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PEOPLE MUST RETIRE AT 60

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Sir,

Let me start by thanking the PM, Mandvulo Dlamini, for the recent and major economic shake up on the country’s economy, we really can see your determination Nkhosi, continue the hard work. May I also, as a citizen, make the following submissions towards the country’s economic recovery strategy: 


l Let us value and prioritise education as a nation. In the realm of the spirit, I envisage a Kingdom of Eswatini where highly educated and skilled people will lead each ministry. PhD holders should be made principal secretaries as they are capable of objective  higher order decision-making processes, as their decision making will most often be informed by research, not ‘stomach politics’. In a nutshell, educated people have the capacity to fix the economy, and I am happy that His Majesty the King also believes in that, as he has always appointed an educated PM. We moreover commend the King for the appointments he made to Senate recently, what a competitive team of individuals, hhayi imfucuta! We have to provide incentives for people who are educated, particularly PhD holders so that they can participate in the development of this country. Most emaSwati PhD holders are based in nearby South Africa, and they are actively contributing to the betterment of that country’s economy because they are very much appreciated there than here at home.


l There is too much dead wood in the civil service. May civil servants who have reached 60 years retire and go home, please! These are the people collapsing and plunging our economy. They have long re-paid the government study loans. They have already married themselves pretty women, they long paid lobola for their wives, some are paying lobola for tincanakazane now, they’ve also built themselves nice homes, while young graduates with fresh minds and innovative skills are languishing in poverty at home. How does government hope to recover the study loans if graduates are not absorbed into the world of work, as a result of old mkhulus and gogos hog work positions? I directly appeal to the PM to effect the age 60 retirement rule on civil servants.

Please Mr PM, do not allow people who are 60 to continue their stay at the civil service. These people are benefiting twice through their monthly pension salaries, and the contractual salaries from work contracts government has re-engaged them on, while qualified young graduates get wasted at home. What do you think this does to our economy Mr PM? Why is government shooting itself in the foot? Why collapse the study loan benefit for emaSwati citizens? Because this non-retirement of old horses leads to the non-repayment of the study loans by new graduates, as their work positions are occupied by useless old geysers.

How do we expect the young generation to prosper, marry, pay lobola for their wives, produce children, and build themselves homes, how will they support the children they give birth to if their positions are being held up by people whose children are already employed? This thing of abusing the tradition of kwetfula emakhosini, yet it is for personal gain (e.g. extension in the civil service) ought to stop immediately. Wena waphakathi, ngasijabulela speech lowasetfula eMandvulo Hall, just play along and dump them at the end, hawu safa tilambi. PM with your team, never even dream of bringing down retirement age to 55, start by sticking to the 60 years of retirement age. Move from office to office, do a vusela, remove all the gogos and mkhulus who have run out of ideas, there is plenty of them in government positions phela! This is why many emaSwati are living below the poverty line.

This is the reason there is so much moral decay in the country including theft, crime, prostitution, bribery, nepotism, spread of HIV, abortion, corruption, you name them.  Furthermore, the government machinery is malfunctioning as a result of people in government’s payroll, yet their job description is only known to themselves. We need performance monitoring tools as of yesterday, and there is urgent need to uproot the dead wood. Some civil servants are such a shame when it comes to service delivery, especially the pensioners!!!


l The level of corruption is very high for such a small country. I pity emaSwati on this one as the King has to choose a Cabinet among some of us who had to bribe our way into Parliament. Corruption has been normalized, and it has become part of our culture. Let’s face the problem head-on...Akwekhanywe!

Anonymous Nhlangano


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