LESSONS FROM SIBAYA

Sir,

Please allow me space to share my views regarding the recent People’s Parliament. Bayethe, Wena Waphakati; Khula Mlisa! What a unique opportunity for emaSwati to outline (i) Desirable traits of the prime minister; (ii) Calibre of the PM to be appointed, (iii) Skills and competences, (iv) Leadership skills, (v) Ability to put emaSwati first and (vi) Being captain of a winning team.

EmaSwati undoubtedly love their King and will continue to love him. They attended in numbers to express their views, listen to others, observe the proceedings and debate among themselves. Nearly everyone in the People’s Parliament claimed that corruption was the number one national problem, that if not arrested, the nation will perish.

Embezzling

Embezzling of public funds and resources is the order of the day. Again, if no urgent action is taken by the right authorities, including dealing with such cases, partners and investors will lose confidence in the country. Failure to pay (including delayed payment) contractors and suppliers on time will kill the economy.
The registration of people (e.g at polling centres) leaves a lot to be desired.

This is not to negate the good leadership of the EBC chairman. One senator said the whole process needed ‘kucolwa’. One hopes that the chairman will conduct a post-mortem of the registration process, election process and procedures.

Parliament might need dissolution. Again, the root cause of this observation is the ‘corruption syndrome’. Where there is adequate evidence that cheating through buying of votes and bringing wrong people to vote, such cases should be investigated and the culprits brought to book. Asekhanywe sonkhe for embezzling public funds and resources.

As much as I agree with the senator who said this, I want to believe that only those handling and given public funds should be subjected to kwekhanywa as custodians of the funds.
One CEO proposed a ‘paradigm shift’, meaning we should adopt a new thinking mode. This means ‘asigucule umnyango’. EmaSwati are too relaxed and never think of tomorrow. We need to change our thinking. Eswatini needs ‘clean parliamentarians’.

This was said by a vocal business person. The question is: Are the current MPs clean? If they are not clean, why? How many of them pumped money and other incentives to win votes? How many of them transported people from different points to polling stations to vote? How many of them received votes without the exchange of money?

Where were academicians from colleges and universities during the People’s Parliament? They form a pool of experts in science, technology and innovations, which can be used to salvage the economy of the country. Economists and scientists are needed to guide the country and conduct responsive research so that innovations (product, process and services) are generated.

Wrong priorities have contributed to the economic decline in the country. This could be caused by government’s failure to adopt the bottom-up approach to development. These approaches are important in any development environment: Self-help, conflict and technical approaches.
The lack of capacity building for parliamentarians, save for parliamentary procedures and standing orders. What about other pertinent areas? Skills needed to debate bills during parliamentary debates? The lack of capacity building of chiefdoms and tinkhundla.

For example, some chiefdoms have prepared a development plan to guide the community on how to implement community activities. A great majority of the chiefdoms have not and will not even attempt. Instead, land disputes are the order of the day. The links between chiefdoms and Tinkhundla are weak. How can they be strengthened?

The people have spoken: Agriculture, health, energy, climate change and nutrition are the key areas to be tackled. Education is the core ingredient that every nation, country and continent rely on. Let us not lose hope maSwati. Let us pray and support those already elected and sworn-in. Let us avail ourselves, especially academicians, to empower parliamentarians (both MPs and senators).

The courts should be vigilant in dealing with the alleged alarming corruption. As one of the academicians, we are ready to help where we can; where we are requested to help.

LiSwati

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