WHY FUTURE IS BLEAK FOR SD

IN my last column of 2016 I touched briefly on the National Development Strategy (NDS), the wondrous economic blueprint for the Kingdom of eSwatini, painstakingly knitted together by visionary and patriotic social partners adopted in 1997 as a springboard to Vision 2022 or ‘25-year vision’ – now also popularly referred to as the ‘First World vision’.

Given the continued economic stagnation coupled to the multi-faceted challenges faced by the kingdom on just about all fronts, there is a need to examine why and how, with just five years remaining before 2022, the NDS failed the nation. The intention is not to be academic but practical in my examination.

Coincidentally, as I was thinking of penning this article, I was jolted into reality by the narrative of the annual sacred Incwala ceremony that somehow provides an insight into why the NDS failed as the launch pad for the kingdom’s quantum trajectory into the league of developed countries come 2022.

This narrative relates to the date of the main Incwala day, which is determined by the phases of the moon. Traditionally, this means the main day of Incwala could not be predetermined or appointed until traditional astrologers had confirmed the occurrence of the full phase of the moon.
This means the date of the main day remained unknown until probably a week or less before it is appointed and publicly announced to the nation. That was then as it is now in the 21st century of cutting age technology.

In the wake of scientific and technological advances in the last century, traditional astrologers became obsolete because nowadays the phases of the moon at any given period are known years in advance.  The import of this being that the main day of Incwala can even be appointed years in advance, which would make sense now that this sacred age-old ceremony is a major tourist attraction.

It is indeed baffling why aspects, such as appointing the main day in advance and reflecting same on the calendar, of this important ceremony on the calendar of the Swazi nation have not been reviewed and fine-tuned to be in tandem with contemporary dynamics, in order to exploit its magnetism on tourism and, therefore, economic development.

Paradoxically, this apparent failure to adapt the Incwala ceremony to an ever-changing environment and imperatives might actually provide us the perspective on why the NDS, like a beautiful flower kept under the table to protect it from the inclement of life, is moribund.  As it turns out, this article was supposed to be published on December 19, 2016, but then had to be canned when it was announced less than a week before that it would be a public holiday in honour of the main Incwala day that had been designated for Saturday, December 17, 2016.

If the abruptness with which the holiday was appointed was enough to disrupt planning at such a micro level as it did, with the planning of what should have been the final installment of this column for 2016, one cannot begin to imagine what this did on a macro level apropos trade and the economic impact on the nation and, indeed, the Kingdom of eSwatini. Need we scratch our heads for answers why the kingdom’s economy continues to constrict while those of the rest of SADC countries and beyond grow in leaps and bounds?

It does not require rocket science to conclude that it is the absence of political competitiveness – in the absence of a pluralistic body politic - owing to the personality cult-driven and uncompetitive Tinkhundla political system that is responsible for landing this country into the socio-economic quagmire it finds itself in.

The solution lies in radical political reforms as envisaged by the architects of the NDS that would move government from the current personality cult-based system in which people have been subliminally patterned and programmed not to think and analyse critically but just to obey and follow to the nation at large.

As I see it, the reason the NDS was stillborn was primarily because of its sincere and honest appraisal - through its thematic or sectoral interrogation of historical and future challenges – of the obtaining political, social, economic as well as other factors and how these could be turned into opportunities while strategically positioning the kingdom for the dawn of the 21st century. 

The NDS itself was envisaged as long-term articulation of national objectives, policies and strategies. It was to be implemented through three-year rolling National Development Plans (NDPs) focusing on the medium-term and serve as links between the NDS and annual national budgets.
Periodic reviews to analyse recent developments in the economy and their implications as well as monitoring mechanisms focusing on the financial and physical progress of the capital expenditure programme were to be undertaken.

With a mere five years left before 2022, the NDS remains a wish list unable to deliver the vision it envisaged because of an unwillingness to reform an otherwise fatally skewed political system that panders to the whims of a personality cult as opposed to the people. That is attributable to suicidal tendencies and a lack of vision to those charged with the political stewardship of this country.
Ah yes, poverty is the parent of revolution and crime, to quote Aristotle.

 

 

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