CAN ECONOMIC INDABA DELIVER PROMISED LAND?

ORDINARILY patriots should be indebted to the compatriots behind the three-day Swaziland Economic Conference to be held at an Ezulwini hotel this week, but recent history and reality on the ground conspire against the possible success of this initiative.

Far from being a doomsday merchant, I am a practical creature and realist whose perspective is anchored on the truth. But not only is the truth a very rare commodity within the obtaining body politic but one that could get you in trouble with those charged with the stewardship of the ship of State, the Kingdom of eSwatini.
Consequently and given the scenario in which speaking the truth to power could extinguish one’s dreams, it becomes somewhat of a tortuous exercise to define a patriot within these shores.
Could it be that those in the comfort zones shoring up the obtaining political and socio-economic order notwithstanding the dire circumstances the nation, indeed the kingdom, finds itself in the ultimate compatriots?

Or could it be the compatriots are those with strained vocal chords who have been calling for the enthronement of the truth to power and a radical transformation of the way this country is governed by devolving political power to its natural custodians, the people? Within the Swazi polity under the obtaining Tinkhundla political system, the definition of a patriot is premised on which side of the huge political divide one is. In which case those whose vocabulary and deeds are free of the obligation of speaking the truth to power are the patriots, while those critical of the systematic erosion of moral leadership are supposedly the enemies from within.
As I see it, the idea of the scheduled economic indaba is not a bad one because time and again, a nation ought to engage itself in appraising its circumstances and what is happening around and strategising on how to extricate itself for a trajectory to a better and rewarding future.

But given the environment, especially a hostile political environment, it is impossible that such gatherings can be of any value. Yes, there might be the sharing of knowledge, a crucial tenet of development, but can it be said it would, in turn, influence planning and prioritisation of national imperatives on the part of government that would advance development and by extension the lifestyle of the people.

That today the kingdom appears to be carrying all the world’s problem on its shoulders is not a coincidence but self-inflicted.  In the latter part of the 1990s decade, the country came out with a blueprint for accelerating economic development, the National Development Strategy (NDS). But the social partners realised that for the NDS to be effective required political transformation that would devolve power to the people.

That was the undoing of the NDS owing to government’s resistance to political transformation that would devolve centralised political power to the people to realise practical predictability that would ensure stability because it would be the people, not individuals, would be charged with forming and changing their own governments.

This brings us to the question of the potential value of this week’s economic indaba in the face of many similar conferences in the past, that were also abortive because of government’s resistance to change. From successive Smart Partnership Summits to Sibaya, not to forget the economic vusela led by Prince Guduza, that was the precursor to the NDS, the message from the people has been constant, the need for political transformation. But this has been a cry in the wild because of the lack of commitment from the leadership to address the multi-faceted challenges facing this country.

For a country that should be a pioneer and in the forefront of industrialisation for doing things right the first time by exploiting its natural advantages, such as its physical size and that of its population coupled with the natural resources at its disposal and other dynamics, it is a shame that today it is impoverished and the people having been reduced to beggars and dependant on handouts from external donors. As I see it, just about everyone of average intelligence is pretty much aware of the causal factors to the economic and developmental stagnation besetting the country that, in turn, has mothered the scourges of poverty, disease and wide scale unemployment.

A primary malady of the political status quo is nepotism that ensures individuals with no appropriate political currency, let alone skills being installed in political and other key positions leading to a lack of service delivery, resulting in the erosion of credibility on government and other state institutions.

A disjointed educational system that does not speak to or connect with the needs of the economic trajectory of the kingdom owing to poor policies and a lack of timely reforms, thus hurting development.
Poor management of the fiscus and untold wastages on vanity projects that would most probably never be economically viable, let alone sustainable exacerbated by unaccounted and massive outflows of money from the treasury and State owned entities, owing to endemic corruption because of an accountability deficit.

Frustration of foreign direct investors (FDIs) with extra-legal requirements to cede part ownership/shareholding leading to withdrawal of such investments, thus further exacerbating unemployment since no new jobs are being created by the economy to absorb school/university graduates. Yes, the formidable challenge facing the economic indaba is influencing a paradigm shift in the kingdom’s body politic for a meaningful trajectory to the Promised Land.  

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