'Life is like hell'

2008-09-04 11:42

Siweni, Swaziland - Abigail Nhleko's eyes tear up when her grandchildren return from school and find nothing to eat in a household that does not know where its next meal is coming from.

As one of Swaziland's female headed households who form the poorest of the mountain kingdom's residents, Nhleko lives in a rural village without electricity or running water that can only be reached by dirt roads which wind past grazing sheep and cattle.

Survival is a daily struggle for the frail 82-year-old and the three grandchildren she looks after while their parents search for work in neighbouring South Africa.

"It is better to die than watch helplessly while children are starving," Nhleko told AFP while seated on the floor of her thatched mud hut with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

"We have not had a decent meal for the past four days, and we do not know where our next meal is going to come from."

While Swaziland's absolute monarch King Mswati III is one of the world's richest royals with a $200m (about R1.6bn) fortune, 69% of Swazis live below the poverty line.

Poverty reduction schemes

"We are receiving food aid like countries in war. The war we are facing is hunger," Mbabane-based economist Themba Nkosi told AFP.

"We need an urgent intervention plan. People have been suffering for many years," he said.

"There has been no major investment into the country in years, people have no jobs."

The UN World Food Programme (WFP), which is running poverty reduction schemes in the country, has 200 000 people on its feeding and food parcels database.

"The majority of people in need are concentrated in rural areas, last year we saw the number of needy people increase to 365 000 due to severe drought," WFP spokesperson Siphiwe Mohammed told AFP

"We target households headed by children with no income, HIV and TB patients and other impoverished homes. Many of these people have no other source of food other than the food parcel we provide," said Mohammed.

The economy of the small landlocked country is largely based in agriculture, but years of drought have caused acute food shortages.

Pro-poor and pro-growth

Swaziland's economy is pegged on its neighbour South Africa, which is its major trading partner and the biggest economy on the continent.

The only driver of the economy has been taxes generated from the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) which contributes more than 50% to the GDP, according to the ministry of finance.

Last year, Mswati III unveiled a national poverty reduction action programme which promised to completely eradicate poverty by 2022.

According to Prime Minister Themba Dlamini's new year's statement, the project would "introduce reforms that will make budgeting pro-poor and pro-growth".

For people like Nhleko, such intervention is urgently needed.

"We have not been growing any food because of the drought, our children struggle to find jobs and we do not receive any social grants," she told AFP.

"Life is like hell."

- AFP