GOVT NOT TAKING ADVICE

We must congratulate the country for holding its Primary Elections.

That there were problems experienced is not in dispute but we hope those who are supposed to attend to these issues will do so before the next stage of the elections. What we also have to accept is that there will always be complaints but at least the genuine ones should be attended to and corrected. That calls for people to accept that something was not done right and has to be corrected. The correcting part may sometimes need people to humble themselves and get assistance, views and ideas from other people. Solutions may even come from people who do not share the same ideologies like those in leadership. The problem, though, is that some people think they are always right and are never willing to take advice from others even when they notice that what they are doing is not bringing the desired results. Looking at where the country is, I sometimes think that if government was willing to take advice, maybe we would not be where we are as a country. It’s undeniable that the country is in financial problems. That the minister of Finance finally agreed to that is testament to how huge the problem is. That we were, at some point, told that civil servants would not be paid was scary. Not to mention the failure to offer anything to the cost-of-living adjustment for government employees. But where is the problem?

The American ambassador to Eswatini was honest with government, telling it that it should worry about its expenditure otherwise things will get worse. This is advice from a person who has been in the country and noticed how government spends and has seen how other countries are spending. I am worried that I have not heard anyone from the leadership of government acknowledging this advice and promising to do something about it, even if they will not act on it. This, however, did not surprise me because it is not the first time that government has not taken advice from others. If government took advice there would have been changes by now and the country would be in a better position than were it is. Some may be asking themselves what advise am I talking about. Let me just give one example that, in my opinion, may have helped government solve the financial problems we are now in as a country. A few years ago, the IMF advised this country that the wage bill for government is too high and, therefore, unsustainable.

They advised that government should reduce its wage bill so that it is manageable. What did government do? It did what it always does; it did not take that advice. Where are we today? We are in trouble and struggling to pay the very civil servants we were not willing to reduce to a manageable number. What good is it for government to keep a large workforce but fail to pay them? What good is it for government to keep these employees when they are doing nothing because they do not have tools to do their work? A few weeks ago we heard that some government employees go to work just to sit because there is no money to buy electricity. In my opinion it does not help government to keep all these employees when they are doing nothing. Rather, it should swallow its pride and listen to the advice of the IMF. Instead of reducing its workforce, government is employing more. There security forces are always recruiting large numbers and promoting large numbers and the question is, does that reduce the wage bill?

There is the view that government is trying to provide employment because jobs are not enough in the country. I know that this view is appealing to most, and looking at it from face value it is. But I know that the IMF also looked at that and offered advice to government. It was advised to try and attract more businesses into the country so that jobs would be created in the private sector. Government, again, ignored that advise and went ahead to employ and promote more people itself. I am sure that if it was willing to take the advice of the IMF and implement it, then ask the very same IMF to assist in scouting for businesses to open in the country, they would have offered advice and assistance. Government needs to also look at the environment where the people are called to open their businesses at. If people are not confident of the system used in the country to conduct business as well as in governing the people then they will not open businesses. This thing is simple, government should learn to take advice.

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