Home | Feature | WE HAVE ANOTHER YEAR!

WE HAVE ANOTHER YEAR!

13/01/2019 05:22:00 BY MANCOBA MABUZA

Font size:

Happy New Year dear readers of the ‘People’s Column’. I know very well that we had a very tough 2018 in which our living and working conditions did not improve, but let us remain hopeful and face another year with courage because, surely, a brighter day is coming to Eswatini.

In the words of renowned African writer, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, “There is no night so long it does not end with dawn.” With those words, I wish you a happy and prosperous 2019.

This week I had four issues that I wanted to address and I decided not to write about anything. First, we have the Matsapha Municipal Council kindergarten-type of issue that has been a rude welcome to our computer illiterate minister.

If it was not for the latter (minister’s computer illiteracy problem) I would have written an email advising him on how to deal with this matter once and for all.
In my article I would have loved to address one Sandlane Zwane and remind the nation who Zwane is and where he comes from so that we are all clear before we make an attempt to help here.

Anyway, in the best interest of the people in whose name I write this column, I thought it would not be wise to start giving attention to certain people because to do so would be to aid their political resurrection which may be very costly to the country.

Why not scrap JC

The second issue I wanted to address is the Junior Certificate (JC) examination. Honestly, I do not think that in 2019 we should be wasting financial and other resources, including time, on an external examination whose certificate is not even recommended for domestic work purposes.
This is no longer relevant and we can develop other assessment models as opposed to wasting taxpayers’ money preparing for an exam that is no longer relevant.

I listened with disgust as the results were being announced on national radio a few days ago – “sikolwa lesilandzelako yi…” and I said to myself: what a waste of radio airtime, what a playful society! Anyway, it was not until a friend on Facebook answered my question as to why we still continue to do this JC thing.
“But if you scrap all you are denying the minister to hold press conferences; you will deny the markers the looting; you will deny the colonizers their royalties; the list is endless; don’t forget the jobs at Exams Council; the tenders to print those papers; don’t forget the corruption in all this,” he said.

Based on this, I started to make an abstract assumption as to what might make the JC examination to live for years to come; it benefits some people and you might not win this debate or discussion because it threatens the pockets of individuals.

Now, I ended up making a decision not to write about it this week.
Thirdly, one would have liked to address what is happening in schools throughout this country; free primary education and OVC money coming late in schools and our schools being forced to operate for months without money!

I have had conversations with head teachers across Eswatini who share their frustrations on this issue.
“Mabuza, how can we run a school without money to buy basic items necessary for running the school? By the time we receive the government money we are down and out as schools,” they say.

Expensive education for some
This is really painful; and what makes it more painful is the indisputable fact that the children of the politicians and other decisions makers within government do not go to the public schools – they get education in private schools like Little School, Khanyisile, Njabulweni, Usuthu, Sisekelo and others.
They even take them to expensive schools outside the country in South Africa and elsewhere while they destroy the schools of the ordinary men and women in the country. They do not care whether the public schools are run efficiently or not because it doesn’t directly affect them.
They have done the same with our public health facilities because they get medical care in South Africa, Taiwan and other countries.
What a painful issue! Again here, I ended up deciding not to write about this because we have written about it over and over without change.
Fourthly, I wanted to appeal to the new prime minister to please make sure that civil servants get their cost of living adjustment because everything has gone up: food, tuition fees, clothes and other items.
Our people need to have their salaries raised so that they survive the harsh economic environment. I wanted to tell the prime minister the easiest way out of labour unrest; because before you know it police will be beating up peaceful protesters on the street for demanding what rightfully belongs to them.

resolve issues amicably
It is important that we resolve issues amicably as a country, without the brutal violence that has become a selfishly guarded policy of the government over the years. Beating up people and using teargas and bullets against unarmed citizens is backward and barbaric.
That is what I wanted to write about. However, I recalled that I raised this with the prime minister when he got into office in 2018. I cannot write about the same thing to the same person, lest I be accused of being deficient in ideas.
At the end of the day I did not have anything to write about and I made a decision to reserve my first article of 2019 for next week Sunday.
Brace yourself for a year of fearless, confrontational and analytic writing; we must write ourselves to prison or even death – and generations to come will say: they used pen and paper to raise progressive issues despite the consequences of writing about those in power.
What else do we have against those who have guns, scary trucks, prisons and power? We can only use spoken and written words to raise our issues and hope that one day a brighter day will come. We have another year to speak and to write!