Swazi families have increasingly resorted to growing vegetables in their backyards and even making sour milk concoctions for sale as food prices continue to bite during the lean season.
“We are a people who know how to get along in hard times, and for us times have been hard for a long time,” said Amos Thwala, who lives with his family of six on a little plot outside Swaziland’s central commercial town of Manzini.
Prices of essential food items have risen 10-40 percent in 2008. This week, the Swazi media have also reported meat shortages in towns.
While the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS-NET) reported that the food inflation rate had dropped from 18.3 percent to 17.9 percent in Swaziland in October, the rate is still high.
Amos, like 80 percent of the population, lives on communal Swazi Nation Land, administered by hereditary chiefs. Unlike 2007, when Swaziland's maize crop was devastated by a prolonged dry spell and high temperatures (resulting in the lowest annual harvest on record), this year, his land has received rainfall.
The summer rains have helped him to grow vegetables on his plot. They have already covered his children’s school fees for when classes resume in January 2009.
“Selling what we can is our way of getting on,” said Amos, whose wife on occasion also sells a sour milk concoction called `emasi’, a popular Swazi drink, made from his cows’ output.
Job losses
However, selling sour milk and tomatoes can never make up for the income of their eldest son, who lost his job in a South African mine prior to the holiday season, when migrant workers are customarily dismissed for the year to visit their home countries.
For a century the remittances of Swazi men working in mines in South Africa have supported their families in the chiefdoms, and been a source of foreign exchange earnings for the national economy.
Remittances in Swaziland account for 4.2 percent of Gross Domestic Product, reported the Financial Mail, a South African weekly, in December. Quoting analysts, the magazine also said South Africa’s mining sector is expected to lose 40,000 jobs by the end of 2009.
Borderline existences under threat
The Thwala family’s efforts to cope tells in microcosm the wider national story of higher food prices threatening already borderline existences.
World Vision reported this month that many Swazis in rural areas are down to one or two meals a day as they ration their food supplies, and the cost of food increases.
“We are all hoping for good crops [in 2009], because what little food people had in their crop storage bins from last year’s harvests is finished by December, weeks before the new crops come in. This is the time when people resort to buying food staples in shops. But with rising costs and less money, they can’t this year,” said Samuel Zwane, an aid worker in the Manzini region.
The high price of food has worsened life for families struggling to nourish their HIV-positive relatives, who require well-balanced meals to facilitate the effectiveness of their antiretroviral regimen. The doubling of wheat prices in 2008 has also made bread unaffordable for many Swazis.
The Thwalas are relatively lucky. They receive rations of maize meal and cooking oil supplied by the World Food Programme and distributed in their area by World Vision.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, it is estimated that about 210,000 Swazis will be food insecure during the 2008/09 marketing year (April/March). Of these, 60,000 are temporarily food insecure primarily due to rising food prices, and face a food deficit of about 4,300 metric tonnes of cereals.
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“We are a people who know how to get along in hard times, and for us times have been hard for a long time,” said Amos Thwala, who lives with his family of six on a little plot outside Swaziland’s central commercial town of Manzini.
Prices of essential food items have risen 10-40 percent in 2008. This week, the Swazi media have also reported meat shortages in towns.
While the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS-NET) reported that the food inflation rate had dropped from 18.3 percent to 17.9 percent in Swaziland in October, the rate is still high.
Amos, like 80 percent of the population, lives on communal Swazi Nation Land, administered by hereditary chiefs. Unlike 2007, when Swaziland's maize crop was devastated by a prolonged dry spell and high temperatures (resulting in the lowest annual harvest on record), this year, his land has received rainfall.
 We are all hoping for good crops [in 2009], because what little food people had in their crop storage bins from last year’s harvests is finished by December, weeks before the new crops come in |
“Selling what we can is our way of getting on,” said Amos, whose wife on occasion also sells a sour milk concoction called `emasi’, a popular Swazi drink, made from his cows’ output.
Job losses
However, selling sour milk and tomatoes can never make up for the income of their eldest son, who lost his job in a South African mine prior to the holiday season, when migrant workers are customarily dismissed for the year to visit their home countries.
For a century the remittances of Swazi men working in mines in South Africa have supported their families in the chiefdoms, and been a source of foreign exchange earnings for the national economy.
Remittances in Swaziland account for 4.2 percent of Gross Domestic Product, reported the Financial Mail, a South African weekly, in December. Quoting analysts, the magazine also said South Africa’s mining sector is expected to lose 40,000 jobs by the end of 2009.
Borderline existences under threat
The Thwala family’s efforts to cope tells in microcosm the wider national story of higher food prices threatening already borderline existences.
World Vision reported this month that many Swazis in rural areas are down to one or two meals a day as they ration their food supplies, and the cost of food increases.
“We are all hoping for good crops [in 2009], because what little food people had in their crop storage bins from last year’s harvests is finished by December, weeks before the new crops come in. This is the time when people resort to buying food staples in shops. But with rising costs and less money, they can’t this year,” said Samuel Zwane, an aid worker in the Manzini region.
The high price of food has worsened life for families struggling to nourish their HIV-positive relatives, who require well-balanced meals to facilitate the effectiveness of their antiretroviral regimen. The doubling of wheat prices in 2008 has also made bread unaffordable for many Swazis.
The Thwalas are relatively lucky. They receive rations of maize meal and cooking oil supplied by the World Food Programme and distributed in their area by World Vision.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, it is estimated that about 210,000 Swazis will be food insecure during the 2008/09 marketing year (April/March). Of these, 60,000 are temporarily food insecure primarily due to rising food prices, and face a food deficit of about 4,300 metric tonnes of cereals.
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This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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