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NO TAX INCREASES IN 2020 – SIVE SIYINQABA

11/01/2020 23:18:00 BY MFANUKHONA NKAMBULE

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mfanukhona@times.co.sz

MBABANE – Sive Siyinqaba says there were no positive spin-offs to the welfare of emaSwati in 2019.

In its New Year statement, the national movement stated that citizens remained subjected to mediocrity and played second fiddle to the ruling class.
The statement was issued on behalf of the entire membership by Matoni Ngom’yayona Gamedze, the acting Chairman. The movement stated that the tax-paying citizens hardly got any value for money. It said the performance of the country’s socio-economic sector continued to be worse than poor.

Sibahle mentioned that medical facilities and supplies were in a comatose state. The movement said it had become a norm for patients to take their prescriptions issued at government hospitals and clinics to pharmacies for the purchase of medicinal supplies because the government’s stock was forever depleted.

“It is an undeniable fact that health deserves the largest budget allocation of all,” said the movement.
Sive Siyinqaba Sibahle Sinje also raised concern that food security would always remain elusive if the government still could not match the demands of the ploughing season.

It defined 2019 as the worst year for agriculture. It pointed out that the ploughing season was almost over at a time when the government had failed dismally to provide subsidised tractors and agricultural inputs.
“A nation that cannot feed itself needs to overhaul its agricultural policies,” it is mentioned in the statement.
The same call by the organisation was made in the area of freedom of movement by transport. It is stated that freer movement was largely impeded by the rugged road network that was in a deplorable state, countrywide.
“What was once tarred roads are more damaging to vehicles than gravel roads,” according to the statement.
It called for legislation that would exclusively govern the management of road infrastructure, its development and maintenance.

Tertiary

The movement advised that citizens should not be forced to relive the piece meal scholarship offers and student allowances that were experienced in 2019.
“Our tertiary institutions’ research departments and curriculum are hungry for serious attention and prioritisation by government,” it stated. “Otherwise, anything less, is a violation of the students’ right to a decent and contemporary universally relevant education.”
Sive said free primary education needed intensive review. It noted widespread concern over the quality of the education system whose standards were reported to be falling.
According to the statement, schools were no longer able to meet their operational obligations because government only could afford to make irregular payments exclusively for tuition. However, in terms of structural development and general maintenance of schools, government’s interest was absent, stated the movement.

IGCSE for Form V

Sive Siyinqaba stated that it was about time that the Ministry of Education and Training’s adopted IGCSE as the barometer for Form Five pupils in the country be opened up for debate.
According to the statement, IGCSE was somewhat substandard to the point that even its architect, the United Kingdom, does not apply it internally as a benchmark for passing the high schools final year examination.

“Sive Siyinqaba National Movement and many others are yet to be convinced that there is no other better system against which our children’s academic excellence can be measured,” the movement further advised.

Recruitment freeze

The government’s freeze on the recruitment of fresh personnel for the security forces is plausible, the movement said.
“Until some sizeable economic growth can be realised, the recruitment of same should remain frozen even in 2020,” according to Sive Siyinqaba.
However, exceptions should be made in the recruitment of qualified nurses, the organisation pleaded. It pointed out that the recruitment could not be procrastinated because of the evident shortage of the nursing staff in all of the country’s medical outlets.
Sibahle said there was no excuse why vacancies created by deaths, retirees and resignations were not filled yet nurses graduated every year.
Needless to say, Sive stated that public servants, including teachers, nurses, security personnel and others had been marking time for too long now without any Cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA) being effected in their salaries.
It is the movement’s fervent hope that the CoLA that was promised when the temperatures were heating up recently, not only will be adhered to but will be meaningful as well.
The movement also expects total control of the wasteful expenditure that has grown exponentially over the years.
“We are calling for no new tax increases this year,” it said.
Concerns over large delegations formed by ‘esteemed’ tourists at the nation’s expense should come to a halt.
“It’s the luxury of a First World State that is miles ahead to the standard of leaving of a Third World country like Eswatini,” Sive Siyinqaba stated.

Politics
It called for politically motivated projects to be parked, paving way for those that would make economic sense. At Sive Siyinqaba, they hold the view that the political franchise belongs to all citizens of Eswatini. The systematic exclusion of those perceived to be non-conformists to the Tinkhundla System of governance is a recipe for dire consequences, according to Sive Siyinqaba’s statement.

Democracy
Sive Siyinqaba mentioned as well that “democracy is all about political pluralism, where every voice has the inalienable right to speak and be heard.’’
It criticised the arrest of leaders of the Political Party Assembly (PPA). It was pointed out in the statement that these continued harassments of the PPA leaders with ferocious brutality and disdain, by the State apparatus, was not only against the provisions of the country’s Constitution but worse still, it went against all international conventions on human and people’s rights that the country had signed.
It said violence “is an archaic form of quelling peaceful dissenting voices.”

Peaceful dialogue
The organisation said peaceful dialogue was a universally acceptable form of communication between or among political actors because the alternative was calamitous.
It urged Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini to humbly respond to the knocks at Hospital Hill by opening doors as the Head of State’s gatekeeper.

Leadership
Sibahle said leadership “is all about being receptive to concerns of the governed without being discriminatory.”

Political organisations
The movement stated that there were some people who felt that they exclusively had the right to pass judgement on political organisations or individuals, as to who should be a player and who shouldn’t be in the country’s political space.
“No one holds copyright to the country’s political discourse, and the sooner they desist from elevating and or overrating themselves, be they lecturers, private citizens or whatever, the more wiser they will become,” Sibahle Sinje said.
On a parting shot, the organisation said armchair criticism was a hobby for those who had nothing to contribute in the political space. It then asked God to guide all the people of Eswatini in 2020.