DELIVER VISION 2022

IT begins today, with the national budget speech. The country has just three years to take some meaningful strides towards attaining Vision 2022. The budget speech will do one of two things; it will either set the pace to catapult Eswatini to a First World nation or it will further hit the brakes on growth and development, regressing the economy to a colossal standstill.

Realistically speaking, it is clear that the country will not be able to cover all that is laid out in the National Development Strategy (NDS) by the year 2022. Instead, the time is now to use the remaining three years to salvage what can be done in the short to medium term, to make a positive impact on social development to improve the standard of living for all emaSwati.
The budget speech today will either redirect the country towards Vision 2022 or signal a forward downwards spiral towards poverty and hopelessness for the ordinary Eswatini citizens. Yet, through the money that government collects from people and businesses in Eswatini, government has the responsibility to re-invest it on social and economic development programmes that can improve the way we live and the way we do business and in the process setting us up for becoming a First World nation.

It is true that every liSwati has high hopes for the leaders of this new government because they come from the much-admired private sector, which means they have it within themselves to inspire the growth of new sectors in the economy and commit Eswatini to new ways of doing business, starting on the public sector. However, if government chooses not to take new and brave steps towards funding the real social programmes that can deliver Vision 2022 but instead decides to spend money on useless programmes/projects that keep sucking money out of the G-wallet without significant returns on government revenue, then the economy will go nowhere. If government’s only solid idea to increase its revenues is finding new types of taxes to impose on the consumer, then our lives in Eswatini are heading nowhere!

The 2019/20 budget speech needs to turn a new page for the economy and give government new commitment and direction to fund the development of all emaSwati, not just improving the lives of politicians, senior government officials and ghost civil servants. Government has only one and one job only which is to turn Vision 2022 into a lived reality for all. In delivering this straight-forward task, government had 25 years to eradicate poverty but instead, chose to spend a good 22 years growing the public sector, that is, increasing the number of civil servants, especially security forces, teachers and ghost employees, thus ballooning the civil service wage bill to unsustainable levels. Besides funding new wheels for our retired senior government officials, funding shopping sprees for government vehicles, and adding to the pile of wrecked government vehicles at the Central Transport Administration (CTA) premises in Mbabane, the 2019/20 budget needs to bring new order to government operations and stop the ridiculous spending on what is simple wastage.

The new spending order needs to bring our long forgotten and dilapidating public hospitals to the priority list of expenditures for the G-wallet. The Ministry of Education and Training needs to give us a better education system and stop taking us on a ride of blowing billions of Emalangeni on useless teacher salaries, faux-pas curriculum development programmes, among other shenanigans riddling this important ministry.

The Ministry of Economic Planning and Development needs to prioritise social development, period.
Yes, Eswatini needs infrastructure and a set of key amenities in the different communities, but if the majority of emaSwati are poor and cannot even afford bus-fare or rent money, then what good is the beautiful and luxurious infrastructure if more than half of the population lives on food aid handouts?
The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade needs to prioritise Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and work with the Ministry of Finance to make serious changes on the current tax regime that is killing business in Eswatini.

The Ministry of Agriculture needs to modernise and take a few lessons from our neighbour South Africa, or just the Mpumalanga Province, to increase production in our beautiful land here in Eswatini.
For the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Public Service, well, good luck with that minister of Finance!

We are all waiting in anticipation to see how government will spend taxpayers’ money on these ministries. But honestly, if more than 40 per cent of the national budget will end up recruiting more soldiers, police officers, warders and relatives of civil servants into public service, then we might as well shelve the National Development Strategy and the beautiful Vision 2022 it promised Eswatini. Minister, with your budget, please deliver Vision 2022.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: