GIVING KING, COUNTRY THE PEACE GIFT

For quite some time now, and wherever and whenever our King has had the opportunity to talk to his people; he has never failed to end his address by calling upon his people to give him  ‘THE GIFT OF PEACE, JUSTICE AND NATIONAL PROSPERITY!’ The troubling question is how can we, as a nation, positively respond to this honest and humble plea from our King and the entire national leadership of this nation? Where do we begin and who must lead that process? Today’s article marks the beginning of an attempt to answering this question, while at the same time  challenging the nation to urgently consider engaging in creative but constructive discussion on this important issue, if we are determined to bequeath a prosperous  future for the next generation.

progress of nation

When looking at some of the incidents that have taken place, they have undermined the progress of this nation. When looking at two documents which were developed in the late 1990s and 2004 respectively; the first one was initiated by the late Prime Minister Obed Mfanyana Dlamini in late 1992 before he left government. This document was called ‘Vision 2020’, for which he had sought and received the financial assistance from one structure which was being financed by USAID, called Stride. Stride brought together all sectors of our society to develop a long-term vision for the country.

When Obed lost elections in 1993, and got replaced by Prince Mbilini, he (Mbilini) continued with the project, and at that time, the UNDP had joined the process, often sending participants to West Africa to be assisted by an UNDP sponsored structure that was called The African Futures based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. This project had already produced the document by April, 1995 and ready to present it to His Majesty the King.

It was for that reason that when His Majesty attended The World Social Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, held between March 10-16, 1995, his speech was based on that vision; which we drafted at night on  March 12 at the Embassy offices. That was just before I took my flight back home, more so because SFTU had called a mass stay away that started from March 13 and ended on March 14 of that same month.

Those who remained behind and saw His Majesty presenting his speech, told me that he received a standing ovation because of his presentation of a clear futuristic view of where his nation was headed and how the world could do the same. I was extremely excited despite the fact that the SFTU had done a lot of damage in those two days. Sadly, this included the killing of a young girl named Nomusa Mdluli by the police. That killing was much publicised for years by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

country condemned

This resulted in the country being strongly condemned for its failure’s to afford Nomusa’s family the justice it rightly deserved.
The document was finally presented to the King by us who were the drafters in the summer of 1997. We were accompanied by the late Albert ‘Heshane’ Nhlanhla Shabangu, who was by then the Minister at Economic Development. His Majesty accepted it and ordered that it be ready for launch before he went into seclusion in that same year. Despite that directive, nothing happened. At the time that happened, Prince Mbilini was replaced by Dr Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini; who introduced his own initiative called ESRA. However, it turned out that ESRA was competing with Vision 2022 after the removal of Parts V and VIII.

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