Times Of Swaziland: POLITICAL SYSTEM AN OBSTACLE

POLITICAL SYSTEM AN OBSTACLE
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By Vusi Sibisi on 26/05/2019 22:43:00


THE Tinkhundla political system-driven government of the kingdom does not need
external detractors to expose it for what it really is, it is built on a false
and not credible, valid and sustainable foundation as ably depicted by last
week’s abrupt silencing of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The PAC is an important organ of the Legislature through which it exercises its
oversight responsibilities on the other arms of government, specifically over
how the taxpayers’ Emalangeni are employed. Parliament itself is a critical
institution in the scheme of things in projecting a veneer of so-called
democratic credentials of the Tinkhundla political system although in reality,
it is essentially a rubber stamp for executive decisions.
Ordinarily, emaSwati in their collective, should be alarmed by this unwarranted
encroachment on the institution of Parliament. But unfortunately, a majority of
fear-gripped compatriots remain in the safety refuge provided by slumber land
just so they stay out of trouble. Consequently, when there is no one to protest
and criticise the excesses of the regime, that is when the rot and corruption
gain currency.
The question is why and by whom is the PAC being sabotaged in its investigations
into how half a billion Emalangeni was spent without discernible outcomes in the
construction of the Sicunusa-Nhlangano Public Road. In fact, this inquisition is
long overdue as the construction of that road has been mired in controversy,
like others before it, since its inception. Exacerbating matters is that the
financing of the road is an interest-bearing loan in United States Dollars,
which is the burden of the taxpayer.
In the midst of the controversy surrounding this particular project, some senior
officers within the corruption-prone Ministry of Public Works and Transport were
reshuffled and some shipped out to other ministries to take up positions that
they were not even proficient in. At the height of all these shenanigans, word
got out that this was done partly to protect some of the political elites
messing up the project as well as to appease the Arab funders.
And while government - with major players in the financial services, industrial
and agricultural sectors, including some State-owned enterprises in tow -
splashed a couple of million Emalangeni in a public relations offensive in
Forbes Africa magazine to create a superficial image of the country as an
attractive destination for capital as a precursor to rolling out its Strategic
Road Map 2019 – 2023, these efforts are contradicted by the realities on the
ground of the obtaining political oligarchy.
The system is like a runaway train owing to its bad governance track record that
is motored by its inherent extreme excesses given its Byzantine nature. The PAC
imbroglio is but a tip of the excesses that are synonymous with the political
system that has no effective checks and balances.
As I see it, this particular PR initiative was probably premised on the
misguided understanding, if not belief, that this attempt at positive spin
doctoring would be superimposed over and shade the real Eswatini – a
feudalistic country trapped in-between the stone age and the modern era of
algorithms and robotics – where the rule of law is anathema and the people
have been immobilised into silence through induced fear. But even assuming that
this was money well spent, whatever the spin-offs, if any at all, had been
achieved would be undone by the reckless exercise of power as shown by the
unfolding PAC debacle.
But, to assist this fledgling government, it does not require expensive PR to
make a country attractive to foreign direct investors (FDIs). It takes a sound
political system in which power vests with the people that has checks and
balances; is transparent and accountable; is predictable and whose mandate is
periodically renewed through free and fair elections open to even political
parties. Unfortunately, this cannot be said of this country where people cannot
freely engage in politics where the plurality of voices is outlawed and
generally the system is hostile to human rights and liberties.
If and when investors have a desire to come and invest here, they will not look
up to expensive PR projects because they understand that this effort is
primarily to paper over and hide the political monsters real the rot that pose a
risk to their capital. Instead, they would look up to data provided by
legitimate and trustworthy institutions such as the World Bank or the
International Monetary Fund (IMF). And between the two Bretton Woods
institutions is a wealth of information on Eswatini even though they may refer
to Swaziland. The identity issue and how the change happened could well be
another Achilles heel to government’s attempt at making this country
attractive to FDIs.
Worse still, this nation is not even congruent with the one thing that
presumably matters above everything else, the new name of this country or at
least how it is written. Is it eSwatini or Eswatini, the latter name being the
version government has pronounced as official albeit without caring to explain
the basis for this?
The question is what if government is wrong etymologically and
language/grammar-wise on this name issue? I am reminded of the tragic history of
amaXhosa and Nongqause who is said to have convinced conformist tribesmen to
poison themselves and commit mass suicide on the premise that they would arise
renewed and a better nation. That, unfortunately, is the suicidal extent to
which emaSwati have been sanitised into paralysis and helplessness.