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MORE THAN JUST A DOG ISSUE

07/04/2017 01:09:00 By Martin Dlamini

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MAHATMA Ghandi once said; “The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

By Ghandi’s standards, do we deserve to be counted among great nations if we are judged based on the level of cruelty meted out on a dog that had strayed onto a football field during one of the biggest soccer tournaments in the country over the weekend?

There is no grading of this country’s status apart from the official gross domestic product benchmarks used worldwide that place us as a lower middle income country. We also have rating agencies such as that which has recently downgraded the economy of our neighbour, South Africa, to junk status.
This follows a Cabinet reshuffle by President Jacob Zuma that saw popular Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy given the boot. President Zuma stands accused of ‘strangling’ the economy with the decisions he makes.

If such actions get to classify a country’s economy under junk status, then where do we stand given some of the decisions taken locally that have had a detrimental effect on the economy and its people? Each week presents its fair share of shockers which make the dog cruelty public display at Somhlolo minor by comparison.

Take for instance how our Information, Communication and Technology Minister Dumsane Ndlangamandla can’t get the digital migration working as many Set-Top boxes just won’t work yet an entire nation was called to spend hard earned money purchasing these gadgets. Who will compensate all these people who were promised the best that digital TV viewing has to offer?

He is also giving workers of the Swaziland Post and Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC) sleepless nights with the protracted un-bungling of the institution while its competitors are cruising full speed ahead. By the time this happens (if it ever will) Swazi Mobile would have grabbed a huge chunk of the market, rendering any attempt by a new SPTC useless. Unless of course this is deliberate.

He announced that SPTC would cease to exist last year and banks have shut their doors to long-term financing of the company and its employees. They are lifeless right now.
Then we have the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy Jabulile Mashwama who has two major projects to deliver but both seem choked by controversy. One is the thermal power project and the other a fuel reserve development.

Two companies – one from America and another from Switzerland – are coming to Swaziland for fuel projects and confusion reigns supreme over which of the two has been given the green light to set up shop here. The attorney general is unaware of any agreement signed with either company. Typical of how we deal with investors if you take into consideration that the previously identified company for the fuel reserve project packed its bags and left unceremoniously.

The thermal power project has still not been signed off and there is no transparency around the cause of the delay, which has given room to speculation that an alternative company is being sought despite the prime minister signing an MoU with the preferred company. This is not how we want to do business as a country – particularly while recovering from the losses suffered in the hands of iron ore mining company Salgaocar.

Minister of Public Works and Transport Pastor Lindiwe Dlamini has a lot to account for in terms of stalled road projects and a crumbling national airline where millions of Emalangeni have gone down the drain.
The airline has squeezed the air out of our national coffers with only a scary test flight to show for it. We’ve allegedly been misled on the status of the aircraft that we were told can’t fly in local skies but it is now leased elsewhere and making money for Zimbabwe airlines.

It was only yesterday morning, through Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini, that we got to know that a decision has been taken to suspend the project and send some people home. The livelihoods of the poor employees are no different to the strangled dog at Somhlolo.
The list is endless. So the question of how great a nation we are, by Ghandi’s standards, can best be answered by those who share the strangled dog’s pain and suffering.