WE GET FIVE STAR TOILETS FOR DEVELOPMENT

How much return on investment will the toilets worth E73 million generate for our supposedly broke government when the five-star hotel begins its operations in the very distant future?

The spending on this five-star hotel and International Convention Centre (ICC) is so out of control it is as good as government giving the highly taxed emaSwati the middle finger. We cannot trust our government to right things even when the ship is sinking. Left, right and centre emaSwati are being told that the country is in an economic crisis with a cash-strapped government that cannot even afford to provide toilet paper in its different ministries. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance is very busy amending every Act and coming up with new Bills that can allow the very same government to gauge emaSwati more of their money in taxes.

Sin Tax

For example, in October the Sin Tax will come into effect and making the weekend and recreational activities a much more expensive past-time for all of us who enjoy a glass of beer or wine when we have time to spare. How dare then does the Government of Eswatini, in this fiscal crunch, justify such lavish spending on toilets when there are a lot of critical public issues that need to be sorted out as of immediately before the economy goes belly up? Government is simply flipping us off in that the ICC and five-star hotel must go on at all costs even if it kills the economy.

Priorities

Jokes aside, these toilets the country is constructing in the name of development are a symbol of the way government has messed up its priorities and what we as ordinary citizens can expect to get out of the National Development Strategy (NDS). You and I should expect nothing from government but more useless shiny toilets and other development gimmicks that will leave us poor and broke. From now onwards, each time Eswatini’s Government thinks of a capital project, it should just simply know that it is a bad idea. Eswatini needs to be in check with its economic realities and stop being envious of the golden jewels and luxurious lifestyles of the developed nations.

Poverty eradication needs to be the sole priority of government. There are too many battles to be fought in the social and economic development space in Eswatini that the country simply cannot afford to be importing state-of-the-art toilets from as far as Italy or Dubai when the country is failing to even supply antibiotics to its public hospitals. If that is not motivation enough to get our act together as a nation, the country has different groups demanding what is owed to them out of the G-wallet while government has deliberately chosen to burry its head in the sand just so it can get its prize, the ICC and Five-Star hotel. Of course, let us not be naïve. There are many other lavish toilets being bought by the Government of Eswatini that we as the general public do not get to know of. The fiscal crunch is just an expression for our government that it uses to demand more money out of our pockets and absolve itself of the responsibility to provide social services to emaSwati.

Spent

Can the country really say it knows how much has been spent on that monstrosity while government keeps dodging the key important issues that need to be addressed? For one, government is stuck with its civil servants who are determined to get their cost of living adjustment. The Ministry of Education and Training is caving in on all angles with all its unfulfilled commitments of Free Primary Education on the one hand and tertiary institutions up in arms over their subventions and student allowances on the other hand. The elderly cannot be forgotten. It is also another painful struggle for our government to cough-up the elderly grants when they are due to honour our grandparents. This is the reality: all the money that the Eswatini Revenue Authority collects is fully committed in all of these obligations that governemnt has to honour. It is simply amazing, therefore, that in all these financial woes, government still has some spare change for extravagant toilets and other gimmicks to accelerate the country to financial ruin.

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