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EMASWATI BEING PUSHED TO MARGINS OF ECONOMY

11/09/2017 08:31:00 By Vusi Sibisi

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As I was mulling over and gathering my thoughts for this column’s subject matter I could not help but reflect on the following quote by Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1805); “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

Although many people may be embarrassed to admit it, but the fact is it is often alluring to behold an enemy tripping and falling over even when the beholder had, before the fact, the opportunity to warn him/her of the impending danger. It also becomes apparent that there is a very thin line between the person who would rather not interrupt his/her enemy when he/she is making a mistake and, to paraphrase Clarence Darrow (1857 – 1938), the person who has never killed anyone but reads some obituary notices with great satisfaction.

Perhaps like many other compatriots, I shuddered when I saw the headline ‘New company to force out kombis’ in our sister newspaper, Times SUNDAY of August 27, 2017. According to the article in tow, plans were afoot to transform the public passenger road transportation industry that will see the replacement of kombis with coaches initially along the Mbabane-Manzini corridor. Ownership of the new public passenger transport system will primarily be institutional but will also include current permit holders in favour of this transformation.

Institutional ownership, it was reported, would be split between the Sincephetelo Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA) Fund and the Mbabane and Manzini Municipalities respectively. Seemingly this proposal enjoys the blessings of the Road Transportation Board (RTB), a government department responsible for regulating public passenger road transportation in this the kingdom.
But is this transformation in the best interest of emaSwati, specifically those whose umbilical cords are intertwined with the industry. As I see it, this project might be appealing to the senses when looked at cursorily as a natural and organic progression in modernising public passenger road transport in the kingdom’s trajectory to the fabled First World status.

But a deep scrutiny of the novelty shows that it is littered with many potholes that could trigger social upheavals, not to speak of adding to the ever increasing joblessness and by extension poverty. No one seems to care that many of the kombis plying the roads may have been financed through loans. Thus taking them off the road or limiting their operations could lead to the owners failing to service their loans and thus to their prejudice. Similarly, financial institutions could be prejudiced if they are forced to repossess vehicles that would be impossible to dispose of.
The sponsors of the project would do well to reflect on the introduction of the Uber taxis in neighbouring South Africa.

The introduction of the Uber taxis in the neighbouring country has been vehemently opposed by operators of the traditional taxis, leading to violent flash points.
As it were, there are many issues beyond those already considered by the sponsors that ought to be factored in before the introduction of the new public passenger road transport system. Perhaps the initial one would be the macro picture in which the size of the country’s economy has to be factored in. From the perspective of the size of the economy, which is the smallest in the Southern African Development Community; sprouts many dynamics including but not limited to the economic empowerment of the people as opposed to corporate and institutional empowerment.

As I see it, a takeover of the busy and longer routes by coaches owned by institutions, as opposed to the current status quo, would deprive the people of a livelihood, which in effect would be no different to pushing them to the margins of the economy also known as economic disenfranchisement. The knock-on effect of this would be incalculable because it would impact hundreds of families who would be deprived sources of survival as breadwinners would be pushed out of business, while those who may join the new ownership structure would hold relatively paltry shareholding, whose returns may not be sufficient to sustain their livelihoods. Therefore, for many people the new system would mean poverty in a country in which the majority of the people are already slaves to the scourge, while government is fixated with First World projects.

If having taken all factors into account, it was found to be unavoidable to transform the system of public passenger road transportation; the progression should have been organically mapped out so that the current operators formed the nucleus in terms of the investment and ownership structure of the new system without bringing in moneyed institutions. A sensitive and sensible government would have prioritised people than to allow their disenfranchisement by institutions, so that they too can share the economic cake. But then again under the obtaining Tinkhundla political system government is not responsible and answerable to the people. In turn the plight of the people is the least of government’s worries.