TO-DO LIST FOR NEW GOVT

Government needs a good leader and good governance to rescue the bits and pieces of what is left of the shattered Eswatini economy. If you didn’t know already, the country is surviving on loans for civil servant salaries, there is no money to run the different government programmes, and the government which has no money and therefore unable to pay its bills is the biggest consumer of goods and services in the economy. In short, we are headed for an economic bust and without serious changes on how government operates and spends money in the economy, there is little to no hope for the economy.

All the excellent economic policies and best ideas we can think of to stimulate growth have proven worthless in this country simply because all it takes is one person to destroy and sink the whole government ship. What tends to happen in Eswatini is that when people get into positions of power, they let the power get into their heads such that the different government ministries, departments and units turn into their personal playpen. We are at the brink of an economic collapse because of poor leadership of certain people within government failing to put their self-interests and greed below the needs of the entire nation.

Even the most educated people turn into greedy monsters that feed into the political cesspool of government rather than elevating and delivering the social and economic mandate of the national government. Managing the government monster to get real economic outputs as well as to improve social welfare is not a question of money but a problem of managing personalities and the integrity of the people tasked to implement the country’s National Development Strategy (NDS), also known as Vision 2022. That said, here is a to-do list for the new government:

For starters, it should get rid of half of the civil servants, paying particular focus to trimming soldiers, police and warders. Enough with the baseless promotions of warders and constables! If there is nothing else the new government will achieve in the next five years, it should at least put its foot down on this ballooning civil-service and civil service wage bill!

It has to consolidate government ministries, departments and parastatals as well as streamline operations so that there is no duplication of its work programmes. In the process, it must ensure that every person who receives a paycheque from government is indeed a real person with a real job that has real output and is accountable to a real supervisor within government.

Get rid of all the ridiculous travel and sitting allowances that these bureaucrats have cemented within its operating system. People are hired to do their jobs; why should they be paid special sitting allowances when they do what they were hired to do? Instead of doing real work, its officials have turned their jobs into careers on how much they can cash-in on business vacations and sitting allowances through endless special meetings.

Overhaul the tax system and setting of the national budget. Money coming into government coffers versus money spent should not be a political quagmire for fulfilling the interest of a few individuals but more so the interest of all emaSwati. The new government must put an end to the stifling 33 per cent Pay As You Earn! Enough with all the other new taxes government comes up with every other day. It is daylight robbery because citizens of this country get nothing in return.The cost of living in Eswatini is just too high, government must ensure that it does not penalise people for working and ensure that all emaSwati have good money in their pockets to support economic activities, and in turn grow the economy. It should spend money to stimulate growth for real social outputs. We need more money on education, health, agriculture and cultivating the business sector in Eswatini.

It should get a handle on corruption. It should begin from within itself, at the top level down to the bottom level. We have a commission that has been installed to deal with corruption and a regulator that deals with government procurement; however, it is all just a farce because corruption is rife and draining our economy into a pit.
Overall, we have two key ministries, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development (MEPD) that are supposed to direct and drive the economic vision of the kingdom. The truth is, most of the people occupying offices in these two ministries, despite their glorious economics and finance degrees, are just voiceless and incapacitated vegetables. The new government should ensure that these people within the MoF and MEPD get on with their jobs and start delivering on the country’s Vision 2022! It will take good leadership and good governance to get things right for the Eswatini economy.

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