Some people in Swaziland are so hungry they willingly
eat dog food, a newspaper in the kingdom reported.
It came after residents looted a van full of dog food
that overturned on the Manzini – Mbabane highway.
It was not an isolated incident, Ackel Zwane, an
opinion columnist in the Swazi Observer
wrote on Friday (15 September 2017). He wrote, ‘The reasons are simple because
people are so poor and desperate they will consume anything that would not kill
them.’
Zwane gave an insight into how hungry people in the
kingdom ruled by King Mswati III as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch
are. Seven in ten of his 1.1 million subjects live in abject poverty with
incomes of less than US$2 per day.
He wrote that people pretend ‘to be collecting bones
or food remains for their dogs back home when in fact that is a lie, they were
collecting the leftovers to feed their loved ones’.
Zwane who writes for a newspaper in effect owned by
King Mswati wrote, ‘This practice is even common in cocktails, garden parties
or state banquets where top government officials fill the boot and vans of
their vehicles with leftover food all in the guise that they are taking them to
their dogs.’
Many people attend cultural events in Swaziland
because free food is on offer, he wrote.
‘Just watch the stampede each time the governor of
Ludzidzini Royal Residence announces that the King invites the nation for a
meal especially during national events, it is as if people were having their
only meal to last a lifetime.’
Hunger is widespread in Swaziland. In a report in May
2017, the World
Food Program estimated 350,000 people in Swaziland were
in need of food assistance. WFP helped 65,473 of them. It said it was regularly
feeding 52,000 orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) aged under eight years at
neighbourhood care points. About 45 percent of all children in Swaziland are
thought to be OVCs.
It reported chronic malnutrition affected 26 percent
of all children in Swaziland aged under five.
Meanwhile, the King lives a lavish lifestyle. At his
49th birthday party in April 2017, media in Swaziland reported that
it took three
months to prepare his cake.
The Times of Swaziland
the only independent daily newspaper in the kingdom where reporting about the
King is severely restricted, said at the time, ‘All eyes were on the cake that
was beautifully displayed in the front during the garden party at His Majesty’s
birthday celebration. Most people were asking themselves how much time it took
the bakers to prepare the cake. The company has always made it a point that it
prepares a beautiful cake every year for His Majesty’s birthday celebrations.’
The Swazi
Observer said, ‘The purple and cream white cake was set on a gold stand
that connected the 49 pieces to make it one and the artistic look was finished
off with a gold lion shaped piece.’
King Mswati lives a lavish lifestyle with at least 13
palaces, a fleet of top-of-the-range Mercedes and BMW cars. He is soon to take
delivery of a second private jet.
The people of Swaziland have been left hungry for many
years and the problem seems to be getting worse.
In October 2014, the Office of the Swaziland Deputy
Prime Minister Paul Dlamini reported
that 223,249 people were estimated to require interventions
aimed at maintaining their livelihood and at least 67,592 of the Swazi
population required immediate food assistance. This was contained in a report
from the kingdom’s Vulnerability Assessment Committee.
Earlier in 2014, the Global Hunger Index report
published by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) revealed
the proportion of people who were undernourished more than doubled in Swaziland
since 2004-2006 and in 2011-2013 was 35.8 percent of the kingdom’s population
or about 455,000 people.
IFPRI reported that since 1990, life expectancy in
Swaziland fell by ten years, amounting to only 49 years in 2012.
IFPRI defines undernourishment as an inadequate intake
of food - in terms of either quantity or quality.
In 2012, three
separate reports from the World Economic Forum, United
Nations and the Institute for Security Studies all concluded the Swazi
Government was largely to blame for the economic recession and subsequent
increasing number of Swazis who had to skip meals.
The reports listed low growth levels, government wastefulness and corruption, and lack of democracy and accountability as some of the main reasons for the economic downturn that led to an increasing number of hungry Swazis.
The reports listed low growth levels, government wastefulness and corruption, and lack of democracy and accountability as some of the main reasons for the economic downturn that led to an increasing number of hungry Swazis.
Poverty is so grinding in Swaziland that some people,
close to starvation, are forced to eat cow dung in order to fill their stomachs
before they can take ARV drugs to treat their HIV status. In 2011, newspapers in Swaziland reported
the case of a woman who was forced to take this drastic action.
Once the news went global, supporters of King Mswati denounced the report as
lies.
In July 2012, Nkululeko Mbhamali, Member of Parliament
for Matsanjeni North, said people in the Swaziland lowveld area had
died of hunger at Tikhuba.
See also
SCHOOL
CHILDREN ‘FACE STARVATION’
SWAZI
KING GETS NEW JET AS PEOPLE STARVE
DROUGHT:
‘PEOPLE DIED OF HUNGER’
GOVT
‘DELIBERATELY STARVING PEOPLE’
CORRUPTION
‘LEADS TO STARVATION’
FEAR
OF MASS HUNGER IN SWAZILAND
No comments:
Post a Comment