More than 80 percent of women aged 60 and over and 70 percent of men in Swaziland live in poverty, according to a new report.
This comes at a time when the Swazi Government has run out of money and cannot pay elderly grants (pensions) to all people in that age group.
About seven in ten of Swaziland's 1.3 million population live in abject poverty defined as having incomes less than the equivalent of US$2 per day. The report said poverty among people aged 60 or over was highest compared to other age groups.
The Swazi Observer newspaper quoted the report, 'Whilst the elderly are now receiving social grants, they continue to be subjected to other forms of abuse as they are neglected by family members, abused physically and emotionally within society.'
The findings come as the Swazi Government which is not elected by the people but handpicked by King Mswati III who rules as sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch said it could not afford to pay elderly grants to people who reached the age of 60 this year. About 4,000 people are affected.
King Mswati lives a lavish lifestyle, with at least 13 palaces, fleets of top-of-the-range Mercedes Benz and BMW cars and at least one Rolls Royce. He has a private jet airplane and is soon to get a second.
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