ECONOMY-SWAZILAND: Women Own Majority of Small Businesses

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Thomas Shongwe

MBABANE, Sep 1 2003 (IPS) - Since the publication last week of a government report that showed a majority of small businesses are owned by Swazi women, women’s empowerment groups are trying to reconcile this surprising news with the reality that Swazi women are legally minors with limited rights in this small country.

"Obviously, women have a higher involvement in the economy than national policymakers had thought," says Alicia Khumalo, a law student at the University of Swaziland, specialising in industrial relations.

And yet, Khumalo was not surprised by the report. "The anecdotal evidence was all there. My university fees are paid for by my mother, who runs a general dealer outside of (commercial capital) Manzini. Nobody thinks that is unusual. And you go to town, it seems most of the shops are run by women."

Although the businesses are registered under women’s names, who then obtain operating licenses, pay taxes, employ workers and engage in the myriad responsibilities of making a business profitable, the building they rent is usually owned by someone else. Usually the owner is a man.

"Land policy is a problem. Legally, women cannot own property in Swaziland. This is the prerogative of Swazi men, and it goes back to when everyone lived on communal Swazi Nation Land under chiefs. Farmland was allocated to families, but in the name of the male head of the house," an attorney with the Swaziland chapter of Women in Law in Southern Africa told IPS.

Up to 80 percent of the population still lives as peasants under chiefs on Swazi nation land. When the male household head dies, his properties pass to his son, brother or male relative. When Swazis began to acquire title deed to properties in urban areas following national independence, the male ownership requirement was retained.

"A woman’s role was domestic, not income earning, at that time. The authorities simply saw no need for women to have properties in their own names, when it would be men who would utilise these," recalls Thembi Sithole, who owns two short-haul commuter buses.

But abuses were rampant. Women could not take out bank loans or sign contracts, so this had to be done on their behalf by male relatives. Stories abound of women’s homes and businesses that were built up after much effort and investment, only to be lost when a man in whose name the property was registered lost them as gambling debts or when used to secure loans he did not repay.

Through it all, women persevered, until 71 percent of small businesses are today owned by women, according to the Ministry of Enterprise and Employment.

Then came AIDS.

"Men in their economic prime are dying in great numbers in Swaziland," AIDS activist Khosi Bhembe told IPS.

"Because of traditional inheritance laws, a man’s property at his death goes to his family. Greedy relatives often leave the survivors, the widows and children, with nothing. The only security a Swazi woman has is what she has created for herself. This is why so many women have businesses, as insurance," says Bhembi.

"Swazi women are real entrepreneurs," acknowledges Enterprise and Employment Minister, Lutfo Dlamini.

Government has acknowledged the contribution women business owners are making to the economy and society. In a draft constitution that may be promulgated into law by year’s end, women are granted equal rights. They cannot be denied bank loans or title deed to real estate because of their gender.

"Levelling the playing field will help. But the next step must be to move women out of small businesses and into larger fields or responsibility. I’d like to see a woman own a petrol station, a car dealership, or a factory," says Khumalo.

Like other places with gender imbalances in the business world, a lack of capital keeps Swazi women from achieving more ambitious business goals.

Ending the prohibition against the issuance of bank loans to women will help, but the Swaziland Chamber of Commerce and Industry feels government must enact empowerment programmes to direct capital toward women.

The Swaziland Investment Promotion Authority (SIPA) was established five years ago to facilitate foreign direct investment in the country. By teaming potential investors with Swazi women partners, SIPA can expand empowerment efforts.

Land reform policy will also help move women away from small agricultural concerns like poultry and vegetable raising projects to larger agribusinesses. But achieving this end may be trickier.

The proposed national constitution ends discrimination in the formal sector, the so-called "modern" Swaziland, but leaves untouched matters that fall under "Swazi law and custom."

"Will chiefs allocated land to women? Or will this come only when there is genuine land reform?" asks Khumalo.

Such land reform would enable peasant farmers to own their fields, pasture lands and homes as title deed properties. Such a change would have profound political implications in a country where chiefs, who represent the king on the local level, derive much power from their ability to allocate land.

Five years of diminishing crop yields, and three years of critical food shortages have pushed forward the land reform agenda.

Women stand to benefit. Already, women have been put in charge of local distribution of food aid provided by the UN World Food Programme (WFP).

"Traditionally, it has always been women in charge of the family food stocks. It makes sense that they now manage emergency food distribution. They are showing what they can do. This will influence attitudes toward women in agribusinesses, and that’s important because Swaziland’s economy is still mostly agricultural," says businesswoman Sithole.