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NDS STILL RELEVANT TO NEW GOVT BUT…

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If I did not know better, I would say the new government has its work cut out on the logic that it does not need to reinvent the wheel in order to get the kingdom out of the woods, but to simply pick up and dust the National Development Strategy (NDS) that was an outcome of genuine, honest and principled interaction between national and social partners.

Yes, the NDS has it all. It is a 25-year vision (1997 – 2022) and is a product of extensive engagement and consultation between a wide spectrum of national stakeholders; government, workers, employers, statutory organisations, professional bodies, non-governmental organisations, Legislature, churches and chiefs, among others. The product was visionary in every respect in putting the country on a trajectory of fast-tracked economic development, for the momentous launch into the new millennium in 2000. But since its adoption, the NDS has never been operationalised. What we have seen are successive governments diplomatically skirting around it and occasionally stealing one idea or two and coining these into short-term mini social and economic policies of the day. But as we now know, none of these have delivered anything, hence the country finds itself on the edge of a precipice.

Of course, the question has to be asked why successive governments have been shy to unleash the NDS. The answer is simple; the fault line of the NDS was that it identified the root cause of the economic, social and political challenges facing the nation that needed to be addressed before the kingdom could take the quantum leap into a politically-stable and economically-prosperous future. The stakeholders identified the political system as not conducive in motoring the kingdom forward to fully exploit its potential and thus called for urgent political reforms for the NDS to take effect. The inherent weaknesses of the Tinkhundla political system are there for all discerning compatriots to see. The system, largely built on a foundation of lies wherein the truth is the number one enemy of the State, has created this superficial exterior of a stable and peaceful nation and, therefore, is unsustainable in the long-term.

It is for this grim reality that capital, in the form of foreign direct investments, has taken flight from the kingdom to much more attractive and conducive destinations, in which there are no extra-judiciary demands for free shareholding in investor entities by those in authority. Thus the so-called peace that is often boasted about by the political elites has not taken this country forward, for in reality there is no real peace but fear. This is further underwritten by the truism of the kingdom’s negative human rights record that has often put it at odds with its international obligations, in which more often than not it has been the black sheep of the family of nations. The emergence of Prince Simelane in Cabinet as Minister for Housing and Urban Development has also served as concrete evidence that skills, education, competency, etc, are not really a consideration under the political status quo for appointment into key public positions. This after the honest prince admitted as much in his first public engagement, wherein he let the world know that he never even knew of the existence of the portfolio he now heads and that he had never even used a computer in his existence.

This has apparently unfolded as the kingdom is on a trajectory to the so-called First World status, come 2022, the vision mothered by the NDS. Yet, here we are still saddled by an untenable political system that is only self-serving to a few and people are only good enough for crumbs falling from the high table. As I see it, because successive governments since the adoption of the NDS were and are products of the obtaining polity they could not dare undo themselves, by reforming the political system for a number of reasons. Thus, the NDS is seen as revolutionary that would open the gates to a pluralistic body politic in which the people would be central to which the leadership is vehemently opposed. The Tinkhundla political system is an insurance underwriting the permanent usurpation of political power from the people through the King’s Proclamation to the Nation of April 12, 1973, that effectively overthrew the liberal Westminster-styled independence constitution. The rationale behind the coup d’état against the independence constitution was that it was unworkable. The net effect of this move has made citizens become serfs with no rights and freedoms whatsoever.

This scenario has obtained post-2005 when the kingdom ushered in a new constitutional dispensation. What is ironic, however, is that judging by the consistency and regularity with which the Constitution is violated by those sworn to be its first line of defence, the latest such breaches manifested by the configuration of the Legislature and Cabinet, this Constitution might be also unworkable as well. It is unfortunate that the one solution that could unlock the potential of this country, the NDS, is also not available to the new government and, short of a miracle, will ensure that the Kingdom of Eswatini remains unbankable while progressive nations in the region and beyond prosper.

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