Swaziland: THE VUVULANE SUGAR CANE FARMING PROJECT

In the far eastern parts of the tiny kingdom of Swaziland, lies - deep in the belly of the sugar cane fields - a place that has true semblances of an abandoned ‘refugee camp’.  As one drives slowly through the narrow, bumpy path that cuts through the sugar cane fields into the small but densely populated human settlement, there is seemingly an endless river of people flowing to one with the sole purpose and hope of queuing up for the distribution of food parcels. Upon realizing that nothing material is forthcoming, they gradually disappear into the thin of their dilapidated structures made of mud and reed sticks with grief written in all their faces. The camp’s overseer then emerges from his own enclosure, comes over wearing a broad smile and extends a warm welcome to one. He then calls on all his people for a meeting that we hold under a tree next to his place. The meeting is attended by both men and women and almost all of them eagerly await hearing news that will mean their lives will practically change for the better.

As the meeting progresses, a whole lot of issues prop up. The area is managed by the Vuvulane Irrigated Farms (VIF) but the sugar cane fields are under the auspices of the Swaziland Water and Agricultural Development Enterprise (SWADE). The area’s establishment dates back to the early 1970s when the then King offered a 99 year lease for agricultural purposes – mainly sugar cane farming. Individual farmers are given large hectares of land for sugar cane farming and the settlement becomes a pool in which the farmers pick up labourers on a casual basis for whatever work (canal maintenance, cultivation of fields, etc) and give them slightly more than $1.5 per day. SWADE has been instrumental in re-organising the farmers to set up one entity and it came into the picture on the instructions of the king, but its effectiveness, in terms of properly organising the farmers remains to be seen. A lot of the farmers are seemingly unhappy with SWADE acting as some kind of ‘middleman’ between the farmers and the financial institutions that finance their farming projects. Apparently, a delegation of the area’s eldest was sent to the king long ago to inform him about the area’s woes, but hitherto, he has turned a blind ear to the concerns of the area’s people.

It is reported that towards the close of the 2006 farming year, more than 300 farmers at Vuvulane had absolutely nothing to harvest as water supply to their sugar cane fields was cut-off for unpaid water bills amounting to over $2 million by the VIF. This has a serious bearing on the farm labourers as the farmers fail to pay them their small dues if there is nothing to sell. The farmers have always complained about the exorbitant water charges imposed on them by VIF.

FROM FARM LABOURERS TO REAL BEGGARS

There are about six compounds in total around the area. Each compound has an estimated population of between 1000 to 1500 people. Moved from the rural set up of homesteads with hectares to plough, they settled in these compounds where there is absolutely no land to grow crops to feed themselves and their families. ‘We have nothing to eat, you should have brought us food if you knew our situation,’ says one old and frail looking lady who has been in the compound for well over 30 years. She is widowed and has about 13 grandchildren to look after most of whom are orphaned. ‘For drinking water and other domestic needs, we need to rely on the canals that carry  dirty, untreated water used for irrigation purposes. Life has become unbearable, but what can we do?’ asked the area’s overseer obviously expecting no answer. ‘I have been in this compound since it was set up, way back in the 1970s and nothing has changed,’ pointing to the extremely dilapidated mud and stick structures that they call their homes. The structures are rented out to the labourers by the farmers and rental fees range between $6 - $8 per month. A normal daily routine for a farm worker begins at 04hrs30 and ends around 12hrs00. But this depends on the availability of work. At times a farm worker runs without work for almost a week and this means he or she will also be out of cash for the rest of the week. On a good day, a labourer takes home just about $2 a day.   

The area is totally closed up by the sugar cane fields such that even the slightest space available for crop cultivation is impossible to use. For food and other household necessities, the workers need to walk a distance of about 15 kilometres to get themselves to the nearest shop, but this also seems very problematic as there is no money in circulation in the compound. So serious is the situation such that there is no public transport network in the area. Information at hand is that this is probably due to the fact that the levels of poverty in the area are so high and intense that there is just nothing that those people have. A further attestation to this pathetic situation is that of education. The area has one primary and high school but none of the farm labourers has any of their kids attending school due to the apparent lack of financial resources. Only the farmers (owners of the sugar cane fields) have their kids at these schools. Such idleness among the youth and lack of productive activity result in the birth and rise of petty crimes in the compounds.

Another area of concern is the lack of a proper health care facility in the area. The ever escalating levels of poverty render a significant portion of the people to be vulnerable to opportunistic infections and or diseases. The whole area is a total health hazard – no ablutions, no clean water, garbage flying all over. Again, the absence of finances keeps the people away from utilizing the only available small health outlet for the treatment of non-serious illnesses. Even for serious illnesses – tuberculosis and AIDS – there is nothing that could be done owing to the fact that apart from financial constraints, there is no transport available to ferry sick people to the nearest hospital that is almost 60 kilometres away.

INTERVENTION BY THE OFFICE OF THE FOUNDATION

The office of the Foundation for Socio – Economic Justice (FSEJ) has noted with great concern the plight of the labourers in the sugar cane industry. The people themselves (more especially the youth) do have a general feeling that there is something that could be done to alleviate and or curb the ever rising levels of poverty and hunger that they are in. The Foundation has for the past couple of months intensified efforts aimed at synergizing the people’s endeavours and further help them open up for themselves unfettered space where they could work out a program that could help better their lives. Intervention efforts by the Foundation are focussing as well on making these people understand and realize the importance of forming themselves into an organisation that would encompass and articulate all their issues. This calls for an intense but simple educational and capacitating program that will look into organisational building and consolidation or capacity building. Since this is still ‘virgin’ territory, it is important that the Foundation makes it simple and very much appealing to the people, lest they start losing interest just at the initial stages of the educational encounters. Once they grasp that, the second phase of the program must then be on working out a structure that the people themselves would own and one that would ensure continuity in terms of bringing them together and carrying on with the activities. The Foundation would then have to arrange for some meetings with those chosen and educate them on a number of topics ranging from human rights to constitutionalism and governance to democracy.

These topics are deemed necessary and relevant because the people need to be made aware of the fact that in most cases than not, poverty is a consequence of inactivity in the socio-economic and political spheres of society. This inactivity could be a result of political (democratic and constitutional) ignorance or lack of education in the people. What they need to know is that knowledge about democracy, human rights and constitutionalism inadvertently places them in a position where they would be able to understand the socio-political processes at play and thus partake or influence decision – making either through being a pressure group themselves or through lobbying.