As the food crisis gets worse in most parts of Swaziland, many people, particularly women, have resorted to prostitution and crime as the only means for survival in the face of the ravaging famine hitting Swaziland.
A majority of families along the Lavumisa-Manzini highway are now giving away their female children, some as young as 12 years, to truck drivers who pay at least R50 for a round of sexual intercourse.
"I have seen them waiting along the road for the truck drivers who would stop for these young girls and as an adult I have noted that nothing else was happening inside these trucks except that they are sleeping with drivers," said Hlaleleni Vilane, a resident of Mbutfo area, a sub-area of Lavumisa in southern Swaziland.
Vilane said if she was not too old as she is aged over 50 years she would also join in prostitution.
"These people are living well than us. They eat well yet we are starving," she said. This difficult life lived by the Lavumisa people is part of the miserable life that is experienced by the over 150 000 Swazis are facing eminent death in the face of a food crisis in the lowveld, in particular where a majority of the people now cannot afford to have any meal for more than three days. A visit on Wednesday to the worst affected areas such as Lavumisa in the south of the country revealed shocking experiences by the starving people. Poverty coupled with the high rate of unemployment has forced many families to resort to crime as businesses in this area now report an increase in housebreaking and theft cases.
Local businessman and farmer, Johannes Nkwanyane said he has pardoned several of the culprits as he has anticipated the effects of the starvation crisis. He said in an interview that he now provides the worst affected families with free maize and leaves of cabbages that he grows on his farm.
"I would be able to give the people of Lavumisa enough food on a cheaper price if the government is not frustrating me. I have a big farm here which can provide sufficient food to feed the entire Lavumisa community, but the government is not allowing me to use the water drawn from the nearby Jozini dam in South Africa," he said.
Nkwanyane said since his misunderstanding with the Swaziland government over the payment of some gravel dug from his farm in which he was promised a sum of R1, 2 million, the government has done everything in its power not to allow him to carry on his farming in the area. The dispute over the payment is still in court. Nkwanyane said he is now prepared to use the water by force and said he is prepared for arrest.
"The people are hungry. They need food," he said.
People in the area interviewed painted a gloomy future on their lives. Vilane, the 50 year old woman of Mbutfo, a sub-area of Lavumisa, said the food aid donated by the US government was not fit for human consumption such that "even goats or pigs" can eat it.
"But my son there is nothing we can do because we are hungry. Our government has failed to save us from starvation. Instead what these people do, they are on holiday almost in their everyday lives," she said. "I was shocked when I heard over the South African radio stations that the king is buying a plane yet we are starving," she said.
The situation in most of the starvation-affected areas is worse than spoken as children have started showing signs of malnutrition. A mother found in the small border town of Lavumisa, Tengetile Matse (28) said she couldn't afford to feed her child, Siboniso who has no father. She said the only time she has got some relief from hunger was last week Wednesday when the National Disaster Task Force came to distribute food to the Lavumisa community.
"But even then I'm still facing difficulties because as I have no money to mill the maize, which too, is bad," she said.
Chairman of the National Disaster Task Force, Ben Nsibandze, said as far as he was concerned the food aid donated by the Americans was in good condition. He said it is common cause that people like to complain even when it's unnecessary. But an inspection we conducted with fellow journalists that visited the affected areas revealed that the maize and the beans are not in good condition.
A white powder filled our hands when we tried to assess by putting our hands in the containers that carried the maize and the beans. There were also a lot of weevils in it.
Swaziland's major opposition political party, the People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) has called for sanctions against the kingdom's leaders whom it accused of abusing donor funds.
In a statement by PUDEMO's foreign representative, Jabulane Matsebula, the organization called on all donor organizations to apply similar sanctions against governments that do not take care of people's concerns. He said the purchase of the private jet for King Mswati III at a time when thousands of Swazis are facing death in the face of the raging drought was disgusting. Matsebula said it has become clear that the present tinkhundla regime was not prepared to bring about meaningful change in the kingdom, but to feed the hungry compatriots of the system.
The Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN), an organization comprising of pressure groups from Swaziland, South Africa and abroad, also joined in condemning the purchase of the jet. But Swazi authorities have continued to be adamant that there is the need to have a private jet for the king.