GOVT MUST STOP MACHO ANTICS

During the last stay away and protest marches, about three weeks ago, in support of and to call for the freeing of the two imprisoned members of parliament (MPs) –Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza (Hosea MP) and Mthandeni Dube (Ngwempisi MP) - government through Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku who was holding the fort as acting Prime Minister, had assured the nation that it would be business as usual while urging the public, including civil servants, to carry on their normal activities. But lo and behold, on the appointed day of the strike not only was life brought to a standstill but the DPM’s offices were locked and isolated and the DPM nowhere to be seen, and so were the majority – if not all - of government ministries and departments extending to business operations.

Regrettably, that was not the first time government had been reckless with the lives of emaSwati by pretending to be in control when empirical evidence pointed otherwise. The last time people heeded government’s erratic leadership they were exposed to trigger-happy security forces that could not distinguish between protestors and those who had heeded government’s pronouncement that it would be business as usual. Hence in the recent instalment of blunders people decided they would not listen to government and duly stayed away. As it turned out, government was wrong again, cities and towns including government establishments, were deserted and there was no business as usual as per the undertakings of the DPM, himself an absentee from office.

Yet again, the same government is demanding of parents to put their children at risk in the face of schools wisely deciding to close early for the December holidays at the wake of an announcement of another strike action on December 13. Government is insisting that schools will only close when it says so because it is still holding on to the idea that it is in control.Yet this is no longer the case. Government lost control from June 2021 when it licenced the killing of emaSwati youth demanding multiparty democracy. This is further attested to by the spike in targeted arson attacks and murders of members of the security cluster and their resultant retaliatory extra-judiciary executions. Suspects being routinely shot on the head is by no means a coincidence but is consistent with executions, as has been widely reported in the past few days. It is an eye for an eye! But the question is at what point they separate political activists - or so-called terrorists - from criminals in this political tit-for-tat.

Responsible

As I see it, the palpable fear and uncertainty permeating society does not suggest government is in control. The fact is the people do not feel safe and secure in this country, not least in their homes, anymore and anyone who posits otherwise lives in the dreamland of the Tinkhundla political system that is responsible for the mess in which this country finds itself. And anyone tip-toing around this fact and reality is in fact complicit to all the atrocities committed by the regime since June 2021, which includes the mass murders of emaSwati youth, and will one day have to be held responsible as if they too pulled the trigger.

We are in this mess because that erratic government decision to slaughter emaSwati. The day of reckoning for those shoring up this evil system is beckoning, perhaps even in our lifetime. Ironic as it may be, security for the leadership has also been beefed up in response to the real and present fear and uncertainty however much they may discount and deny this fact. Given the prevailing climate of fear and uncertainty, government ought to leave it to schools and parents to decide what is best for the students. After all during the last protest to free the two MPs, a student of an Mbabane school was chased and tortured by five soldiers, who included three who were speaking a foreign language the student could not understand, while rushing to school. To date government has not taken emaSwati into its confidence and explained what foreign soldiers are doing on our soil. We have been left to figure this one out on our own. Everything considered, those schools that are done with examinations ought to be given the leeway to decide if there is any reason to risk the safety of students instead of shutting shop.

Moral

Nowadays any trust on government is misplaced because it has lost the moral rectitude to lead, and to be listened to owing to its propensity to peddle lies and untruths through its willing and able vassals. Simply put, government has failed the people in more ways than one because of an untenable political system that was introduced as an experiment that is now an albatross around our necks hence there is an urgent and crying need to discard the Tinkhundla political system. Talk about creating a Frankenstein monster, this is the current political system that is ruining this country politically, culturally, socially and economically. The words of Edward Abbey rings true at this moment in time: “A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”

In an impoverished country like this the Kingdom of Eswatini, what can you do with E7.4 billion. This is the money lost to corruption in the past five years, so says parliament’s public spending watchdog, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). Yet Eswatini, the poor rich country, is habitually struggling to make ends meet without much of a success given the bad state of the nation. God willing, this matter will be the subject of the next article for this column.

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