My alternative to an uprising

The question I asked myself was, where is government going to get the money to finance this ridiculous budget?

There is one strange element about this budget.

It is just a bunch of figures and there is no money to finance it.

It then became clear to me that in fact Swaziland has money.

It is just that the money is not for the nation but for a select few.

A few days later the minister of Finance Majozi Sithole was called to order in parliament after referring to MPs as bafana baka mdodi (scavengers).

I was not amazed at all because this just goes to show how belittled these MPs are.

They no longer deserve respect from the nation.

Honestly, Swaziland does not have a parliament and this is fast becoming a disgrace to the Swazi nation.

It is a shame to the electorate that elected such raw material into parliament.

It is an embarrassment to even call them Honourable Members.

They have stolen our pride as Swazis.

They have belittled our dignity, and have embarrassed the institution of the legislature.

The lack of legislation empowering us to recall them, should not make us sit back and allow them to ruin this country for two more years.

It is high time we, the people of Swaziland, take a stand and relieve them of their duties.

I am saying this because I am fed up.

I am tired and I am humiliated at what we call a parliament.

Right from under their nose, E80m is lost every month through corruption. They have done nothing to put legislation in place that will remove the deadwood ACC and employ more serious corruption busters from outside the country.

The judiciary is also failing the nation.

The thieving of E31m supposedly to buy land by the Minister of Housing Lindiwe Dlamini has gone with a paltry punishment of E4 000.

She has gone ahead and allocated crown land at 50 per cent discounts to members of cabinet without the approval of parliament.

What more has she done to embarrass the state?

Yet MPs are failing to utilise the Parliament Privileges Act to get rid of her.

Not only that, the economy of the country has also crumbled under the watch of Jabulile Mashwama.

Disgruntled SAPPI former employees have not been given an audience by government.

Recently, Minister Mgwagwa Gamedze was in parliament gloating to MPs that the country will be hosting a Silver Jubilee in style.

The MPs were just awed and gasped, as Mgwagwa easily convinced them.

Is that not enough to pass a vote of no confidence in this cabinet? Just imagine blowing E12.5m on just a one-day event?

Speaking to one MP the other day, he asked me what a meagre E12.5m would do for the people of Swaziland.

I was amazed at such sheer ignorance displayed by a member of the legislature who is supposed to represent the people of this country.

E12.5m can pay scholarships for 208 Swazi children to acquire a degree. It can build 625 units of two-roomed flats for the destitute and be used to fund the installation of boreholes for clean water in 200 communities without clean drinking water.

This amount can do a lot for the people of Swaziland but it is going to be blown in just a one-day event.

Why then should we allow these deadwood MPs to continue embarrassing us, because they have failed to represent us?

Why should we allow them to draw salaries from our taxes?

Is it not strange that the Minister of Finance was in Parliament this past week to present a new Bill that increases sales tax in Swaziland?

In the same week, the Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA) was invading Dubai car dealers claiming they owed millions in taxes.

If these dealers could cheat in paying taxes, to government, shouldn’t government be going after her own corrupt customs officials rather than depriving the Swazi people of the right to jobs and livelihood?

Why has the SRA repossessed those cars? Indeed Swaziland is fast becoming a desperate investor-unfriendly country.

Income tax is too high, company tax is too high, and now an increase in sales tax with pathetic fines of E25 000 for tax evasion?

This country is being driven to the dogs with each day these MPs and cabinet remain in office.

SIPA claims to be bringing in only 2 500 jobs a year into the country but I question the quality of these jobs.

Do these jobs accommodate the graduates from our colleges or are these jobs the textile factory worker jobs?

The 2 500 jobs brought in by SIPA are just nothing but a means to give employment to the uneducated people.

Swaziland needs 10 000 jobs a year for the country’s economic recovery.

The PM recently launched an economic recovery task team, after the failure of his NDS, and the PSFAR.

What will the recovery task team do any different from the failures of the NDS and the FAR? This is just a government strategy to appease the International Monetary Fund (IMF) so that they may get the comfort letter for the ADB loan.

It otherwise has nothing to do with the improvement of the country’s economic situation.

The IMF made it clear, that Tibiyo should be taxed and I say the same.

We are being economically frustrated so that government can get the IMF funding.

Government has also signed a loan deal with a bank in India for E140 million just to construct the Royal Technology Park.

What will this park do for the people of Swaziland? Nothing!

Even the academics from the University of Swaziland have written letters to the press stating that the Royal Technology park will not do any good to serve the country but who listens?

Our youth are so frustrated that they have joined hands with a bunch of hooligans and thugs operating from the SACP office in Sandton to bring anarchy and chaos in the country on April 12.

Swaziland will be purposely set on fire by a government working in unison with a group of thugs just to render Swaziland ungovernable.

Ignorant complacency is being displayed by a section of Swazis who think these thugs will not get their way.

They are deceiving themselves.

This is a complacent government that is hellbent on destroying the country and walking out of their positions with lucrative retirement packages for themselves.

Will the people of Swaziland allow their country to be taken over by a group of thugs?

These thugs want government out.

Some say that we have no alternative because we are so fed up, atilime tiye tjeni.

I say no, because violence breeds violence.

We do have an alternative. We have a way out.

Despite that we have a shortage of capable and willing leaders, there is still hope for us.

Our hope is in Section 98 (1)(b) which allows for MPs to resign.

This would lead to the dissolution of Parliament.

Since the MPs have failed to make use of Section 5(b) of the constitution by passing a vote of no confidence in cabinet, it is now up to the people and nation of Swaziland to pass a vote of no confidence in the entire Parliament and have it dissolved forthwith.

We as citizens of the country have power in our vote.

We have the constitutionally enshrined power to recall Parliament and pass a vote of no confidence in them.

Section 58(5) of the Constitution empowers us to take all lawful measures, to expose, combat and eradicate corruption and abuse or misuse of power by those holding political and other public offices.

It is for this reason I say we, as citizens of this country, do have legal means to get this government a one-way ticket home.

A petition for parliamentarians to go home is already online for the people of Swaziland to sign.

According to the EBC elections report of 2008, there were 239 000 people who registered to vote and if half of that number, signs the petition then we will have a basis to send this Parliament home.

If half the voting population calls for parliament to resign, we would have won as a united nation, rather than inculcate violence and apathy.

After the dissolution of Parliament, the EBC will then have to prepare and hold fresh elections within a 60-day period as stated in Section 133(4) of the constitution.

I am fed up of this joke we call a government.

I have signed the petition, and call on the nation to do the same. Let us send these parliamentarians home and save our country.

The call by the Labour unions to join these hooligans on April 12 is a disgrace.

They have chosen such an opportune time to stage their protest march and have shown the nation and workers that indeed, the leadership of the workers’ unions is working hand in hand with the group of hooligans who bomb our country, who are calling for a war in Swaziland, and who want this country to be ruled by anarchy.

We all want change but this is not the way to go about it.

I trust that the respectful future generation and children of Swaziland will not involve themselves with this uprising. This is simply because there is no other country for us.