Times Of Swaziland: PM: DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY, FIND STIMULATING SOLUTIONS

PM: DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY, FIND STIMULATING SOLUTIONS
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Siboniso Nkambule on 15/01/2024 18:28:00


MBABANE - Prime Minister (PM) Russell Dlamini has urged Cabinet, principal
secretaries (PS’s) and senior government officials to do things differently,
to tackle the challenges faced by the country.
Dlamini was speaking during the opening of the Cabinet Work Retreat yesterday.
The Cabinet retreat, which started yesterday, is expected to end on Wednesday.
This is the first retreat for Cabinet since its appointment. The retreat will
give Cabinet an opportunity to share ideas that will contribute to the
development of a programme of action for the next five years as well as a
long-term plan for the country.
Dlamini, in his opening remarks, challenged government to do things differently
because they could not expect different results if they did things the same way.
He said they must attack the challenges facing the country from the root cause
and not just address the symptoms. “I acknowledge that this may be ambitious,
but we must come up with intellectually stimulating solutions, which will also
help us to attract the right partners, that will help us resolve these
challenges,” Dlamini said.
Dlamini went on to urge ministers and senior government officials to come up
with an effective economic growth strategy.  In his speech, the PM quoted a
scripture from the book of Ecclesiastes 9:11, which says: “I have seen
something else under the sun.
Race
“The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come
to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favour to the learned; but time and
chance happen to them all.” He mentioned that he was confident that by the end
of the retreat they would have come up with solutions that would benefit
emaSwati in the short to longterm. In a statement shared by Government
Spokesperson, Alpheous Nxumalo, he said topics that would be discussed in the
retreat include the decentralisation policy and programme, the economic growth
strategy, Eswatini digital strategy, the 2024/2025 budget and the Eswatini
Investment Promotion Authority (EIPA) investment strategy.
Nxumalo said Cabinet would also receive an update on key capital projects, key
health issues, the performance management system (PMS), Central Medical Stores
(CMS) transformation and the national trade facilitation. “Other topics
include the contribution of State-owned enterprises to the economy, the proposed
social security system, conversion of teachers’ posts to permanent status,
roads infrastructure development and government fleet management.
Cabinet will also get to discuss initiatives to access the green climate fund
(GCF), measures to improve the efficiency of the Anti-Corruption Commission
(ACC), patriotism, protocol and etiquette as well as government communication,
among others,” Nxumalo said.