CONGRATULATIONS TO GOVT

Sir,

The Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini-led government must be applauded for drafting and launching the four-year roadmap blue-print on Monday May 13.

It is encouraging that government, six months into office, has not only come up with a plan but also went on to share this plan with the nation. The previous governments failed to come up with a plan despite the proclamation by the head of State of the national vision.

No matter how monumental the task appears to be, there has to be a plan, and that is all the nation was patiently waiting for in the previous government. The blue-print that his excellency has launched, will be a yardstick that we, the nation, will use to judge the performance of our government. It is encouraging that the blue-print ticks all the boxes in as far as being SMART is concerned.

implementation

My appeal to our government is that this blue-print should not just be a paper exercise, the acid test will be on the actual implementation and delivery, after all the taste of the pudding is in the eating. However, there are missing elements.
One of the things that I believe can encourage investment but is not highlighted in the strategic road-map, particularly on Swazi Nation Land (SNL), is revisiting the land tenure system.

This, in my view, is a major inhibiting factor, it forces all investments to be directed to urban areas because of security issues and causes migration from rural areas to urban areas, thus increasing slums, crime and all the ills that come with an unplanned influx into urban areas. We seriously have to relook the obtaining land tenure system and either set up a 99 year lease system on selected SNL or alternatively identify areas per selected rural communities where land can be sold and encourage investment in the rural areas, so that we can mitigate against the high levels of migration to our urban areas.

levelling

By nature, our society is unequal in the sense that some people through their birthright are of a higher status than the rest of the population. How does government plan to deal with this issue in as far as levelling the playing field when it comes to opportunities? It would be folly not to tackle these issues head-on because whether we like it or not, the rest of the world will interpret it the way they see and understand it, even if we are content with it.

The reduction of corporate tax is welcome but shouldn’t that go hand in hand with introducing non-taxation of terminal benefits whether through retirement or retrenchments? It defies logic that we should continue taxing people who are going to sit at home; this to me is a classic example of double jeopardy.
Non-compliance with the Constitution by the Executive is another issue that the strategic road-map does not address.

deliberately

The world out there will judge us by our adherence to our Constitution, after all, we made it and told the world that we will live up to it. It therefore boggles the mind why we sometimes deliberately defy our very own supreme law.

The principle of ‘say what you do and do what you say’ will catch us and may be a serious damper to our efforts to woo FDIs. Population policy, with the introduction of FPE several years ago, wouldn’t it be a wise thing to introduce capping on the number of children per individual?

The currently uncapped dependents per individual on FPE will not be sustainable going forward and government has to take bold decisions no matter how unpopular, and put some form of capping on the number of children who are allowed to benefit from this system.

Hanger
MHLUME

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