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MAKE 2019 YEAR OF PRIVATE SECTOR

02/01/2019 08:18:00 Thabiso Dlamini

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Welcome to 2019, indeed the G-wallet succumbed to a financial crisis almost grinding the economy to a screeching halt.

By the economy, I mean the private sector, which we so desperately need to nurture and grow in Eswatini here onwards. Despite all the economic challenges - particularly financial woes - 2019 needs to be a year of deliberate action to pull the economy out of the gutter by purposefully strengthening remaining scraps of the private sector that make our failing economy.
In April 2019, the country will roll out a new national budget to drive social and economic development. As we swiftly push towards that budget, government needs to make sure every cent doled out of the G-wallet counts to make 2019 a year of establishing and invigorating a vibrant private sector. Focus should be set on investing tax, collected from hard-working emaSwati, on growing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) so that every liSwati can be engaged in gainful/productive economic activity.

The public sector has proven and will continue to show that Eswatini cannot grow by pampering the thousands of warm bodies that make up civil servants. A bloated civil service does not enhance the quantity and quality of government services, and it especially does not create jobs, equip our schools, and provide the necessary skill and medicines in our hospitals. In short, as it is the current public sector has little economic value in growing our economy. We need our people in Eswatini to engage in private business ventures that will make the kingdom a competitor too in the Southern Africa region and the rest of the world. Just as important, we do not need to grow a private sector that will be joined to the hip to our now defunct government. When that happens, the private sector simply evaporates when government dives into a fiscal crisis.

How do we nurture and grow a vibrant private sector? Whatever economic recovery strategy the new government will roll out, the country needs to keep a sharp eye on one golden rule; money collected as tax should be invested back into the economy on social and economic activities that will maximize value for money. A lot of money has been milked from emaSwati to support infrastructure development and to establish useless commissions and parastatals, but because a majority of the population - 58 per cent - according to the 2018 Eswatini Income and Expenditure Survey (EHIES), live below the poverty line, that money is good as flushed down the toilet. In other words, a bulk of the population is not positioned to harness the benefits that come with infrastructure development and other big projects that government always thinks will miraculously grow the economy and increase revenue coming into the G-wallet.

Instead, our beautiful roads/highways are being used to import and dump fake or poor quality products from Asia, particularly, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and the likes. The immaculate airport at Sikhuphe does not even register to most of emaSwati when they think about travelling to South Africa and when the five star hotel is completed, it will remain an unattainable dream to most emaSwati, even to spend one night in that billion Emalangeni investment. This is why development funded through the national budget has to consider the 58 per cent of the population that has not been channelled into gainful employment to contribute to gross domestic production (GDP) in Eswatini. All around the country emaSwati are giving up on businesses for one reason or another while previously emaSwati-owned businesses are now falling into the hands of foreign nationals from Asia and beyond.

It seems like the rules of the private sector are increasingly pushing emaSwati against a wall so that in no time there will be very few who will be able to start legitimate business ventures to contribute to total production in this country. The reality is that we are not spoiled for legit business tycoons in Eswatini: the few businesses that exist revolve around the same people who keep recycling the same ideas and thus limiting the extent to which the economy could grow. No doubt, it will take new private sector rules to make government commit to spending money on programmes and projects that will yield positive returns on every cent coming out of the G-wallet. It is high time government wears a private sector cap to run the economy.