Home | Feature | SAVANNAH, THE ‘FLAVOUR’ THEY WILL LOVE TO HATE

SAVANNAH, THE ‘FLAVOUR’ THEY WILL LOVE TO HATE

03/02/2024 06:48:00 Ntombi Mhlongo

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The past few days have seen our Cabinet ministers leaving the comfort of their expensive office chairs and getting busy, by going out there to get a feel of how dire the situation in local schools is. It is always good to give credit where it is due and one must say that this is a step in the right direction for the new Cabinet.

Whoever came up with the idea surely deserves a Bells! It is good that the ministers now have an idea of the horrific nature of our schools. Now that they know that we have schools that have not been fixed two years after they were burnt during the unforgettable political unrest. The ministers now know and hopefully understand it too, the headache that the head teachers go through on a daily basis in the operations of the schools.

It is not an easy task to run a school, and even worse in the rural areas. It is good that some of the head teachers used this opportunity to share the difficulties they go through whenever the same Cabinet takes time to review the budgets for some of the programmes including the free primary education (FPE) and the one for the orphaned and vulnerable children (OVCs). Now that the ministers have toured the schools, one can only hope that this was not just about visiting and scoring points but that in the coming months we will get to see action being taken to address the challenges.

Challenges

Yes, the ministers posed for beautiful pictures with the excited pupils and that was good, but those photo albums would not address the challenges the schools go through. Those beautiful photos will not take the country forward if many schools do not have computer laboratories in an era where information communication and technology is expected to take the lead in driving the cart to the First World destination.

They might not be able to visit all the schools, but for a start, they now have a clear picture of the situation on the ground. We can only hope that in addressing the challenges, the Cabinet will heed to the call by His Majesty King Mswati III to take the ‘nkwe’ approach and act as quickly as possible.

As the Head of Government, one expects that the Prime Minister, Russell Mmiso Dlamini, will get a full report of the tours and then sit down with the ministers for purposes of mapping a way forward. While the school tours were the highlight of the past week, the visit by Information Communication and Technology (ICT) Minister Savannah Maziya to the parastatals that fall under her ministry was the icing on top of the cake.

Now here is a minister who seems to be here for nothing but business. She appears to be one who knows her story.
Just like the famous Savanna cider, she is refreshing to say the least! Such a refreshing flavour is exactly what was needed in almost all the parastatals under her ministry because they have one thing in common-too much reliance on government subvention and failure to generate their own revenue.

These are the Royal Science and Technology Park (RSTP), the Eswatini Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (EPTC) and the Eswatini Broadcasting and Information Services (EBIS). Instead of standing on their own, all the three entities have become nothing but a financial drain to government’s coffers and it is the taxpayer who suffers in the process.

It is not surprising that during her tour, she advised the parastatals to market and commercialise themselves.
Take the RSTP for instance, this is an entity that was created to be the hub for stimulating science and innovative technologies for commercialisation in the Kingdom of Eswatini. In the digital age, science and technology parks are critical for the sustainable development of the nation since they are the engine and heart of creativity and innovation of every country.

Commercialisation

As His Majesty King Mswati III once pointed out, such parks also provided locations that foster innovation, development and commercialisation of technology and where governments universities and private companies oftentimes collaborate. This is the picture we see whenever the thought of our RSTP comes to mind.

While the entity has huge potential, we are yet to see it becoming a real driving force in the economic recovery of the country especially in the digital age. We are yet to see the RSTP being an entity that creates a conducive environment to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country. And yes, the minister is right to encourage the entity to market and commercialise itself because each time the question why it is struggling comes up, the response is that government is not providing it with the required budget.

While the minister expects the entity to stop relying on government subvention, she, herself has a role to play.
As a Cabinet minister, she is a politician and needs to understand that there are certain legislations that have to be enacted before the RSTP can operate to its full potential. These legislations must give investors, the Amazons and Googles of this world the confidence to come to the country.

Currently, some investors lose interest because it is not easy for them to move large amounts of money at an impulse yet other countries have laws that govern that through their central banks. So in true ‘nkwe’ style, one hopes the minister will soon strutt her stuff and walk inside the Parliament’s House of Assembly carrying Bills that will facilitate the enactment of the crucial legislations.

But for a start, she needs to appoint a capable Board as soon as yesterday as the chief executive officer cannot be expected to perform miracles alone. Government departments and parastatals are expected to receive their budgets for the upcoming financial year and it will not make sense for the RSTP to receive its own when there is currently no Board in place, unless of course the intention is to allow the CEO to do as he pleases.

Still on the appointment of a Board, one would like to plead with the minister to keep to her promise that she would appoint the youth. Please, allow the ‘legends’ to rest! Coming to the ESTVA, one does not know where to start.
Anyway, we do hope that the minister has been informed that just a few months ago, the country’s one and only state-owned television station needed government’s intervention regarding a tax debt amounting to E113 million.
In case you are not aware minister, the decision was reportedly sanctioned by the Ministry of Finance.
The ESTVA owed the Eswatini Revenue Services (ERS) in Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE).

Obligations

While it is not clear whether the management has been deducting money from salaries from staff to honour the PAYE tax obligations but ended up not remitting it, the fact that government had to intervene is a sign that there is a lot of wrong at that station. Secondly, the tax-funded public enterprise had debts amounting to E160.7 million as at the end of December 2022 and these included outstanding statutory remittances and sundry creditors for operations.
Just like most television stations, the ESTVA’s internal income generating streams are TV licences and advertising sales.

The company was able to raise E22.3 million in TV licences and other related incomes while advertising sales and programme sponsorships contributed a sum of E1.4 million. The good news is that there is a new capable CEO at the office and the minister has to be tough on him to make sure that the station delivers. During her tour, the minister said she discovered that the station was spending money on things that did not matter and one expects that this will be corrected as soon as possible.

Also, those responsible for the unnecessary spending should not be spared but they must be made to account.
After all, the station is funded by the taxpayer because it gets a subvention from government. Regarding the EBIS, a turnaround strategy is needed there in order to make the station live up to its mandate of being an electronic medium that serves three crucial purposes which are; informing, educating and entertaining.

Perhaps the minister should start by instructing the management of the station to conduct an audience research to ascertain the attitude of listeners to what they are being fed on a daily basis. With that said, it is impressive to see that the minister has hit the ground running. We can only hope that the relevant stakeholders will give her all the support.

This is crucial in a country like ours where someone who tells it like it is and seems determined to correct all the wrongs becomes an enemy. Seeing how she has vowed to scrutinise the budgets of the parastatals and clamp down on unnecessary spending, she might be the one that many would love to hate. This will not come as a surprise because in most government departments and parastatals, unnecessary spending has become a hobby so good luck my minister!

Who will probe the confusion?
The Commission of Inquiry into the affairs of the Master of the High Court is not even halfway through but already, it is now marred by controversy and this has caused a confusion that might need its own probe. When the Law Society of Eswatini raised its own concerns about the commission, we might have made the conclusion that the entity was just fighting its own battles with the Chief Justice, Bheki Maphalala, but the revelations of the last few days, including that the whole exercise has not been gazetted shows that this might just end in disaster.
Causing more confusion is the shocking honesty of the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Prince Simelane, who revealed that he knew nothing about the commission. If the minister does not know, then who should?

As a country, what do we do now? Should we even take this exercise seriously? Should we have confidence in the final report and recommendations the commission will eventually make and will they even be enforced?
Before we all go crazy as emaSwati, somebody should probe this confusion and show us direction!