Beyond Hunger

MBABANE,
7 January 2009 (IRIN) – The discovery of two brothels where underage
girls worked for just food in a township in central Swaziland has
triggered both shock and sympathy in a country struggling with chronic
poverty and food insecurity.


For years there have been anecdotal reports of desperate women, unable
to find work at the Matsapha Industrial Estate where Swaziland’s few
factories are clustered, exchanging sex for food
to feed themselves or their children. But until a raid this weekend on
two “hostels” in Mbhuleni township, across the highway from Mastapha,
there had been no evidence of an organised brothel-based sex trade.

Media reports said the police, with the help of the local community,
closed down the two brothels in Mbhuleni where a total of 35 girls,
aged from 14 to 17, were trading sex for basic meals served in the
neighbourhood cafes, or alcohol, provided either by their pimps or
directly by their clients.

“Even a place crime-ridden like Mbhuleni has its limits, and this is
definitely not Swazi-like what was going on,” said Samuel Ndwandwe, a
community policeman. “They were making money off those starving children. They were turning our sisters into whores.”

Found
Maxwell Gama’s* sister went missing two months ago. As soon as school
closed for the Christmas holiday, the 16-year-old left the family farm
to help his mother search for her in Matsapha, 60km away.

“It was terrible because we checked all the police stations to see if
they had found young women my sister’s age. She is 17. My mother and I
even went to the hospital and the mortuary to see if there was a body
they couldn’t identify. We went to Matsapha because that is where she
said she was going to find work. There is no work where we live,” he
told IRIN.

Too many people are hungry, those girls had nothing. I am so saddened by the life they chose, but I feel sorry for them more than I condemn them

Gama and his mother got a tip that she had been swept up in the police
raid, and finally made contact. “She ran away when she saw us. She said
she was too ashamed. I want to get her out of this place and take her
home!”

None of the girls picked up by the police have been charged with a
crime, but the owners of the brothels are being sought for questioning.
The child welfare organisation, Save the Children, has stepped in to
help reunite the girls with their families, and the Swaziland Action
Group Against Abuse, located in the central commercial city of Manzini,
aims to investigate organised sexual exploitation in Matsapha.

Media report said the girls freed by the police were seeking jobs,
shelter or just food, with some having fled abuse at home. At the
brothels they were fed if they had sex – typically a plate of rice and
beans, or maize meal porridge and meat if the local butchery was open
at the time.

“Too many people are hungry,
those girls had nothing. I am so saddened by the life they chose, but I
feel sorry for them more than I condemn them,” said Reverend Jeremiah
Vilakati, who preaches in Mbhuleni township.

An estimated 40 percent of Swazis are unemployed; after a slightly better harvest last
year, the ratio of people currently being fed by relief agencies has
fallen to four out of 10. “What we are seeing at Matsapha is the
exploitation of starving women and girls by Swazi men who are taking
advantage of the humanitarian crisis,” said social welfare worker Felix
Vilane.

“We know these are difficult times, but the challenge for Swaziland is
how to look after its children so they don’t have to run away from home
to find something to eat, and do unspeakable things to survive.”

Swaziland, sandwiched between South Africa and Mozambique, is
sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarchy. Although classified as a
middle-income country, wealth is concentrated in the hands of the royal family. Poverty is sharpened by the world’s highest rate of HIV infection.

* Not his real name