[Swaziland] A classic example of poverty in Swaziland

from The Swazi Observer

By Timothy Simelane

A shack made of tree branches and riddled with holes - with the roof made of a sail and grass - is home to an elderly woman of Mziki who has no one to build her a proper house.

Paulina Tsabedze was paralysed as a result of poverty and death of many members of her family. She also hallucinates all day.

Her life story has incapacitated her mentality especially when she recalls that she once had a husband and home. From the outside, the shack looks as though it accommodates a wild beast. Scraps of a sail were sewn to tree branches to try and carve a roof.

The inside is more pathetic as the walls and roof let in rays of sunlight. If she could light a candle, the shack would definitely catch fire. The old battered mattress is makeshift and there is nothing else - neither blankets nor something to cook.

Her nephew, Vusi Mthunzi, said efforts to improve Tsabedze's lifestyle have faltered because of inadequate money. "I tried to build a house but ran short of material because I also do not have adequate source of income. I tried to ask for assistance from the member of parliament but he has still not responded," he stated. Mthunzi said he needs 10 bags of cement, building blocks and corrugated iron sheets to build a one-room house that would last Tsabedze a long time. "The first hut I built for her collapsed because there was not enough cement to support the foundation. It was then that she moved into a shack that was shabbily built to accommodate her," he added. Mthunzi said for a long time, Tsabedze was not receiving the pension grant afforded all people because she did not have a personal identification number. "It was last month that she started getting the money after the area's MP, Thulani Masuku, convinced the Social Welfare department to accommodate her," he said. He stated that Tsabedze's husband could not be traced because he lives in South Africa at a place called Mkhuze. Meanwhile, a Health Motivator, Teslina Tsabedze, said the elderly woman's condition lacked all attributes of an acceptable way of life.

"She sleeps without a blanket and when rain falls, she gets soaking wet. Storms threaten to blow the shack away."

* For donations call Timothy Simelane at 612-1669 or 404-9600/1.