Times Of Swaziland: C’WEALTH A DISAPPOINTMENT

C’WEALTH A DISAPPOINTMENT
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BY VUSI SIBISI on 11/10/2021 08:18:00


The slave trade was unique!
And so was apartheid in neighbouring South Africa. And you may also add Nazism
in Germany to the list of things unique. But is unique necessarily good? The
common denominator to the above list is that they variously wrought untold
oppression, misery, deprivation, wholesale suffering, etc to sections of
humanity. Now, says Dr Roger Koranteng, Head of Public Sector Governance at the
London, England based Commonwealth Secretariat, tinkhundla political system
belongs to this list of things unique.
Only for its unique credentials, notwithstanding its attendant contradictions
and excesses that has led to the systemic dismantling of moral and ethical
leadership with the people on the receiving end that has taken this beautiful
country on a slippery road to nowhere, Koranteng is of the mind that the system
should not be discarded.
Position
I am not certain to what degree Dr Koranteng keeps himself abreast of what is
happening around him, especially in relation to former British colonies given
the critical and strategic position he is occupying that surely must require him
to be at the cutting edge of contemporary issues in these lands. In the event he
would have been appraised of the monster that this unique system he is evidently
fond of has done to undermine the progress of this country and, by progression,
that of emaSwati.
Dr Koranteng would have been appraised of the tinkhundla system’s brutality on
emaSwati for standing up and calling for political reforms to secure their total
liberation. One could go on and on about how the ruling elites have, instead of
unifying the nation, used the system to divide and alienate the people’s human
rights and freedoms and appropriated to themselves national resources that has
enabled their trajectory to a First World lifestyle while the majority of the
people have been left to wallow in abject poverty. For all these abuses and
excesses that have undermined the quality of life of the people this man
believes emaSwati should remain grateful and retain institutions that have
occasioned their oppression and suffering.
Informed
Koranteng parachutes into this country and prescribes what to do and what not to
do – do not throw the baby out with the bathwater – without interrogating
why this country is in the mess it finds itself in. For had he done that he
would have informed himself that all the things and institutions – including
the obtaining polity – have occasioned bad governance, abuse of power, moral
decay as well as birthed a class-structured society manifested by the
christening of sections of society with demeaning names and titles to make them
feel inferior and at the mercy of the upper class.
He condemns strikes and protests, the only weapons at the disposal of ordinary
people against the military might of the State. Not once has he at least
acknowledged the brutal acts committed by the security forces that continue to
this day let alone condemned same. He does not condemn the abuse of the
Judiciary to persecute critics of the political status quo and proponents of
multiparty democracy, including sitting lawmakers.
Patronising
As I see it, Dr Koranteng’s patronising demeanour is perhaps instructive of
where the Commonwealth Secretariat’s loyalties lie. Obviously with the leaders
of the various former colonies and not with their peoples. Hence the
Commonwealth was complicit in the drafting of a national constitution that,
while embracing a full Bill of Rights with its built-in concomitant fundamental
human rights and freedoms, but it also entrenched the political hegemony of the
infamous 1973 Decree that occasioned the usurpation of political power and
control of the nation.
The organisation also reneged on the (former president of Malawi) Bakili Muluzi
initiative for an all-inclusive dialogue to resolve the country’s
long-standing political imbroglio started by the predecessor to the current
Secretary General Baroness Patricia Scotland QC. Baroness Scotland was only
content to be wined and dined by the Eswatini leadership whose motive may
perhaps have been to help her forget about the Muluzi initiative and probably
won the day because she never followed it up. It is possible that that
initiative could have helped the country avoid the current political uprising
that culminated with the brutal assault of emaSwati youth by the security
forces. All the people ever wanted was an all-inclusive dialogue on the
political future of the nation in the face of the cataclysmic failures of the
Tinkhundla political system.
Invitation
That Koranteng finds himself in these shores at the invitation of the
legislative arm of government in the midst of a never before witnessed political
and social crisis should be instructive of the capacity and mentality of the
leadership of this nation. We would have expected all hands on deck to deal with
the crisis more especially since many lives have been allegedly lost
unnecessarily because of the greed of a minority.
Yet Parliament found time and the resources to organise a retreat for lawmakers
to be lectured on what they were elected to do all courtesy of the beloved but
dysfunctional tinkhundla political system. This retreat and accompanying wastage
of resources was evidently an excuse authored by the political handlers of the
Speaker and Senate president to avoid dealing with the current socio-political
upheavals convulsing the country as if these issues can easily be wished away.
As I see it, the kingdom is at a critical junction where public figures have to
be circumspect of their actions in the furtherance of the objectives of a
minority because the time is coming when they shall be required to answer for
their omissions and commissions. Only those who swear and stand for the truth
shall be absolved of culpability to the suffering being visited on emaSwati at
the behest of the leadership.