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PARLY TURNED TO FASHION SHOW?

20/02/2019 00:40:00 By Thabiso Dlamini

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THERE are so many issues that require the attention of our legislators in Eswatini, yet it seems like Parliament is not into the business of debating real social and economic issues but more interested in policing women’s fashion.

Seriously, how do head scarfs, fascinators, etc improve the country’s development prospects? This is a problem with our Members of Parliament (MPs); they are so good at spending hours clocking in on their sitting allowances, discussing meaningless issues that end up doing no good for you and me as citizens of Eswatini. I mean, with the opening of Parliament, the only topic of interest that should bother all our MPs is how much money will be available to spend in the 2019/20 financial year and how does government intend to spend that money!

Everyone knows that the much awaited national budget will either be a make it or break it for the Eswatini economy but instead our MPs are happy to waste precious time threatening each other on their sense of fashion. What a joke! With Parliament quickly turning into a fashion warehouse, will the well-dressed and well-respected women MPs bring in more money to the cash-strapped government?

With dignified MPs warming seats in the Parliament building, will the country finally get its money’s worth in terms of paying ridiculously over-inflated salaries to our MPs? Unfortunately, with all the amazing fashion sense that always dazzles spectators, there has not been a dazzling idea that has come out of our MPs.

Cohort after cohort of Members of Parliament, the country is still struggling with the same types of crises: no money to pay for anything except salaries of people who end up discussing what attires our overpaid legislators need to wear.

Ridiculous! Will the beautiful hats and Parliament attires increase Eswatini’s share of the Southern African Customs Unions (SACU)? Will Eswatini come out of the fiscal crunch when all our MPs have abided by the Parliament rules of fashion? Maybe, we, as ordinary people, should be asking the question that will we get our tax monies back five years later when our MPs have failed to lay down good economic and social policies to rescue the economy from the gutter?
Jokes aside, Eswatini needs MPs who are clued up and willing to debate real issues that can turn the economy around for the better.

There are a lot of confounding issues that need serious deliberations, for example, how do we grow the economy besides turning the whole country into a sugar plantation that is dying a slow death in world market prices? How does the country increase its SACU revenue and in turn ensure that government uses that money justly in supporting real economic expansion?

The country can cry about unreliable falling SACU receipts but the problem is much more complicated than just increasing money coming into the G-wallet. In fact, doubling SACU receipts does not necessarily mean that government would spend that money on the right kind of social and economic programmes. What is more likely to happen is that with more money government is likely to incur money leakage and ridiculous wastage such that an increase in SACU revenue does not equate to the economic expansion/growth we expect. Are our MPs clued-up enough to discuss such and other important economic issues to resuscitate the Eswatini economy?

Our next door neighbour, South Africa (SA), has prioritised fiscal stability, reindustrialisation, rural development, small businesses and policy certainty as some of the key ways to put the SA economy back into a competitive path. For instance, that government wants to focus on macroeconomic stability by reigning in on the budget deficit so that it is within reasonable bounds for supporting economic expansion. South Africa wants to get industries ticking once again in that country. Among other important areas of improving productivity, the country seeks to improve public transport, improve people’s livelihoods and lower employment costs.

The Government of SA has committed to act in a far more consistent, committed, and coordinated way to support the small business sector. And it emphasizes that more certainty is needed about policies on mining, land and black economic empowerment to encourage new investment.
Indeed, this is good food for thought.

However, to achieve all of these priorities, SA highlights the fact that getting to serious and inclusive growth is going to demand a great deal of work by skilled policymakers working within effective social partnership agreements. The question is, do we have serious and skilled policymakers to drive a well-thought out economic recovery strategy in Eswatini or will we continue to find comfort in discussing hair and current attires? Our MPs need to stop taking us for a ride and take the nation seriously!