NEED TO REVIEW, ALIGN SOCIAL WELFARE POLICIES

Sir,

I have been touched by the news of desperate and poverty-stricken mothers killing their children. This is a clear message that our nation needs to do a thorough introspection on the role of government towards the needy who by far, outnumber those who can take care of themselves. I believe this should start with government reviewing and aligning its social welfare policies with the rest of the world.

Change

It must be clear that using tradition and religious quagmire cannot change the fact that we live in a monetary-based society that has drastically changed from the traditional structure as we know it. Yes, it would be perfect if we all adhered to our teachings through traditions and religious beliefs; alas, this is not possible as we clearly can see through our behaviour that we are a capitalist society that has adopted western norms in our lifestyles. This is seen in our leaders, ministers, advisors, chiefs and parliamentarians driving big cars and living in fancy houses. These are clear indicators of where we are as society, as we have left the traditional structures for modern ways.

Respect

So in this respect, are we together in this journey to become a First World country and is government playing the crucial role of assisting its citizens to also leave in tune with the current world drives for better living standards for all? This can only be achieved by a strong social welfare policy, which seeks to improve the poor’s living standard, with the proper sharing of tax revenue to assist the country’s citizens to not resort to killing or abandoning their children.

This is a clear indicator that our sexual education and health policy is failing too. As can be learned from Zambia, which had a huge problem of HIV and teen pregnancies, but through a strong education system and readily available sexual health services, it managed to turn the tide. I implore government to look at setting up orphanages and not punish parents who are poor and can’t afford to feed themselves, let alone their children, because of the societal ills caused by greedy and selfish individuals who only care about themselves, leaving the rest to unimaginable poverty.

Assisted

I do not have much, but I have assisted a number of my fellow emaSwati despite that government provides for OVCs, however, a lot needs to be done, as some are still not benefitting due to stringent and unrealistic policies. I implore government to learn from countries like the UK, Taiwan and other top performers when it comes to social welfare and economic success, which go hand in hand. Let’s stop the blame game and look at the root causes of poverty to devise effective strategies on how we can help the destitute with food aid and social grants.

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