa,
chief of Lwandle in Manzini, the main commercial city in Swaziland, reportedly stripped a woman of her clothing in the middle of a street in full view of the public
because she was wearing trousers.
In November 2013, the newly-appointed Chief Ndlovula of Motshane threatened to evict nearly 1,000 of
his subjects from grazing land if they did not pay him a E5,000 (about US$500
at the time) fine, the equivalent of more than six months income for many.
See also
CHIEF PUNISHES RESIDENTS WITH FINE
KING'S DEFIANT SUBJECTS 'WILL BURN'
CHIEF FORCES SUBJECTS TO GREET KING
BULLYING CHIEFS RULE IN SWAZILAND
CHIEF MAKES WOMAN IN PANTS STRIP
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