THANK YOU MR PM BUT...

Carving a path to a private sector-led economy will always be a good idea, in my books.

That this is the tagline for government’s new Post-Covid-19 Recovery Strategy got me excited as soon as I laid my eyes on the elaborate document presented to the public by Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini on Friday.

Indeed, governments should never be the major employment providers but should create an environment conducive for the private sector to create enough jobs. That it took just three months to come up with the strategy is also a plus for the Mandvulo-led government. 

The idea for this plan was hatched in April this year but it has already been laid out in black and white. That is the way to go. 

As they say, procrastination is the thief of time; time wasted is never regained and time waits for no man. 

document 

I was also impressed by the overall presentation of the document, which gave the impression that a lot of work had gone into coming up with the plan. 

Clearly, a lot of consultation was undertaken, with players from almost all sectors of the Eswatini society being brought on board to give their input.

Of course, it is never possible to please everyone.

Some will punch holes in the whole exercise but the facts, figures and even diagrams present a picture of a multi-sectoral team that knows its story.

However, this is not to suggest that I do not have a few questions and comments.

The PM says the Post- COVID-19 Recovery Strategy is a response to the looming economic contraction and negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the different sectors of the economy. 

The project needs E30 billion to become a reality.

Of this amount, about E23 billion will come from the private sector while the balance is expected to come from government.

If both parties come to the party (excuse the pun) and fulfil their respective obligations, this could become a reality. 

In enabling the private sector, government says it will focus on creating a conducive business environment that will improve the country’s ranking on the Ease of Doing Business. 

As part of the Recovery Plan, government intends to increase employment opportunities, expand the tax base and restore the viability and sustainability of the Eswatini economy.

One hopes that expanding the tax base will not translate into once again going for the already overburdened taxpayer in the lower rungs of the tax ladder.

Again, among the expenditure adjustments government plans to implement is cutting the wage bill by E903 million over a period of three years. 

This will be done through pressing full steam ahead with the dreaded hiring freeze, which has already seen hundreds of graduates remaining idle at home, with their diplomas and degrees serving only to decorate sitting-room walls.

Public servants will also be expected to accept a cost- of- living adjustment (CoLA) that is below inflation.

interesting 

The equally controversial voluntary early retirement package, known as EVERS, which civil servants famously rejected several years ago, is also on the table once again. It will be very interesting to observe how government will go about making this plan more attractive now than it was when it was initially introduced in the public service vocabulary.

I might be missing something here and I stand to be corrected but I did not seem to get the feeling that the issue of corruption was adequately addressed in the Recovery Plan. No plan can succeed when it exists side by side with corruption.

I only read about government planning to set up a Commission of Enquiry to investigate the issuance of national identity (ID) cards issued in the past 10 years. All documents found to have been issued illegally will then be revoked.

That said, I am a bit concerned that government has come up with this new and ambitious strategy at a time when we are still in the middle of the pandemic.

According to the Ministry of Health, we have not even reached the peak, as far as COVID-19 is concerned.

How then, do we hope to fulfil all the promises we are making in the document within the 18-month time-frame? 

Have we not jumped the gun a bit here, coming up with a post-coronavirus strategy when we do not even know when this pandemic would have left our shores? Granted, we would all like to return to the life we led before the virus spread to the rest of the world. 

assignment

However, the reality is that COVID-19 is still very much in our midst. 

Setting fixed time frames for such an assignment could complicate things.

What if, God forbid, we are still in the COVID-19 era six months from now? 

My concern partly emanates from the fact that our government has not been exemplary in its response to the virus. 

The response has been ineffective at best and chaotic at worst. 

That is why the infection rate has increased instead of it stabilising or going down. 

Maybe it would have been better to launch this recovery plan when we had reached the peak and were well on our way to shaking off this virus. 

A quick look at the document reveals that some of the companies that have promised to inject millions of Emalangeni into the economy and provide jobs have indicated that their plans will only see the light of day once COVID-19 has passed.   

I also have a gripe with the fact a bulk of the promised 40 126 jobs from the E30 billion investment is in sectors that are already problematic, in the sense that most of them overwork emaSwati but pay peanuts.

These are the textile (11 900 jobs), manufacturing (4 610) and agriculture (6 040). 

Also, from its over E7 billion investment, government plans to embark on 13 projects that will yield 13 420 jobs. 

This is the same government that says it will continue with a hiring freeze and also encourage civil servants to take early retirement packages.

Once again, it will be interesting to see how this one pans out. At least we do not have long to wait, seeing as the strategy only has a time-frame of only 18 months.

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