ARMY DEPLOYMENT: THEM AND US ATTITUDE

Sir,

Each passing week continues to present us with deteriorating levels of public service delivery which undermine nation building efforts which are necessary to provide the much desired peace and prosperity. We have seen incidents that have widened the gap between the people and those appointed to serve given the decisions that have ‘them and us’ inscribed in very unsympathetic statements. It should be known that such statements fuel all the social ills of this country.

Deployed

Just recently we have seen army personnel being deployed to a private farm and the reason for this is not clear at all. But as a politician, the relevant minister argued his case and defended the cause for this to the public. This act only confirms just exactly where the ordinary people of this country rank among the elite. Seemingly the country is now all about benefitting a few individuals and not all who live in it. We keep seeing how our hard-earned money is being used to suppress us so that we do not prosper. These are not ordinary individuals but they are individuals who can use the government machinery to get what they want.

Justify

In fact, in trying to justify the deployment of the army to a private farm, the ministry came short of telling us to shut up because we don’t deserve to be told the truth about what is really going on. This deserves condemnation of the highest degree. As it stands, the people who were endorsed to explain this sounded like they had been schooled on what to say. This once again reinforces the ‘them and us’ attitude that continues to be displayed by government where service seems to be provided based on how fat a cat you are in this country. The owner of the farm was operating a business that employed emaSwati and was also paying taxes as per the laws of the country. If he had flouted his operating licence provisions, there are processes for dealing with such, and if need be, a court of law should have been approached. With our country trying to attract the much needed foreign direct investment, this has the potential of sending a negative message to would-be investors.

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