COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS TIFF

Definitely accustomed to having its way – even when it is one to disaster as is often the case – government must have been taken aback by Parliament’s resolute and combative posture on its latest decision to extend by a further two weeks the partial lockdown, with the people’s elected representatives issuing a 48-hour ultimatum for the reversal of what has proven to be an unpopular decision from across the spectrum.

Acting Prime Minister Themba Masuku last week announced the extension of the lockdown without necessarily backing it up with a convincing argument when a large body of emaSwati, from across the spectrum, had expected a relaxation to allow the economy to ventilate as well as pave the way for the reopening of schools. But this decision, coming as it did, shortly after neighbouring South Africa had almost restored normalcy by moving to Level 1, one step away from completely lifting the lockdown, having already reopened schools earlier on, practically enraged MPs. Until then the Eswatini government had been known to follow the lead of its neighbour and major trading partner since the outbreak of the pandemic.

MPs questioned the wisdom of extending the partial lockdown when the economy had been hyperventilating long before the pandemic and was on a drip while poverty was deepening owing to loss of earnings, if not jobs, resulting from the partial lockdown. This followed a motion by Lobamba Lomdzala MP Marwick Khumalo. As it were a recent narrative giving credit to Incwala for having been a timely intervention, somewhat depicted government as having been drowned by the crisis resultant from the pandemic. The narrative would have us believe that had it not been for Incwala many more emaSwati would have perished because only then did they become aware of their statuses because the event provided adequate testing facilities that government had hitherto failed to provide.

This would suggest that between late March 2020 when the pandemic broke out and December, government had not done sufficiently enough to enable people to be aware of their statuses. Strangely this narrative was espoused from within the same government, a contradiction in terms that speaks of the right hand not knowing what the left is up to or perhaps out of desperation to defend the indefensible.

Protection

As I see it, in an environment that enables and in fact promotes peddling of falsehoods to protect whatever the leadership has determined needs protection, which invariably is wrong if not illegal, the narrative could be erroneous and probably fueled by the desire to protect the integrity of Incwala from being blamed for having been a superspreader especially since it coincided with the peak of the second wave of the pandemic.

Not that this would make government’s handling of the pandemic any better because if truth be told much lived to be desired. In fact one element of the extended partial lockdown that is self-defeating is the 6pm shutdown of retail businesses, specifically supermarkets. This gives shoppers about an hour of shopping after knocking off from work and this tends to create congestion and long queues thus transforming supermarkets into superspreaders. This also applies to bus ranks where enforcement of regulations is non-existent and again making them red danger zones. The problem is, our leaders are not known to take the occasional walkabout to familiarise themselves with how ordinary folk live and the condition of the country they supposedly govern because they are permanently ensconced in their ivory towers ostensibly because government is not accountable to the people.

Clear

At the time of penning this article it was not clear how government would react to the ultimatum by the House of Assembly to lift the partial lockdown. Usually such stand-offs are resolved through power play wherein the lawmakers are convened in a caucus away from the public glare and threatened with whatever. Such is the nature of the Tinkhundla political system in which the separation of powers and independence of each of the three arms of government is alien.

Perhaps also crying out for immediate political solution is the current composition of the Cabinet which no longer conforms to the dictates of the Constitution in the wake of the passing on of two elected incumbents. Hosea MP Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza reminded his fellow lawmakers that the Constitution required half of the Cabinet be appointed from elected MPs, which was no longer the case now.

But astounding was the response of government’s chief legal mind and legal advisor to the Legislature, Attorney General Sifiso Khumalo, who advised that anyone aggrieved by the composition of Cabinet should approach the courts for redress. The AG’s advice somewhat appeared to give a stamp of approval to the breach of the so-called supreme law of the land. How this will be dealt with remains a matter for conjecture but government’s affinity to breaking the law whenever is suits it is legendary.

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