PM MUST GET USED TO CRITICISM

PRIME Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini has thrown the gauntlet to government’s critics, to stop criticising the civil service for being the country’s biggest employer, a situation he readily admits to be an anomaly.

On his walkabouts to familiarise himself with operations of government ministries and departments, the PM, while addressing staff of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade, was quoted by the press wondering if government had not employed such a huge number of employees where they would have found alternative employment. He then suggested that government critics should, instead of criticising government, come out with solutions to correct this anomaly.

As I see it, the PM’s posture on government’s high wage expenditure is somewhat crude since this can only be resolved if and when it is tackled head-on instead of being romanticized.

Avoiding the issue can hardly generate the brain power necessary to generate ideas on possible escape routes. Indeed the question that ought to be asked and answered earnestly is how we got to this situation where government is burdened with disproportionate high employee numbers in relation to the size of the country and the population, not to speak of the size of the economy. Previously it was reported that in relation to bigger countries with far larger populations and advanced economies the kingdom had a disproportionately higher number of public servants per capita.

Paradoxically, while bemoaning government’s critics, the PM seems to understand, and in fact accepts, that the private sector and not the public service ought to be the largest employer in a sound economy.

Then the question is what is causal to this apparent grotesque economy of this the Kingdom of Eswatini. If our collective response to this question were candid then we would be halfway to providing solutions to the anomaly. But if we skirt around the real issues just to massage egos, which is the stock-in-trade of the liSwati polity, then we can all watch in despair as the economy continues on a free-fall.

Strategy

The authors of the 25-year National Development Strategy (NDS) that birthed Vision 2022 – whereupon the kingdom should be among the top 10 developing nations in the world – had correctly premised the envisioned economic success of the country on political reformation.

Put differently, the NDS authors who were drawn from across the spectrum from government, organised labour, professionals, youth organisations to traditional leadership among others, fingered the obtaining polity as an obstacle militating against the country unleashing its full economic potential in the ensuring 25 years (1997 – 2022). What the NDS authors feared has indeed proven to be founded because since the adoption of this turn-key economic and social blueprint in 1997 the economy has been constricting owing to the untenable political hegemony hence it has hit rock bottom.

It does not require rocket science to deduce that if the economy is constricting that means existing investments are not expanding adequately to create new wealth and new jobs; that means a severe drought in foreign direct investments (FDIs) to create new jobs; and that means more and more job seekers are without gainful employment. The sum total of this cocktail is widespread unemployment and deepening poverty.

Consequently, in a bid to project a positive image on a farcical background, government has had to create vacancies even when these not necessary and are not serving any purpose in a bid to address joblessness especially among the youth to forestall a social revolution. The end result is the unsustainable wage bill faced by government today.

In fact looking at the unemployment figures today this strategy is hardly working and government’s efforts to address this is but a drop in the ocean. This situation is owed to the Byzantine political system that while its sponsors praise it for fostering peace and stability it has not necessarily created a predictable political climate to which FDIs are automatically attracted. The sooner this reality is accepted the much better chance the kingdom has of getting out of the economic morass it is in.  

As I see it, government should not be in the business of being the number one employer in this country but the private sector. Government’s primary role ought to be creating the correct and necessary environment around which FDIs gravitate. This involves putting in place a pluralistic body politic that subscribes to tenets of modern nation states and that would create a government that is answerable to the people and not to the leadership as the case is since that is the only way of curbing abuses and excesses of power which in turn breeds corruption.

This involves putting in place pragmatic policies and doing away with red tape and bureaucracy that frustrate the operations of free enterprises. This involves the removal of extra-legal demands by those controlling the levers of power for free shareholding to existing and new investments given the fiefdom nature of the Tinkhundla political system.

If the PM has the capacity to speak truth to power then this is his moment to grab the horns of destiny to steer the country on a new trajectory of hope for it is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.

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