Rising evictions as town councils boost earnings

Gogo ("Granny") Simelane is about to be made homeless, joining thousands of other urban Swazis who are being evicted by cash-strapped town councils eager to make more productive use of neglected public land. "I built my house 20 years ago on land my husband bought and paid for. Now I am told I am a squatter, and I must leave. Where will I go? I am 71 years old," she said. Simelane's late husband built their sturdy four-room mud and thatch dwelling in 1984. At the time, unscrupulous officials were selling communal Swazi Nation Land on the fringes of towns to rural folk migrating to urban centres as part of a post-independence population boom. Simelane's husband thought he had become the owner of a plot outside the central commercial town of Manzini, though he never received the title deeds. Manzini is now officially a city, with plans to annex the Simelane plot, along with hundreds of other improvised dwellings ranging from tin shacks to scrap automobiles converted into sleeping quarters. Now a widow, Simelane has no surviving children to support her. With nowhere else to go, she will likely sell her small flock of chickens and take up residence in one of the slum-like informal settlements festering along the banks of the small, fetid Mzimnene River that meanders through the city. "Peri-urban slums are a problem. The areas are unregulated - there is no infrastructure, no sanitation. We are in summer now, and waterborne diseases like cholera become a menace," Manzini city council member Mandla Dlamini told IRIN. "Due to the lack of planning and proper facilities, these communities use urban services without sharing in their delivery costs. It is essential that special attention be given to these areas by the relevant government structures," Manzini Town Clerk Churchill Fakudze said in a statement this week. City officials say they need to expand urban boundaries to accommodate urban migration and create new, planned communities in an orderly way. There is also a need to raise additional revenue through property taxes, which are the towns' principal means of income. Government contributions via the Ministry of Urban Development account for less than 20 percent of the municipal budgets of Swaziland's towns. The rest comes from property rates, with a small amount generated by licenses, permits, fees for refuse collection and other city services. Unlike the central government, which is accruing an historically high R1 billion (US $145 million) national debt, Manzini and other cities are exercising fiscal responsibility by not spending beyond their revenues. This has earned plaudits from the Central Bank of Swaziland. However, the bank has fretted over the cities' reliance on property taxes. "Other sources for revenue need to be identified to reduce dependence on rates and government grants, especially for town councils, as this undermines the efforts of these councils to improve their service delivery," a bank report stated. Because revenues are declining in tandem with a deteriorating national economy, city projects are suffering. The capital, Mbabane, has taken to hosting glitzy game show-type competitions to induce property owners to pay rates on time, rather than in instalments that accrue high interest charges for payers while delaying monies needed by city coffers. Prompt ratepayers are entered into a lottery and stand the chance of winning a new car. None of this impresses Gogo Simelane. She spends the afternoons feeding her chickens in the dirt courtyard of her house. One day, the city rangers will come to remove her belongings, and place them outside. Then a bulldozer will demolish the dwelling. There are no city or national institutions that offer habitation for elderly Swazis. Social worker Gloria Tsabeze told IRIN: "All generations of Swazis were once taken care of within a multi-generational, polygamous household. But AIDS, urban migration and other factors have left people like the woman you describe without support or options. Changing times and the AIDS crisis have outstripped this society's ability to cope."