GOVT’S SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY TO PEOPLE

There are times when tautology becomes a necessity. I have in the past defined my own understanding of government as for the people by the people. Further to this, government representatives are people who get mandated through a majority vote to govern on behalf of the electorate and by extension govern all who voted and those who didn’t vote including those who voted against her.

In this kind of a relationship between the governed and the governing, the roles get clearly defined as follows: the government has a duty to ensure that in the process of governing, she collects all our taxes and provide for the needs of everybody, business, labour, youth , women, children, elderly, able bodied and all the vulnerable groups. In the process of doing all these, government through policy formulation, has a duty to form policies that are attractive to investors so that employment is created massively for the economy to grow competitively.

In the process of all these functions mentioned above, which are not necessarily exhaustive, government has a duty to protect the consumers by ensuring that prices of goods, commodities and services  are within the required levels and that the quality they buy meets the set standards.
Government has a duty and obligation to make sure that commodities and utilities such as water, electricity, public transport,  basic food, shelter, health and education to mention a few, are both available, affordable and accessible even to the lowest earner, vulnerable and elderly more so because this is where citizenship and social responsibilities manifest themselves.

One of the examples of services that government has to ensure are made available to her citizens is education.
This is supported by the Constitution of the Kingdom of Swaziland on Sections 29, where it talks about both the right of the child and the right to education. I want to dwell on Section 29(6) which talks to the right to free education. We are happy that government is fulfilling this obligation but we were shell shocked when government left the food stocks of all schools to dwindle, to a point of completion without restocking until Parliament and the Fourth Estate raised the alarm.

On the other hand, great gratitude and a pat at the back should be extended nationally to the teachers who dug deep into their pockets to cover for government during this otherwise preventable and unnecessary dilemma
Section 60 (1) reads: “The State shall guarantee and respect institutions which are charged by the State with responsibility for protecting and promoting human rights and freedoms by providing those institutions with adequate resources to function effectively.” While, Section 60 (8) reads: “Without compromising quality, the State shall promote free and compulsory education for all and shall take all practical measures to ensure the provision of basic health care services to the population.”

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