STARVING TO DEATH IN ESWATINI

Sir,

The condition of Eswatini for the internally displaced elderly is a grave concern. They are dying unnecessarily because their government refuses to take care of them. They are dying in the uncaring bosom of Eswatini. The suffering of emaSwati is inexcusable for a country that boasts of a functional government, a country that is yet to devolve into a failed State. Their ribs show under their thin see - through skins, and yet we have a government that says it cares. Their stomachs are bloated, pregnant with void and the muted mutiny of empty intestines. Their hair is grey, sparse and brittle, and we say we are governed by men of God. Why is this happening then?

Neglect

One does not need to be a soothsayer to realise that by virtue of the sordid neglect to which senior citizens, who diligently served this country, are subjected like the proverbial sword of Damocles and huge moral incubus will continue to hang over the country until justice is done. All over the country retirees gush their teeth as they wait endlessly for either their gratuity or pensions. Paradoxically, while they wait, they die, while the clever ones mindlessly plunder the collective patrimony. This reminds me of my own predicament in 1994, when I was one of those who were retrenched by the Central Bank of Eswatini. It was painful, the depth of betrayal, the death of conscience, the compelling of hope and the murder of the future for us was imminent.

Betrayals

In spite of our trauma and endless betrayals we still continue to live on hope, that a new dawn would live up to its campaign promises of breaking the jinx of non-payment of pensions and gratuities. Each time we are disappointed. The pattern of our humiliation cries to heaven for restitution, perennial verification exercises, dubious biometrics that produce questionable data, debilitating and agonising. We the living are still waiting. The death rate of elderly citizens has risen in Eswatini. The death of these citizens by starvation is an outrage. You are not a country when you comfortably watch starvation waste your most vulnerable and innocent citizens. You are not a country when you allow people who served this nation die of hunger. You are not a country when you see the weak and poor starving to death.

The poor in this country need real impact in their lives, not stillborn ideas from the unproductive imaginations of bandits and their accomplices in government who terrorise emaSwati with senseless excuses for doing wrong. They are not telling us about development for the poor but rather opportunities for themselves. You are not a country when you deny the elderly good living.

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