Feasibility Study of Proposed Tourism Dev in Shewula, NE ...

These political changes have eroded Swaziland's comparative advantage in
attracting private investment. Growth of Swaziland's economy has declined to
below the very high population growth rate, while formal employment opportunities
are static or decreasing. Distribution of income is highly skewed, and human
development has lagged behind economic growth. The infant mortality rate is high,
as is the child malnutrition rate. However, the literacy rate is above 75%, although
the quality of primary education is a matter of concern, with public funding to
education skewed in the favour of the tertiary sector. 61
Public expenditure is also skewed towards urban areas, and within rural areas,
towards the commercial estate sector. Funding to the sectors of 'housing and
community amenities' and 'water resources management' is skewed to urban areas
and large scale commercial projects respectively.
Agriculture accounts for three-quarters of the country's labour force. Two forms of
land tenure co-exist in Swaziland. Individual Tenure Farms (ITF) or 'title-deed' land
reflects western principles of land ownership and is governed by Roman-Dutch
Law. Swazi Nation Land (SNL) vests in the King, is subject to customary land
tenure, and use rights are allocated by chiefs.
The rural economy is sharply divided between the following:
• Large scale, capital intensive, commercial farming, often using immigrant labour,
on ITF land (25 % of land area, and usually the best quality land), and
• Rain-fed, semi-subsistence farming by smallholders on Swazi Nation Land, with
few linkages between the two. Marketing channels, technical support and
finance are all geared to the needs of the large-scale commercial sector. 62
Recently there has been some progress made in committing funds to irrigation
schemes for subsistence farmers to enable their transition to commercial
farming. 63
Women head up more than one third of the rural households. In the traditional
sector, income from agricultural production, mainly maize and sometimes cotton, is
heavily supplemented by remittances from family members in paid employment in
the rest of Swaziland or in South Africa. With a rain fed farming system, a single
cropping season and a limited crop mix dominated by maize production, rural
households are vulnerable to production shortfalls and consequent 'hungry periods'
leading up to the harvest months of June/July. The impact of the 1992 drought was
to disable this already fragile livelihood system. 64
In responding to the challenges of recovery from the drought and of adapting the
economy to a rapidly changing competitive environment, Swaziland faces
institutional constraints related primarily to its dual governance system and the
minority status of women. The still important role of traditional authority in Swazi
society has tended to reinforce the rigidities of the dual economic structure.
Women's minority status under traditional law constrains their opportunities to
contribute to, or benefit from, the development process. The findings of the Poverty
Assessment in 1997 demonstrate that these institutional constraints also limit the
capacity of poor households and communities to take advantage of development
opportunities and assistance, and to adapt and cope during times of stress.
61
Ministry of Economic Planning & Development, 1997, op cit.
62
Ministry of Economic Planning & Development, 1997, op cit.
63
Thompson, 1998, op cit.
64
Ministry of Economic Planning & Development, 1997, op cit.