SELECTIVE EXCESSIVE SALARY HIKES RECKLESS

IF I didn’t know better I would say the people will have an opportunity to replace a detached and a government that is non-responsive to the aspirations and wishes of the nation when the Kingdom of eSwatini goes to the Hastings later this year.

This narrative and line of thought was triggered when I came across an article headlined ‘Boards, emabandla get up to 96 per cent pay hike’ last week. My reasoning apropos the article was that the outgoing Cabinet, at least those ministers, who have already served the maximum two terms as per the dictates of the Constitution – which is rarely respected anyway – are preparing for their next political lives in these institutions. But an almost 100 per cent salary increment whatever the circumstances is unheard of even if we were to stumble upon vast reserves of oil within the shores of the kingdom!

Then again this is the unique Kingdom of eSwatini where oddities are the favourite pastime of those entrusted with governing the country. Not long ago, the same government was telling public servants that it is offering them zero per cent salary increment ostensibly because its coffers were empty.

Yet within the same financial year it comes with salary increments of up to almost 100 per cent for a chosen minority serving in certain institutions. Making matters worse is that some of these institutions receiving hefty salary increases are irrelevant and merely feeding troughs for the elite, hence often times their operatives have nothing to do but pursue their personal and private activities at the expense of the taxpayer.

As I see it, especially given the apparent contradictions, even if there had been a sudden financial windfall, government should have initially reverted to the public service unions to offer a better deal than the zero per cent increment it had initially offered. And this is not a salary increment per se we are talking about, but an adjustment occasioned by inflationary forces.

Government would also have included the intake of those joining the ranks of elderly grants beneficiaries who are not getting anything because they were not catered for in the budget. Only after then could government have considered such massive increments as those in reference, albeit these would still be oddities in view of the multi-faceted challenges facing the country.

Given the ever escalating poverty levels and the failure of government to create an enabling political environment to attract foreign direct investments to create jobs, there is an urgent need for a social security safety valve to stem the tide of criminal activity and other social vices like prostitution, drug abuse and trafficking, etc. After all it is the youth, which nowadays include university graduates, who are impacted by unemployment.
Given the high poverty and unemployment levels, it was indeed reckless of government to approve such excessive salary increments whose potential for social upheaval is immeasurable. The people’s silence in the face of the multiple daily challenges that have become routine in their lives should not be taken lightly as a sign of weakness and helplessness. This silence does not in any way represent peace and stability as the leadership believes, just as sitting in church does not make one a Christian.
Real peace is not just the absence of conflict but the presence of justice. And in this country there is a noticeable deficit of social justice, owing to a skewed political system wherein government is not accountable to the people because political power does not reside with them. 

Obviously, cyclical elections under the obtaining Tinkhundla political system cannot deliver political paradigm shifts that occur when power resides with the people save to perhaps change the faces of the people’s representatives but not policy directives of government. In effect each incoming government becomes the carbon copy of the one it is replacing.
Why, even when faces of the people’s elected representatives change, this does not signal any meaningful trajectory in the way the country is governed because the choices made are not informed by political policies, let alone acumen derived from manifestos but rather on the economic muscle of competing individuals to out-budget the other in the buying of votes. Therefore ,cyclical elections do not carry much premium other than to reconfigure those converging on the feeding trough until the next round of elections. 

Ultimately, the narrative of there being no money to finance the inflation-driven salary adjustments for public servants, new elderly grants and humanitarian interventions to alleviate poverty when there is money for everything else is irresponsible and reckless talk on the part of government. This is additional proof that there is no cash-flow crisis generally but manifestly only when it comes to the people and service delivery.
As I see it, the people are nothing but political pawns used to validate to the international community, through periodic elections, a feudal-based dysfunctional political system in which they have no rights whatsoever.

NOTE: Government has since reversed its decision and canned the implementation of the salary increments.

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