Inter Press Service - November 6, 2003
James Hall

He is a garden boy, and he sells sweets at the busy central bus rank where thousands of people converge, giving Manzini, Swaziland's most populous urban centre, the nickname "the Hub".

Samito has no problems tending garden for an upper-middle class family on top of a suburban hill, but his second job causes problems.

This week, as he was carrying a tray of sweets between the large, long-distance buses, some young men pounced on him. "They took about three rand (around 40 U.S. cents) worth of sweets, and wouldn't pay me. I told them to pay. One of them hit me on the head with an iron. I started bleeding. I ran away," he related.

No one in the dense crowd offered any assistance. On the contrary, as he ran, Samito stumbled, and spilled some sweets. This motivated the crowd into action, as they swarmed in to grab the young man's meagre inventory.

For a nation that prides itself in civil behaviour and good manners, the display seemed terribly "unSwazi", as the locals say.

But Samito is not a Swazi. He is Mozambican, one of tens of thousands of mostly-illegal immigrants who have turned Manzini into "a landlocked Maputo", to use the phrase of one bemused Swazi businessman.

Swazi authorities are tolerant toward the influx of undocumented Mozambican workers. There are fewer sweeps of the cardboard and mud shanty dwellings clustered together on the outskirts of town, part of festering informal settlements, as there were ten years ago, even as the population of poor newcomers swells.

There are two reasons for this: AIDS, and Swazis' reluctance to do some types of work. AIDS is decimating the workforce. Up to 40 percent of the adult population is HIV positive.

An official with the Swaziland Chamber of Commerce and Industry sums up the situation: "Where are the factories going to get labourers? Where are businesses going to find staff? Unemployment is high, and opportunities are limited, so the young educated class of Swazis goes to South Africa across the border, where there is better pay and opportunity. The less educated are being decimated by AIDS. Are workers going to be strangers like Nigerians or people from Central Africa, or are they going to be people we know, like the Shangaans?"

Swazis migrated south from what today is the Maputo area, some 500 years ago. Many of the original tribe people remained, and intermarriage between Swazis and some Mozambican tribes, like the Shangaans, is not uncommon. Mozambique, on Swaziland's northeast border, is the only African country besides South Africa (which surrounds the country on its three other sides) to have a permanent High Commissioner in the kingdom.

A Mozambican restaurant owner told IPS, "Swazis are most comfortable on their family farms, and those who want jobs want better paying, prestigious work. They don't want to be garden boys. They don't want to sell combs at the bus rank. As poor as Swaziland is, Mozambique is even poorer, and there are lots of Mozambican boys willing to come here to do jobs that pay little, as opposed to no jobs with no pay at home".

If officials are unconcerned by the influx of Mozambicans, many Swazis are upset, judging by letters that appear in the two national daily newspapers.

"These Mozambicans are turning Manzini into a dangerous place. They steal. They rob you," one letter writer complained.

The Manzini branch of the Royal Swaziland Police Force reports that Mozambicans are regularly arrested for crimes, but they are not responsible for a preponderance of crimes committed in the city.

An ugly indication of dissatisfaction some Manzini residents feel toward the Mozambique influx is a rise in vigilante activity, centred on the bus rank.

In an environment where strangers are in flux, and people are burdened with personal belongings in transit, pick pocketing occurs.

People suspected of stealing are set upon by an instant mob, which materialises brandishing axe handles. The accused is pummelled until he or she is bloody, and then marched by the mob to the police station. Unless there is actual evidence of a crime, rather than someone's suspicion that a theft was being attempted, the police hold the suspect until the matter cools. After a few hours, the suspect is released to go find medical attention.

Because vigilantism is on the rise, police are patrolling the bus rank in greater numbers. They intervene when a mob finds a suspected criminal, and remove the suspect before the crowd's blood lust can be satisfied.

The Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse, a non-governmental organisation headquartered in Manzini that provides counselling and medical and legal assistance to abuse survivors, says Mozambicans make up a small minority of reported abusers.

"Most Mozambicans are lovely, gentle people who are happy to have a chance to earn a living," said Thab'sile Dlamini, a social worker.

Mozambique may have one of the continent's highest economic growth rates, but it is starting from a low point. Following two decades of internecine civil war and post-war instability, the country of 11 million people was listed as the world's poorest.

Continuous foreign investment, business-friendly government policies, and rapidly developing road and utilities infrastructures are laying the foundation for rapid economic growth.

"Indicators show that Mozambique will be creating jobs in significant numbers in the years ahead," said one World Bank report on the country.

If so, Samito need no longer endure the bullies at Manzini's bus rank. He may soon return home for a career. It may be that Swazi youth will begin a reverse trek northward, when the jobs of the future come, possibly turning Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, into "Manzini by the Sea".

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