Home | News | LEST WE FORGET AT 50

LEST WE FORGET AT 50

09/04/2018 01:24:00 The Editor

Font size:

Comment

In a few days’ time, the nation will gather in Manzini and at various arenas across the country to join in celebrating 50 years of independence. A nation will be remembering the past upon which it seeks to chart a brighter future. As with all things, a good foundation builds a strong future. So what can we say of our foundation since the Swazi flag took to the skies on September 6, 1968?

What is certain is that this country has an abundance of wealth in both natural and human resource but the state of our economy today suggests otherwise. It is all well and good that we have some of the best roads, airports, buildings in the region but their contribution to the economy remains wanting.

We have squandered one opportunity upon another, from the days of a booming economy when our neighbouring countries were embroiled in conflict, to failing to diversify our economy while the SACU sun shone brightly. Consumption got the better of us and today we lament the huge wage bill that is derailing any prospect of progress while corruption has grown to dictate government policies.
These policies have only helped to drown our economy in a quagmire of anti-investment regulations, affecting just about every sector. Any wonder we have a weak business foundation and foreign direct investment (FDI) shunning a beautiful, peaceful country. A classic case of regulating stagnation.

The government response to these challenges has been to distribute poverty by taxing citizens to the bone, putting a freeze on hiring, failing to award a cost of living adjustment for civil servants and declaring a zero per cent increment to parastatal workers.
Conversely, there has been nothing in terms of cuts affecting the politician; not even a ban on travels, which is one of the biggest drains to the government kitty. The ridiculous amount in per diem given to officials for travel far exceeds their monthly salaries. No wonder they would rather spend time outside the country than being productive in serving the people. By so doing, government is not just subsidising peoples’ salaries but also subsidising unproductivity because there is nothing to show for these trips except empty government offices.

This unproductivity has exacerbated poverty. It is unacceptable that 50 years later, 63 per cent of our population still lives on less than E13 a day; that we have a dysfunctional health system; an education system whose quality is being compromised by a cut in financial resources; an agriculture sector struggling to feed the nation; a social welfare system that doesn’t yet deserve to be called as such and –worst of all – killing the business sector by failing to pay for services provided to it.

In 2005, we adopted a Constitution. To understand its purpose more clearly, one would need to borrow from the words of Kader Asmal, an ANC constitutional negotiator and former SA Cabinet minister who once said; “A Constitution is a modus vivendi, a means of living together for a whole nation and not a party manifesto... it is not the exclusive property of one or the other party.” With all the protestations from sections of our society that are yet to enjoy the full rights our constitution provide, the document remains the exclusive property of a few. Perhaps here lies the problem. We are not building this country together.
So as we celebrate, let us take a good hard look in the mirror and ask ourselves if Vision 2022 and all our development initiatives will be realised if we do not take the tough decision to fix ourselves before we can fix the ills of this country.