WE, THE PEOPLE OF ESWATINI

We, the people, had a very terrible year – we have lived to tell a very harsh story of 2018; a year in which we struggled to bring a decent meal on the table; we have seen our continued misery while those who have imposed their will and power unto us shine at our expense, we have witnessed and experienced some dreadful moments, we remained without a decent balanced meal and clean water, we did not have electricity, quality and relevant education for our children and we were deprived of the opportunity to enjoy effective and efficient health care.

For us, sons and daughters of the ordinary working class, jobless and poor, the year has been very long – and we say so knowing very well that 2019 might be even longer; for there is no glimpse of hope that our government will change things.

a very bad year

We, the people, had a very bad year. We have seen first-hand what it means to wake up under shanty shelters and travel some kilometres to school on an empty stomach with the full knowledge that we will return home to an even worse situation; to play with other children  within school premises and share jokes with them as though we both had a nice cereal or warm meal in the morning, to be thrown into a frightening end of having to parent over younger siblings as teenagers ourselves  precisely because at the time we lost parents we were the oldest among the siblings – to go over national reports and endure the pain of seeing technocrats report about your suffering in abstract and statistical form and use words like “ child-headed homes”.

We have seen our parents and grandparents die in an undignified manner on hopeless hospital beds without medication and the attention of trained health personnel simply because we have a government that prioritizes extravagance and ridiculous luxury over its own vulnerable people, one that prefers to see them die like that than cut expensive trips for those in the corridors of power; a government that is so inhuman and heartless to an extent that schools can get destroyed and hospitals deserted because, after all, their children will get quality education in private schools and health care in private hospitals, at times outside of the country – in democratic states, while they continue to make a mockery of a democracy here at home.

harsher than 2017

For us, 2018 has been harsher than 2017. As civil servants we did not get cost of living adjustment (CoLA) at the backdrop of high inflation rates and escalating prices in shopping outlets, and the most painful moment was when we got bullets and teargas when we made a peaceful attempt to reason with authorities regarding our meagre salaries.

We will never forget that day when we got beaten up by police in the streets of Manzini for organising a peaceful protest action.
That has been 2018 for us! As cleaners and domestic workers we spent winter and the whole year working without gloves, and under unfavourable working conditions; we had to sell goats and cows left by deceased family elders to make sure that our children go to school. As petrol attendants we braved the unbearable smells of fuel in fuelling stations and travelled kilometres to work only for small income and we know that our leaders are not doing anything to make our living and working conditions better in 2019.

We are factory workers who have been dumped in factories around Matsapha and elsewhere, producing for those who own the means of production and who have partnered with our government in our perpetual exploitation so that they can make money for their countries back home.
For us as shop keepers, salon workers, waiters and waitresses, bus and truck drivers, unskilled timber and contraction labourers, small scale farmers, vendors, sugar cane cutters and security guards life has not been sweet in 2018. As nurses we continued to look at our clients without hope because we knew we did not have sufficient equipment and medication to help them – we had to see them die, painful as it was.

While it might have been reported that we got salary increases and all that, as police officers, life has not been sweet for us too; we continued to share accommodation, to go to work with serious challenges and work in an environment that is not professional, in which we are assigned to harass our fellow sisters and brothers in the streets and beat them up for exercising their democratic rights to assembly, association and speech.

recognition at home

As artists, marketers, promoters and entertainment officers we want to host shows, produce songs or poems and get recognition at home before we get it outside of the country; we want government to invest in the entertainment industry the same way it invests in other areas. This did not happen in 2018 and that is why we say it was not a great year for us.

We, the people, experienced the hardship realities in the townships and rural areas where we had to go to bed hungry and sleep without knowing where to get a meal for the following day.
We are the jobless youth that has been denied access to education and entrepreneurship opportunities, and among us we have those that have been arrested for stealing food and other items in order to have a meal while the men and women who steal millions from government coffers remain out of prison, and we say this without condoning crime.
Some among us are flooding the country’s prisons and we are not happy about it as young people because we know that with a slight change in priorities on the part of our government, our situation can get better.

free, quality education

If our government can give us free, quality and relevant education, efficient health care, entrepreneurship opportunities, cost of living adjustment and salary increases, better security and safety, employment and political freedom we are certain that our conditions can be improved. We might not all have swimming pools on our back yards or drive posh cars but we can all have a country to call home and have happy families. Is that too much to request as we start 2019?
All we want is for government to consider us as humans, to respect and serve us as the people.

We want action and not words; we desire a prosperous society in which leaders serve our interests; we want a better Eswatini and we know this is possible.
We want nepotism and corruption to go; we hate the broad daylight robbery and looting of national resources. Who are we? We are the people!

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