Home | Feature | GROUND SWAZI AIRWAYS PROJECT PERMANENTLY!

GROUND SWAZI AIRWAYS PROJECT PERMANENTLY!

Font size: Decrease font Enlarge font

WITH over E20 million of the taxpayers’ money – and counting - down the drain in an ill-informed political decision to launch a new national carrier, Swazi Airways, it is not at all surprising to those not afflicted by the Stockholm syndrome that operations of the airline have hit a turbulence even before it is airborne.


Just to be on the same wavelength, the Stockholm syndrome is a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and sympathy and have positive feelings towards their captors; sometimes to the point of defending and identifying with them. While we all are hostage to the obnoxious Tinkhundla political system but only those people who have been subliminally programmed not to think, critically analyse, just to obey and follow suffer from the Stockholm syndrome.


As I see it, it has become apparent that this country is being bankrupted by political decisions and prerogatives, which can neither be questioned for their viability or desirability nor tested against conventional wisdom in order to be confuted. Hence the establishment of the airline was not well reasoned.


The basis for establishing the airline, which unfortunately is government’s official position, was to justify the construction of King Mswati III International Airport. Critically, these decisions had nothing to do with the economical viability of either but were political decisions. And as we are all aware, at least those who do not have a tenuous relationship with the truth, political decisions under the unique blend of democracy of the Tinkhundla political system are a no go area and cannot be questioned or challenged. This does reminds one of the history of AmaXhosa and the effect of Nongqause that led to the tribe committing mass suicide.


A couple of years down the line since its commissioning, the airport largely remains underutilised with not a single international airline anchoring its operations. Why, even high flyers within the echelons of power - no doubt they would be light years ahead of their nearest rivals in terms of voyager miles were they using commercial airlines - often find using the new airport an unnecessary inconvenience. Yet the costs of construction, God knows when it will all end, continue to mount with each passing day.


Then in-between Cabinet commissioned two successive consultants, also at great costs to taxpayers, whose outputs do not appear to have added any value hence the failure to date of the airline taking off.
As if that was not enough, the costs of the grounded airline are also rising to beyond cruising altitude with no prospects of returns anytime soon. Apparently, the airline leased a commercial jet even before it could put its ducks in a row and with no strategic plan in place. It has since emerged that not much thinking happened, such as consideration of the size and age, when the aircraft was leased at great expense to the taxpayer. One does not need to go into the nook and cranny apropos the crash landing of the lease agreement for the jet between Swazi Airways and Global Hub, the agent for the owners of the aircraft, Star Air Cargo, because what has unraveled is typical to the games children play. 


Cumulatively, government decisions pertaining the revival of a national carrier and in general project a reckless and insensitive disposition in the management and employment of public funds. But this is not surprising because government is, after all, not accountable to the people whose interests are not its priority. Otherwise the money wasted in these hedonistic projects, which essentially are to project a cosmetic picture of a country on course for First World status in 2022, would have been used to better the lives of ordinary people.


Last but not least on the subject of the national airline, is the question of whether or not Swazi Airways exists alongside the Royal Swazi National Airways Corporation, which would make government the proud owner of two grounded airlines. That would be typical of a government that behaves like a rich spoilt child’s insatiable desire to own all the toys!


On another note, what was that about building a complex for former prime ministers? If there was freedom of expression and, by progression, the press, I would gladly advise of a method of ensuring a semblance of sanity within the hallowed chamber of Senate. To put matters in perspective, presently we have a PM who earns well above heads of State and government whose countries’ economies make that of the Kingdom of eSwatini look like a flea market but still wants to take more from the people. When he retires he will still earn 89 per cent of his salary when the elderly only get E400. And lawmakers are responsible for this for approving ridiculous circulars once a bone is thrown in their direction only to turn around to protest once the novelty of the bone has waned.


Yet when the courts, notably former Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi, took away severance pay from workers neither government nor lawmakers made this an issue.
If our former PMs cannot look after themselves post their term of office, this only goes to show bad choices of candidates, in the first instance, and a reflection of a bankrupt political system.
 

Comments (0 posted):

Post your comment comment

Please enter the code you see in the image: