Tears of joy roll down the cheeks of elderly people who have been surviving on one meal every two days in southeastern Swaziland as trucks carrying donated food arrive.
”We are very grateful to His Majesty’s friends for coming to our rescue to donate this food, even though it is very little,” says Makhenikha Mngometulu.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that
144 000 out of a population of one million are at risk of starvation in Swaziland, a tiny kingdom landlocked by Mozambique and South Africa and which is ruled by Africa’s last absolute monarch, King Mswati III.
But in Lavumisa, where the WFP distributes food to
1 600 people, despite the hunger, there is no sign of starvation: some of the women are even fat, mothers are breast-feeding, and the babies are chubby.
The distribution takes place calmly, with no pushing or shoving. Swaziland is one of six countries in southern Africa where the United Nations estimates nearly 13-million people could face starvation at the end of the year if they are not supplied with relief food, which is now flowing in.
The shortages were brought on by two years of drought and erratic rainfall and government mismanagement of emergency stocks and agriculture.
For Mngometulu’s and other families, who have been supplementing their meagre meals with wild fruits and roots, the truckloads of yellow maize kernels, dried beans and cooking oil promise temporary relief from hunger.
Each person is given rations of 12 kilograms of
maize kernels, two kilograms of beans and two litres of cooking oil for the month.
The Swaziland Red Cross Society, the Lutheran Development Services and the Co-ordination of Non-Governmental Organisations are responsible for distributing the food, donated by Britain, Taiwan and the United States.
The food crisis, which also affects Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe — Angola is considered a case apart because hunger there was provoked by civil war — has also been blamed on
bad planning and farming practices in the region.
In Swaziland, a decision to buy the king a $45-million jet — justified by the government on the grounds of the expense of charters — has come under fire from activists who believe the money should be spent on food.
Noah Nkambule, the principal secretary in Swaziland’s ministry of agriculture, this week said the government was doing its best to encourage local farmers to plant drought-resistant crops.
”The ministry has been impressing upon local farmers to practise modern methods of agriculture which include crop rotation,” he said.
But one of Lavumisa’s residents, Khisimusi Masango, (69) said the government had not done enough to encourage local villagers to grow hardy crops like cassava and sweet potatoes.
Her sentiments were echoed by Alfred Masango (74) who said the agriculture ministry had failed to motivate people to become self-sufficient instead of relying on donations from foreign countries.
”For how long are we going to be asking for food aid from international friends of the kingdom … doing nothing to improve ourselves?” he asked. ”Instead we waste time and resources on ‘useless’ projects that will not benefit the nation.”
Commercial farmers said they had, along with the donor
community, tried to launch planting projects, but the government and community leaders had refused to accept their proposals.
They said local communities had turned down their offers to rent land to grow sugar-cane, even though the rents would have provided small farmers with the cash to buy seeds, tools and fertiliser.
”Failure by our communities and leaders has turned the Swazi nation into a nation of beggars who cannot do things on their own,” lamented commercial farmer Sanele Kunene.
”Eastern Swaziland used to be one of the areas that was capable of feeding the whole of Swaziland. The soil and weather conditions make it an ideal place for producing winter crops.” – Sapa-AFP