AN EXPENSIVE, UNNECESSARY FARCE

Sir,

One has to ask what the value of Parliament in Eswatini is; is it worth all the hype? Can we expect Members of Parliament to fix the social and economic problems that currently plague the kingdom? It has become quite obvious that securing a seat in Parliament is as good as a lotto win to a five-year guaranteed annual salary without having to lift a finger to do an honest day’s work. I mean, we vote for people just so they can walk on top of us with well above average salaries, guaranteed access to loans, and with the social clout to endeavour in five-year personal projects that will uplift their families and immediate networks of beneficiaries.

Pressure

What happens to the rest of us in the process? What we are guaranteed from our MPs in their tenure is a list of more pressure on the rest of us to shell out more money to keep the status quo intact. The masses share peanuts while our MPs perpetually lobby for more sitting allowances just so their annual pay cheques can hit the million Emalangeni mark. It’s an easy jackpot.

Sophisticated

For the money government spends on Parliament, we deserve much more sophisticated policy and law making in this country for the benefit of all emaSwati. Ask yourselves this: in the past five years what changes in economic or development policy has Parliament made to make our lives better in Eswatini? In those years, from time immemorial, we have witnessed an ever increasing cost of living in Eswatini, a cut on budgets for social services, and a loss of the few guarantees we used to enjoy as a nation (such as tertiary scholarships and a decent and affordable healthcare sector) while legislators and government administrators have maintained a very good standard of living compared to the rest of us.

Changes

When it comes to real issues and protecting emaSwati from the gluttony of our legislators and their economic system, our MPs simply have no say and no bite on effecting real changes in the poverty economics of the greater masses where you find the rest of us. They are just an expensive rubber stamp that taxpayers have to keep buying at an inflated cost every five years. It is all an expensive and unnecessary farce!

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