In this article Dlamini reflects on the impact of globalisation and neoliberalism on Swaziland and its working people, and also looks at the processes of organisation and resistance.
Like the rest of the developing world, Swaziland has had to face globalisation and its often painful consequences head-on. At the same time it has been grappling with its own domestic problems ranging from the high prevalence of the HIV Aids pandemic, unemployment, disease, famine, poor health care facilities and paying off its debt to its western creditors (IMF and World Bank). The Neo Liberal agenda has left the developing world (Africa, the Caribbean and Asia) characterised by dire poverty with an estimated 1.5 billion people living in absolute poverty, and a further 66% of Swazi families living below the poverty datum.
The neo liberal agenda has also coerced the Swaziland government into privatising essential services like water, electricity, some hospital departments, transport and other state controlled institutions. Even big companies which are the major contributors to the economy have also privatised certain departments resulting in massive retrenchment and substantial job losses. The reduction in the price of sugar in Europe means more workers are yet to be retrenched from the sugar industry. Others are the pulp plantation industries, Swaziland Meat Industries, parastatals like telecommunications, Swaziland Railways and others. Worse of all, education is highly commercialised thus made inaccessible to the ordinary citizen even though Swaziland is among the 189 nations that declared the 8 millennium goals, which goal number 2 is to achieve universal primary education. Recently, government has cut off provision of scholarships at tertiary education forcing parents to pay for their children. This has resulted in young people roaming the streets in search of jobs that are never attainable. The opening up of the economy to foreign investors, in particular Chinese and Asian capital, has meant that the protection afforded local manufacturers has been withdrawn and many have not survived the competition from cheaper imported goods. Government, through an established Swaziland Investment Promotion Authority (SIPA) has gone out to attract more foreign investment but this has yielded no positive results in relation to job creation and economic development. Major beneficiaries from this FDI are mostly from the Far East, who have not only benefited from the textile industry alone but also came to open fish and chips shops, groceries and general dealers in the country. These companies are also facing a challenge as the WTO through the phasing out of the Multifibre Agreement has introduced a quota system for countries’ product access to major markets of the world; this has resulted in the closure of some textile companies and the retrenchment of workers. Such industries are taking advantage of the poverty situation in the country by employing and exploiting the unskilled women and children, especially the school leavers. Cheap labour rules in these industries causing maximum exploitation. Workers toil for long hours with few minutes of break or no break at all – and are paid very low wages which cannot sustain them in anyway. Worker rights are violated and government tends to condone such: i.e. violence (in a number of these firms there are reported cases of literal beatings of employees by factory owners), unfair dismissals and casualisation of labour with no benefits. Most of these textile industries are in the centre of Swaziland, Manzini Region in Matsapha Industrial Area which has turned out to be highly populated with no health and sanitation services available.
The Government has constructed factory shells for its so-called investors in rural areas in a desperate hunt for the cheap labour under the guise of bringing jobs to the people. It has also facilitated such by forming what is known as a 99 year lease, which is a lease given to the investor to operate a business in a rural area.
Accommodation in these areas is scarce and a large chunk of the workers’ meagre salaries goes to pay for rent. Such has resulted in them not having enough money for food which is a problem that has caused some people to engage in unbecoming behaviours. This is one major factor that has resulted in the increase in the spread of the HIV/ AIDS pandemic. HIV/AIDS as a global issue has hit Swaziland as the country is among the highly affected countries in the world with statistics indicating 42.6% of people affected.
In the region Swaziland is also affected by the Free Trade Agreements, through which local business is being squeezed out of the market giving advantage to foreign companies. Swazi farmers have no market to sell their produce as more fruits and vegetables is imported daily from the Republic of South Africa to markets and supermarkets, to the extent of importing bottled water. On the other hand government says there is insufficient produce from local farmers. Through the agreements we have in Swaziland big foreign traders like Shoprite Checkers, Spar, Petrol Companies, Nandos are taking local business. Such companies have little to provide in terms of building new employment and senior positions in these companies are reserved for foreigners from South Africa. The head offices of these companies are outside Swaziland hence profit made is shipped out of the country.
Social movement
The problems that are created by neo-liberal policies have pushed people to realise that seeking for alternatives is necessary for survival. In order to respond to these conditions and to address the issue of poverty, community based organisations – formal and informal – have been established. Cooperatives are growing in number, though challenges faced include capacity and support. Faith based organisations are also playing a significant role in addressing the basic needs of communities in terms of capacity building and information sharing.
Developmental NGOs are also working with communities in conducting capacity building for some community-based organisation.
Labour organisations which are the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) and Swaziland Federation of Labour (SFL) and as well as the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), are working hard to educate workers about their rights, even though more education has to be focused on trying to understand and find alternatives to these neo-liberal policies. This education is important in building a strong workers movement in so far as social movements activities are concern.
There is an organisation that seeks to organise all networks dealing with economic injustices known as the Swaziland Economic Justice Network (SEJN).
SEJN through networking with other organisations like the Sourthen African People’s Solidarity Network (SAPSN) and the Southern African Social Forum (SASF) has managed to emerge as one strong social movement is Swaziland. This movement has had the assistance of organisations like the Khanya College (Johannesburg, South Africa) in its capacity- building through workshops. SAPSN has linked the organisation with other networks on the continent
as well as taking care of the socio-economic, political education. As a member of the SASF, we have made the organisation stronger, focused and able to realise the success behind the goals of social movements in other parts of the world.
*Dumezweni Dlamini is an activist in the social movements in Swaziland.
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