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WITHER SD; WHO WILL RESCUE US FROM THIS INEPTITUDE?

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Sir,

There has recently been a number of interesting media headlines on the operations, or should I say non-operations of some key government departments. Firstly, it was the issue of travel documents where citizens of this country had to abandon their travel plans because there were no travel documents available. This took several months to rectify and there was no explanation as to what led to this sub-standard service from the Ministry of Home Affairs and we are not confident that this will not happen again.


Secondly, it is the roads department, where we are told that most of the road maintenance equipment is lying idle because government has no fuel. We already knew that there was something seriously wrong with this department judging by the dilapidated gravel roads around the country. Most of these gravel roads form a very important link with the major road network and the fact that they have been neglected over the years is not only inconveniencing motorists but is putting the lives of the motorists and the public at large at serious risk.


Thirdly, we are now told that government hospitals and clinics have run out of medicine, putting the lives of thousands of poverty stricken Swazis at risk. The interesting observation is that none of the political heads of these three ministries have come out to tell the nation what the problems are, how long the problems are going to last and how they are going to prevent recurrence of similar problems in the future.

Any service delivery biased politician would leave their comfortable offices, gather as much information on the problem, intervene and keep the nation informed. Our politicians behave as though they don’t owe the nation any explanation even in cases where their inaction results in non-delivery of basic services.

This is a fallacy that can only be corrected by the head of government by holding ministers accountable; accountability comes with consequences where there has been negligence or abdication of responsibility. What is further baffling is the fact that all these departments have employees who are supposed to perform daily tasks in pursuit of their daily duties, and I wonder what these employees do when they cannot carry out their daily tasks not because of their own doing but because of government’s ineptitude. How much money has been wasted paying employees who are unable to perform their duties because of factors outside their control. Is this not a classical example of wasteful expenditure? The silence from our politicians is deafening, but one thing it will not do is change our situation, only action will change our situation.

Hanger
MHLUME

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