Times Of Swaziland: IT IS TRUE; THEY FAILED IT IS TRUE; THEY FAILED ================================================================================ By vusi Kunene on 21/06/2018 01:39:00 LET me answer this question that I am receiving constantly these last few months. The question is who am I? I am a patriotic Swazi who loves his country so much and respect its laws as long as they are just laws. I adhere to the provisions of the Constitution of this country. I want to enjoy all the rights provided for in the Constitution without any hindrances. I also want to respect all the duties as provided for in the Constitution especially section 63 which makes it my duty to uphold the Constitution. I want to promote the prestige of the country. I want to further national interest and foster national unity. I want to promote democracy and the rule of law. I hope that I will not be called to be asked who am ever again. I have mentioned this before and I will repeat it again. I wish it was always an election year because on election year we always see the good side of people. People are generous when it is an election year. I have heard that members of Parliament are very willing to give to the poor and needy this days. They have been stopped by the Selections and Blundering Commission (sorry, I mean to say the Elections and Boundaries Commission, EBC) from distributing handouts to the people and they are bitterly complaining. The question is, why have they waited this late to do good to the people? If they had means to do so all these years why wait this long? They have failed in their duties to make life better for the people who elected them and some no longer believe in them. So I have heard that one has been nicknamed “Phuthalethu” (our mistake). They passed a budget that did not speak to the needs of the people. They had all the powers to stop this budget and have a budget that is people centred. They tried to speak to it but they failed. I will call this an act and they were not serious about not passing the budget. This I base from what they did even last year when they came gun blazing rejecting the budget and the next day, the very same Members of Parliament came singing from a different hym book and we were gobsmacked by their act. So I was not surprised even this year when they did the same. I will never buy to the rumour that they are forced to pass the budget. This is because no one can be forced to adhere to anything that is unjust. If they are forced to pass a budget, then what will stop them from passing other unjust laws and claim they were forced. Who is forcing them to dilly-dally with the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Bill all these years for them to start working on it in the twilight days of their term in Parliament? They are now pretending like they care about the people because they want to be elected. No we will not be fooled. Who knows, may be the murder between people in relationships might have lessened if they had passed the law. May be we would be having less rape cases if they did their job. May be we would not be talking of people getting away with a pat on the shoulders for rape of boys(as they are charged with sodomy) if the Bill was passed. Hope Parliamentarians see what they had robbed you of by their failure to do their jobs. I sometimes laugh when I hear them complaining that they are not allowed to address their constituencies on national radio. This tells me that these are people who do not know what they are in parliament for. But it confirms the ignorance they have and its not surprising that when they campaign they tell the people that they going to be development officers instead of legislatures. These people have power to pass laws and direct cabinet but cabinet is telling them off because they are not aware of the powers they have. They have failed the people because now cabinet is violating peoples rights (e.g the banishment of Queen Shongwe from expressing herself) because they allowed it to happen to themselves first. The same with EBC stopping them from distributing their handouts. If they had passed a law governing such, they would not be having problems now but because they fail in their duties, they are stopped. I am happy because in the election year they tend to speak the truth. Yes, they had agreed that they had failed the people. That should not be done for campaigning that they want to do better as they have realised their mistakes. We will not buy into that. They have failed and we do not want failures in our parliament. We want people that will make sure that they know their duties and adhere to the provisions of the Constitution. Failures must go home and try another career because politics was not for them. You have failed.