WELCOME ABOARD TO GOVERNING SPACE

There is a saying that goes: ‘New brooms sweep clean but the old brooms know all the corners.’  I remembered this adage when I saw a picture of the current prime minister sharing some thoughts with the former Prime Minister Dr. A.T Dlamini on the front page of a newspaper last Thursday.

In the same picture was the current minister of Finance, who was seemingly doing the same with the former Minister of Finance Majozi Sithole and current governor of the Central Bank of Eswatini.
That is the way to go. Even if one has his own vision and wisdom, research calls for inquiry from those who walked the path so as not to re-invent the wheel or even repeat mistakes that were done before. Even in our own language, there is a saying that goes: “Indlela ibutwa kulabasembili.” A good start indeed!

I hope the minister of Finance will seriously consider the IMF and World Bank reports on Eswatini, particularly the points they made about the country being a middle income country and that the poverty we see is caused by skewed distribution of the wealth we create. With this in mind, we hope the minister will start by correcting the skewed distribution which results in a few enjoying the big chunk of the proceeds of the economy while the majority shares the crumbs.

advice to new leadership

My word of advice to the new leadership is that this is politics, and any political position is completely different from a managerial position. I am saying this particularly because almost all the politicians who were elected and appointed to form the 2018-2023 government are businesspeople from the corporate world where most of the time decision making does not necessarily come from consensus or consultations, but are based on profit making and the interest of the shareholders who, most of the times, do not consider or include the interests of the subordinates or workers.

In politics, the mandate givers are the taxpayers and consumers whose interests count in all decisions taken and it is not always about profits, but social responsibility.
With great humility, I will also advise and caution the Chiefs and Princes in both houses that, while it is cultural at chiefdom level that once a chief has spoken no one is allowed to say anything after their word, they should not expect that in Parliament.

Again, while it is cultural that a subject cannot say a chief is out of order, chiefs in both houses of Parliament should brace themselves that they will be told that they are out of order by other members who are ordinarily their (chiefs) subjects. If that happens, the chief will not be expected to punish the honourable member when they are at the chiefdom. They should also appreciate that parliamentary politics is about expressing different ideas - arguing and debating issues to eventually come out with one resolution, hence chiefs and princes have to exercise more tolerance than the ordinary honourable members.

I am giving this caution because there seems to be more chiefs, princes and princesses than before.
It would be good for the nation if they (chiefs, princes and princesses) do not repeat what chiefs and princes did during the ‘notorious Supreme Council of State-Liqoqo era. They had guts to brag to their subjects to say: “You will find me here and my word will be final everywhere you go.”

I was pleased to hear the prime minister talking about respecting the Constitution and how he frowns upon corruption.  I wish that he starts with the big fishes as per the Editor’s comment in the Times of Swaziland of Thursday, November 8, 2018.
At this juncture, May I take this opportunity to define the way I understand the meaning of government.

Government is a social contract between the governed and the governing. In this relationship, the governed are the citizenry who are also the electorate, and the governing is the government who are supposed to be governing based on the mandate of the governed. Both those who participate in elections and those below the voting age and everybody who pays tax directly and indirectly.

taxes and revenue

Every government thrives on taxes and revenue from the citizens and profits or levies from the economic activities that take place in a country and grants where available. In this relationship, the people are the employer and the paymaster and government on the other hand has a duty to ‘serve’ the people by ensuring that through all the paid taxes, services are made available, accessible and affordable to the people, and this goes for all services and commodities.
It becomes an inherent duty for the Executive arm of  government to ensure that services are available, sustainable, reliable and lastly but not least affordable to all who live in the country, rich, poor, able bodied and people living with disabilities, young, elderly, male or female without any form of discrimination.

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