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TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE

10/01/2018 23:37:00 By Vusi Kunene

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“YOU shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” This is one quote from the Christianity Holy Book. Christianity is one of the subjects that government forced on the people of the country last year.

Despite acting against the Constitution, government went on to force it on the people and decided to spend a shocking E20 million of taxpayers’ money to implement its plan. I wonder, though, if government knows this quote which is found in the book that the children have to read and know.

We are further told that the truth has a way of coming out. No matter how hard one tries to hide it; it has a way of coming out. Who would have thought that we would one day know that the Judiciary sometimes advertises posts, yet it already had people in mind to fill those posts? The Judiciary employs magistrates in the country. What we know is that it did the right thing and advertised the post so that the process would be fair and every qualifying Swazi have an opportunity. Surely there were a number of people who applied and I mean, people who qualified and were willing to fill the posts.

What was the response of the Judiciary to all these applicants? It was a devastating response that the applicants had not qualified. What we did not know is that by advertising, the Judiciary was just saving face. It already knew who it wanted to engage for the posts. They did not anticipate that one of the people they earmarked for the posts was going to expose the whole thing. Now we know that adverts by the Judiciary do not necessarily mean that the applications will be considered.

Looking at this makes me more worried. How many people were employed the same way? Were the judges who were appointed interested in the posts or someone decided to engage those people whom he or she liked? Should we be confident at the justice that is administered in our courts? The appointments of magistrates that have gone wrong have given us some truth in what is happening in the Judiciary and I therefore anticipate another judicial crisis in the country soon.

The strike by the Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA) workers also left me thinking. Government recently gave salary raises to some senior officials while telling others that there is no money. While still shocked by that and the justification of doing it, then followed the strike by SRA workers. The workers are saying senior management of the parastatal were given salary raises and therefore, they also want a piece of the cake. Then there was resistance in giving them a meaningful raise. What this revealed to me is that government was willing to please those in high positions and ignore those in the lower levels. Basically, government is telling us that to it, some people are better than others. What worried me most was that we were then told that during the strike, a lot of money was collected than when the employees are not on strike. I wonder if this is not propaganda that will come back to haunt those who issued such information. I say this because this means the workers are failing to do their jobs and the management is doing a better job as they collected more.
We have budgets every year and they also cater for the health of the country. We also have the budget that caters for drugs in our hospitals. What happened though is that we were then told that there was a problem of drugs in our hospitals. Government, especially the Ministry of Health, came out to tell the nation that there were no drug shortages in the country and all was well in our hospitals. Information though was coming out that government was failing to pay its suppliers, hence the shortage.
We took what government was saying as the truth. What followed next was a problem with the Phalala Fund. Patients were suffering and dying with no assistance because government could not take them to South Africa anymore. The problem was with money that was not being paid to the hospitals in South Africa. Government then came out to admit that there were problems with payments. This to me revealed that something is wrong with the finances at the Ministry of Health. This therefore clarified why there was an outcry of drug shortages in hospitals. So the truth came out in a way that we had not thought of. Government should stop playing hide and seek with its people because the truth always has a way of coming out. It should just state the facts as they are and not hide them. This will set them free and have nothing to hide and try to do cover ups. The truth will set them free.