GOVERNMENT COULD HAVE DONE BETTER

Sir,

Ethical leadership and sacrificial leadership are used interchangeably; the latter understood to mean the kind of leadership which ‘involves preferring the needs of others above one’s own ambition for success and comfort’.

Politicians who come from conditions of poverty face many challenges of a personal nature themselves; political leadership has shifted dramatically from being characterised by sacrifice and suffering to political leadership as a position of privilege and wealth. This dramatic shift brings with it pressures to create wealth for a sustainable retirement in a relatively short period of time.

Until we develop and create leaders who will see their role as that of servant-hood in Swaziland I do not see any sanity in changing this current government only to have a team of their kind replace them. Replacing them we can because we have plenty of those already trotting, praying and cursing their gods that they may also get the chance. Forget that they want to serve the nation; they also want to ‘eat’ as much as they possibly can within their term of office. This is the goat mentality to which we are married to and I doubt if divorce is an option.

The pattern of repeated collapse accelerates exponentially under a poor government. These goats eat even more voraciously than their predecessors until only the bones of that society’s institutions are left. Whether we feel and actually see a problem with the current government, changing it can only mean accepting that we bring in ‘fresh hungry goats’ because Swazis have come to believe that paving your way into politics has absolutely nothing to do with serving the electorate but oneself.

Can the church rise and show us the way if it is still the custodian of true justice and Godly wisdom. We hope we can still count on this institution to produce ethical leaders who will place the interest of others first before themselves. Only a morally upright crop of leaders can also make whatever system work; whether it is Tinkhundlla or multiparty democracy.

Can we be allowed to engage government so that we can have meaningful dialogue to take the country out of this abyss. It was long coming and we know it. The recession was not created by government but indeed it could have done better. Whining and finger-pointing now will take us nowhere when a lot can still be done to reverse the perpetual route to our cemetery.

Samson

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