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BROKE GOVEMENT: THINGS FALLING APART INDEED!

20/08/2018 02:08:00 By Vusi Sibisi

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“THINGS fall apart. The centre cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world …” the great Irish poet, Yeats, penned these famous alarming words about the terrifying conflagration of World War 1 that were borrowed by Chinua Achebe as a title to his emotive novel ‘Things Fall Apart.’

Yeasts’ words resonate with the dire situation the Kingdom of Eswatini finds itself in owing to poor governance. Yes, the kingdom is hanging over an economic and financial precipice that is largely self-inflicted - ostensibly perpetrated by the fiefdom-like manner it is governed. That Yeasts’ alarming narrative may appear to be an over-exaggeration of the crisis facing the country can largely be attributable to the docility and politically comatose emaSwati. These conditions have been instilled over the 50 years since the country attained her independence from Britain when the people were deprived basic freedoms and human rights as a birthright by their own leadership.

But this docility and comatose state of emaSwati should not in any way be used to project a false façade that all is well simply because the people are silent. The people are silent out of fear and not because they are happy with their situation. Yes, the crisis may not be of similar proportions to the chaos of World War 1 that the poet Yeasts was writing about but it is still a crisis.

That government has had to come out and openly admit that it is broke by putting a moratorium on hiring and promotion of civil servants, indeed is painting a gloomy picture. However, we ought to be worried by the apparent contradictions because the same government continues to shell out huge amounts of money on vanity projects with no immediate economic value whatsoever.

These need not be enumerated upon because they have been previously documented on this column. As I see it, this self-inflicted state of affairs could have been avoided if people were central in government’s decision making processes. But contrary to expectations, government has continuously focused on the leadership and its immediate priorities, hence the absurdity that the taxpayer is now paying for the construction of a retirement villa for the outgoing Prime Minister Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini.

This is the same man who is central in steering this country into a precipice with runaway expenditure on hedonistic projects that are of no value to the ordinary folk, as well as failing to prudently manage the fiscus. Not only that, he has entrenched a culture of entitlement and thus undermined institutional and moral integrity of this nation. His actions often makes one wonder if he is not deliberately sabotaging this country in revenge for having been once fired via sms before he was recalled in 2008.

The nation does not owe this man a cent but the same cannot be said about him and his destructive business unusual project.
Even while government has purportedly put a moratorium on recruitment and promotions within the civil service, perhaps as justification for offering zero-cost-of-living salary adjustment to its work force, the revelation by Public Service Minister Owen Nxumalo that half a billion Emalangeni had been budgeted for this is mind-boggling.

The question is not just what happened to the money but rather the effectiveness of Parliament in playing its oversight role on the Executive arm of government. It is now plain obvious even to the village idiot that while Parliament is responsible for appropriating government’s annual budget, lawmakers are incapable of monitoring where and how the money is used. In short, lawmakers are incapable of ensuring the money is employed for its intended purposes as budgeted for, instead of being diverted elsewhere extra-Legislature by the Executive.

This may be owed to two factors; one, that Parliament is a cosmetic decoration whose usefulness is fooling the world into believing that the Kingdom of Eswatini is a modern State with all the requisite attributes common to modern States. Yet it is nothing of the sort but a rubber stamp for Executive decisions; two, that lawmakers are petrified and cowardly to stand for and speak the truth to power just to protect their stomachs. Hence Parliament is incapable of following up and ensuring that funds it has appropriated are employed for the projects and services for which they were intended.

Thus the Executive holds sway and routinely diverts funds meant to better the lives of emaSwati to other areas from which only the political elites benefit. In short, this country continues to be run like a fiefdom yet the leadership claims it is on a trajectory to First World status. Why the quantum leap when a majority of compatriots have still not exited the Fifth and Fourth into the Third World. Thus it becomes plainly obvious that the First World being spoken about is not just for everyone but for the elite of Swati society.

The very thought that millions are being employed to build a private retirement home for a PM when over the years he has been handsomely remunerated way above what this country can afford, when this country periodically faces drugs and other shortages in public health facilities, as the case is right now, is indeed ghastly. This just goes to show how insensitive this government is when it comes to issues affecting ordinary people.

Yet another government double-speak when coming to putting a halt on recruiting and promotions in the public sector will manifest itself when it comes to the security forces; army, correctional and police services. For it is an open secret that while government continuously snub public sector unions by offering nothing to offset the inflation induced escalating cost-of-living to civil servants, it has found a novel method of ensuring that this does not impact on the security forces anchoring the obtaining political system.

This is by way of regular promotions ranging from two to three and more annually, enough to cushion them from inflationary forces. Additionally, government’s stated money-saving plan by stopping recruitment and promotions within the public sector could well be the Sword of Damocles to the ordinary folk on multiple fronts, culminating in poor and non delivery of basic services to the people.

Should the people be proud and deserving of such a government? Docile and politically comatose the people may be but they do not deserve this! They definitely deserve far much better! Unfortunately the elections will not change anything for as long as the Legislature and all other national institutions are subordinated to the Executive that exercises absolute power over everyone and everything.