WORRYING TIMES FOR EMPLOYEES

THESE are troubling times for anybody relying on a pay cheque for a living. There are job losses and looming retrenchments everywhere you go. This cycle has been a slow but vicious one since the loss of jobs when Swaziland failed to retain her AGOA status.

Slowly but surely our economy is sinking into a recession that looks to be worse than the 2008-2012 financial crisis.
Recovery seems too far off to even contemplate. Only a SACU windfall could bail us out but that too seems highly unlikely given the poor economic projections of our cash cow, South Africa.

Economists project that SA is set to grow no more than one per cent in the next financial year. Focus for South African politicians, however, is less the economy and more the dwindling support of the ruling party ANC, the presidential succession race and most recently, the #feesmustfall protests that have caused a shutdown of tertiary institutions across the country.

Meanwhile, SA Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is flying all over the world trying to convince investors that South Africa can escape a junk status rating given the fiscal measures currently underway. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of Swaziland. What are we doing to save our economy from collapse? What is being done to save all those pay cheques that are the single source of income for the majority of employees in this country?
Our Finance Minister Martin Dlamini is struggling to raise the E7 billion he said he would when delivering the budget speech early this year.

Government bonds are suddenly unattractive due to the uncertainty of its cash flow. So where will the money come from, especially now that we are even beginning to borrow to pay salaries? His colleague, the Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry Gideon Dlamini, has adopted a low profile when he needs to be stepping out more aggressively than ever before.

Reports that investment over E6 billion has been lost recently, should be giving him sleepless nights. We are losing more investment than we can attract as a country. What is being done to reverse this trend?

A few months ago, the Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini, hinted at a financial crisis but promised a comprehensive mitigation plan from Cabinet. Nothing has come out yet apart from the bulging of the wage bill with huge salary increases, much against the wisdom of belt-tightening during this period.

It would appear Cabinet has adopted a strategy of  dealing with this crisis behind closed doors but this approach is of no help because the current situation needs the input of every citizen, especially the workers who always suffer the consequences of decisions made to suit only those seated in the swinging chairs of boardrooms.

Job losses are inevitable when government struggles to pay its service providers. Behind the retrenchment figures are human beings with dependants. The last time government made an attempt to offer employees a retirement package, it was withdrawn after answers couldn’t be provided on how well it had equipped or prepared those willing to go home with basic skills on how to survive a retrenchment.

Dumping or aborting staff, as it were, is easy. However, the trauma experience inflicted upon the employee is very hard to manage. The victims become vulnerable to all sorts of situations that may lead them towards adopting a survival mode that is ultimately detrimental to themselves and the country. Crime, prostitution, suicides that burden the State with more orphans, as well as many other associated ills come to the fore.

Locals, for various reasons, do not have a saving culture that could serve as a safety net should they lose their jobs. Besides, the sluggish economy offers very little options in terms of venturing into business, as this sector is just not growing at a pace that could accommodate more entrepreneurs.
A majority of these people are not insured for retrenchment (if we have such in the country).

So while we talk economic downturn, fiscal crisis, etc, let us put a human face to the solutions being proposed, so that people are prepared psychologically and financially for what is most certainly coming their way at the rate things are going - just as it came for the former textile workers. Only God knows how they manage to put food on the table.

Government can avert this crisis by simply engaging more, listening and heeding the advice it is given for a change.

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