REASONS FOR THE ECONOMIC CRISIS

Sir,
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share my views regarding the current situation of our beautiful country. One does not need to be an economist or financial expert to see that the country is in deep trouble.  If I can compare the economies of three countries namely Botswana, Lesotho and the Kingdom of Eswatini, I notice that there are some differences. I do not usually hear that Botswana and Lesotho have cash flow problems to an extent that they cannot fulfill their financial obligations.

But when it comes to our own country, it is a different story altogether because we face financial challenges almost every two years. Now and again we get reports that there is a shortage of drugs in hospitals and this is dangerous, as it puts the lives of patients at risk. In many instances, you find that government owes millions to the drug suppliers. Recently, there was fear that government might not be able to have salaries for civil servants. Who is to blame? What really went wrong?

In my view, there are many reasons why we are in this mess as a country. One of them is the long standing issue of a huge wage bill. The country boasts of having a big civil service and keeps hiring even for positions that it can do without. This has been going on for years despite several warnings by international bodies including the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The organisation has always been advising the country to reduce its wage bill but this has fallen on deaf ears. Another cause of the financial crisis is the issue of capital projects. The country has a tendency of funding many capital projects at once, and this is not good. Yes we do need them but at times there is a need to prioritise and only focus on those that are urgent. 

Yes we want to have classy hotels and hospitals but it does not make sense to rush and construct them when there is no money. The loans that we get are not helping in any way because in the end, we have to pay them and sooner or later we will be counted among the countries that are plagued by debts.

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