Feature - Women demand property rights

Women's groups in Swaziland are taking a more active role in shaping gender policy, ahead of the release of the first draft of the country's new constitution by King Mswati III. Property ownership, currently illegal for Swazi women, is one important area of concern. "Throughout the operation of our culture and received law, women have been systematically discriminated against in all aspects of social life – for instance, in terms of being property owners," said a statement from the women's empowerment group, Umtapo waBomake. The NGO, whose name in SiSwati means "the earnings of the women", has for 10 years quietly financed women's cooperatives, mostly in small-scale agricultural schemes, sewing and handicraft ventures. "The palace expects to issue its constitution like a royal proclamation, but the nation has to live with it for a long time, and if equality for women is not legalised, we cannot blindly ratify what is put before us," said a woman from a cooperative in the central commercial hub of Manzini, which is financed by Umtapo waBomake. Her group sews school uniforms sold locally. Nearly all the 15 members of the cooperative are the sole breadwinners for their families. They are either single mothers whose boyfriends abandoned them and their children without financial support, or whose spouses succumbed to AIDS. "This is not like the old days. So many families now depend on the earnings of women, it is time this reality is reflected in law," said Thalani Maseko, secretary-general of Lawyers for Human Rights (Swaziland). Swazi women are not permitted to own property, acquire bank loans or enter into contracts without the sponsorship of male relatives. However, some women are acquiring portions of communal Swazi Nation Land for economic development projects with the blessings of chiefs and their councils of elders. Once these plots and fields are developed, with permanent fencing and buildings constructed, the women hope their informal ownership will evolve into title deeds when land reform, long-promised by government, becomes a reality. "We're not waiting for legislation from a male-dominated parliament - we are moving forward, trying to find ways for women to own property in Swaziland. One way is to create property-owning corporations, where the company legally owns the property but a woman is put in place as company director," attorney Fikile Mtembu told IRIN. Another initiative has been to plant orchards on unused community land. Last week, the association Asihambisane Bomake ("Let us advance, women") was one of three women's empowerment groups to receive fruit trees and agricultural tools from the London-based Maurice Laing Foundation. Officially, the groves are for community development, but they will be managed and, it is hoped, eventually be owned by the cooperative's women. Despite their efforts to get around existing property ownership laws, women's groups admit they can only go so far until the country's laws are changed. "Swaziland has embarked on a process of constitutional and gender reforms, but this move would be irrelevant for women because of the in-built inequities to be found in criteria used to deal with women in Swaziland. The most significant criteria, common to both the traditional and received system of laws (inherited from British colonial authorities), is that of legal status – women are ascribed a minority and inferior status as opposed to men," Umtapo waBomake said. "Swazi women's inability to enjoy their economic rights is never more urgent than now, when women are income earners, able to mobilise resources for purchasing assets such as land and houses." The women's development group described as "the worst kind of economic injustice" that women may pay the price of a property, but are denied ownership because the title deed must bear a man's name. "Women here practically become 'forced labour', amassing resources for the men who can dispose of them as and when they so desire," said an attorney with the group. The way forward is through the application of universal human rights treaties, the organisation noted. "The use of human rights as a standard would ensure that the ground is levelled here, that women, as human beings entitled to their fundamental rights and freedoms, would be able to enjoy 'real' economic rights," Umtapo waBomake's statement asserted.