WE ARE POOR, DYING

Sir,

Fifty-one years of independence is a milestone indeed worth to be celebrated but if I may ask, what exactly is there to show that indeed we are blessed as a nation? Well maybe for some there is a lot to celebrate but has government taken a moment and looked around it?

There is nothing but pain and sorrow. In case it has not noticed; our health system is in tatters, the education system is bonkers and everything in stores have gone up but we are still the same.

Life is hard in the country unless one gets closer to certain individuals. Government has made itself the alpha and omega of riches in this country so everyone has to worship it to have a taste.

Religion

Hospital beds are full of sick people and doctors have nothing to offer them. The only medicine we have in abundance in the country besides Panado is religion. We pray hard not because we are righteous but because that’s the only hope we have.
As a result of free primary education in the country, most children are now at school and they actually get to ‘escape’ from their reality.

Poverty

The only meal they are guaranteed for the day is the one in schools because their homes are nothing but extreme poverty. We are supposed to tell those children that education is the key when we know very well that for one to succeed, he/she must get closer to certain individuals.
We tell them that even though what we should be telling them is to go steal five cows and give them to the fat cats in security forces if they are male or sleep with the fat cats if they are female to get a job. But the children already know that.

That’s why come August, they cram into trucks like sardines because the only way to a great meal is through cultural events.
I’m sure those children do not go there because they love the country but it’s their way of escaping their reality. They wish the cultural events could be two weeks long or even a month only because they are guaranteed three good meals a day. Some only get to taste bread during those few days. Is the poverty of the people a spectacle worth to be aired for all to see?

Let us look at civil servants: there are armed forces who get free food, uniform, electricity, housing and water. On the other hand there are teachers, who have the future of the country in their hands every day; they have the power to make or break the country’s future but they are underpaid, not housed or are housed in dilapidated dumps, they have no uniform allowance, no free electricity, no free food and no free water.

Just recently, government told all civil servants they will not get their cost of living adjustment because there is no money. Fuel has gone up and when fuel goes up, all other commodities do the same. All I’m saying is we are poor, dying and hopeless.

Palesa Dlamini

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