GOVT CREDIBILITY IN QUESTION

As the nation migrated from partial to full lockdown last Friday – the civil service is proceeding on full lockdown from today – over the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, government’s credibility, or lack thereof, came into the spotlight with this sudden change just a week into the partial lockdown in the face of rumours that it is downplaying and minimising the impact of the virus on the nation.

As at the time of writing this column, the official figure of confirmed COVID-19 positive cases stood at nine with one disputed fatality. Surprisingly that number, which was recorded a week or so earlier, somewhat appeared to have been enough to motivate government’s paradigm shift to a full lockdown, so it appears. That sounds and appears like a government hiding something from its public. 

Legacy

As I see it, it is easy and only natural for one to second guess government given the legacy of its inability to take the people into its confidence over matters of national importance, owing to its penchant to deceive the nation. There is a long list of evidence-based instances where government intentionally and deliberately sought to mislead the nation by feeding it fabricated stories. These include criminal transactions done outside the ambit of the law, especially relating to the appropriation of public funds. This has gone to the extreme that anyone who has a half-baked story, has grasped the real possibility – indeed, the absolute certitude – that they too can successfully fool the nation into accepting and believing everything they prattle.

Speculate

In the circumstances it is common to speculate on the undercurrents driving government’s actions and or lack thereof because of the knowledge that it often hides the truth from the public domain simply because, if truth be told, it is not answerable to the people. And speculation is rife that this could have something to do with the deliberate understating of the number of compatriots afflicted by COVID-19. Yet statistics have a way of asserting themselves just like the truth has a way of coming out, however, concealed it may be, especially if it factors people. If this is the case, it is not helpful to anyone because sooner rather than later the truth, in the form of body bags, will come out. That is the day when more people than those we have been told are COVID-19 positive will start dropping dead.

While we are all receptive to the clarion call of ‘all hands on deck’, those of us who by choice are not well disposed to the sub-culture of singing for their supper, which is part of the survival kit of the phalanx of grovelers, in order to get somewhere in life, have the responsibility to talk the truth to power. Admittedly, Cabinet has been visible since the outbreak of COVID-19 hopefully not to mislead the nation with fabricated statistics. There nonetheless have been omissions in planning and strategising. For example, how the indigent and homeless factored in these plans and strategies or, as usual, have been left on their own. Hence the insensitivity about families reserving rooms for suspected cases. Not everyone is affluent and have the luxury of rooms to spare in their homesteads.

Effort

Similarly, no effort has been made to find shelter and provide food parcels for the homeless until the worst is over. To this end, government could have engaged churches and schools, including hotels that have been forcibly shut down. What about rolling out of nationwide testing for COVID-19. After all Eswatini is such a small country with a corresponding population which should make this feasible. Why, far larger countries with over 100 times the population of Eswatini, have rolled out nationwide testing.

Often times the inadequacies of the Tinkhundla political system project a country that is shouldering all the world’s problems when in actual fact Eswatini is a micro in the global scheme of things and ought not to be saddled by such problems except that they are a manifestation of a crude political system. Is it demanding too much to ask the Tinkhundla government to take the people into its confidence and, for once, speak truth to power?  

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