Common sense

It also finally dawned on government that it could no longer just impose this idea on the public simply because it could not allow for the Satellite Bus Rank to be rendered a white elephant.

For this month that the Swaziland Transport and Allied Workers Union has been engaging in a protest action, the public has been left to feel the pain of an uncaring government.

The elderly of this country have been terribly inconvenienced, being made to walk kilometres for transport; young people have also been forced to endure hours of disruptions, these including being made to be late for school and coming home late. All this long, government has been sitting quietly and hoping that the white elephant it financed would eventually be turned to good use.

The irony here is that government is fond of coming up with projects that it dreams up over night and even when it is warned these are bad ideas, they are imposed on the people at a huge expense. The Satellite Bus Rank is one such idea and the sooner that everyone concerned accepts this the better. This would help too to find a common solution—which is not to force people to make it work.

There are other projects too that are a painful reminder of government failing to accept the simple truth that they are an expense to the taxpayer and they will never work. Soon, the Sikhuphe International Airport will resemble one such expensive experiment, and who knows, maybe there will be a protest action there too by airline operators to complain that the airport is not a workable idea.

Be that as it may, the construction at the airport has continued unabated, and there is reason to believe that it is now nearing completion.

As for the Satellite Bus Rank, it does not matter how long the argument over whether or not this is a workable for the operators and the public. The bottom line is that it appears that there was not enough consultation at the initial stages and it is frustrating trying to make it work.

The next logical thing to do is to abandon it, and try to find an alternative. Sadly, even though government has now come up with a Forum, for whatever reason, it seems we are not learning from the previous mistake of not trying to force this thing to work.

The Forum can only do better to find a workable solution, and this not just limited to the Satellite Bus Rank.

She was laid to rest on Wednesday at the Manzini Cemetery, even then after being prayed for by a pastor from Botswana.

The miracle the family was waiting for, that she would be prayed for and come back to life, was not to be.

Once the doctors had pronounced her dead, medically, all that the family needed to do was not to hang on to the hope for a miracle, but accept that she had gone on to be with the Lord—and that she needed her peace.

The family has put itself under unnecessary pain and while it is admirable their belief in the power of the prayer and their faith in God, refusing to bury her was selfish on the part of the family.

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