I WEEP FOR FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM

As one would expect, post the budget speech I often give my insights into the allocations as I see things.

I will preference my thoughts with a quote from His Majesty’s speech. “Our youth stand as the architects of our nation’s future and are at the core of our vision to make Eswatini a world class country. ‘‘However, the daunting spectra of unemployment engulfs over more than half of them, presenting a formidable challenge that requires our immediate attention.” Contrast to Speech from the Throne. My strongest expectation in the budget for the financial year 2024/25 was a strong prioritisation of the youth, which sadly is left worrying. Comparing the budget to His Majesty’s speech reveals an apparent lack of focus on the youth in the national budget compared to the Speech from the Throne. His Majesty had a section dedicated to the youth while the budget contained none.

Doing a word count of the budget and His Majesty’s speech shows a tally of two for two in both speeches, however, in the budget the youth is mentioned under the Youth Enterprise Fund and youth-led businesses. Furthermore, the budget speech does not even state how much the Youth Fund allocation is going to be in the next financial year. This brings to mind a government that is not ready to invest in the youth directly to solve the problems that our young people face.

Mainstreaming the youth

One would argue that investing 17 per cent of the current budget on education is a direct investment on the youth. That would be true, however, the most emergent problem is that of our out of school youth, of whom 55 per cent are out of jobs. Furthermore, it is plausible to argue that we have a number of initiatives aimed at providing access to all emaSwati, including among others the loan guarantee scheme, the export guarantee scheme and the Rural Development Fund. This mainstreaming of the youth tends to cover the youth’s pertinent issues that inhibit or promote their access to these illustrious national initiatives. Evidence coming from utilisation studies show that it is difficult for seasoned businesses to access these schemes, the loan guarantee scheme and the export promotion scheme being cases in point. One, therefore, wonders if government expects the youth to have equitable access to these schemes. One would expect that government ought to have had an allocation targeting youth employment creation.

The improved and commendable increase in capital expenditures is a noted improvement and the hope is that jobs will be created, however, these will be short-term jobs linked to the construction period with no long-term solution to the problem. The lack of direct investments on the youth will leave the nation with a dead generation. A generation with no hope for the future and that may be detrimental for overall growth and development of the country.

Youth employment creation package

One expected government to take a leaf from South African Minister Gondowane’s budget, where an explicit R72 billion was set aside for employment creation. I would argue that government ought to have set a side at least E500 million for youth employment. This is still an attainable goal, through the procurement reforms introduced by the ministry. These are commendable reforms that will ensure efficiency in the procurement process and reduce resource leakages from the public purse, saving the country funds to inject into other programmes aimed at the economic development of the country. Let me advocate for infusing an affirmative action package aimed at integrating youth businesses into the mainstream and giving them the much required boost to create meaningful employment opportunities.

Can government take us in confidence that the youth will be direct beneficiaries of the E6 billion injected into capital projects, also can our youth benefit from the government expenditure on common use items. There is a glaring need to ensure that our government reserves a quota for youth-led enterprises to benefit from the increased government expenditures. Also, may we introduce a youth audit into all those who are receiving orders to supply government tenders; companies receiving the tender should show how the youth is integrated into decision-making positions within their enterprises and how the youth is represented in business operations.

Caution

As I round up my thoughts, allow me to congratulate the minister and the whole of government for introducing revenue enhancement measures, resulting in record Southern African Custom Union (SACU) receipts for the past two years and an improvement in domestic resource mobilization through the Eswatini Revenue Service (ERS). Caution must be taken though to curtail recurring expenditures as the increased revenue mobilization is largely overshadowed by increasing SACU receipts. This is a very volatile source of income and overreliance on this source leaves the country vulnerable to external shocks. The country has been warned many times before to watch the increase of the wage bill once SACU receipts increase. In the current budget we note the same trend being sustained. It is imperative that we grow government expenditure on the backbone of an increasing domestic revenue collection envelop.

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