UNEMPLOYMENT CONTRIBUTES - ECONOMIST

MBABANE -  Economist Thembinkosi Dube says unemployment contributes to low life expectancy.

Dube was responding to questions on how economic instability contributes to people dying before at least reaching their retirement age. He said if a person failed to get a job or not succeed in life, stress developed and later led to hypertension or diabetes, which caused death. Dube also stated that unemployment also increased crimes such as housebreaking and theft, among others, which might expose the thieves to danger of being killed. “When these people unlawfully break-into people’s houses, they expose themselves to the dangers of being shot and killed by the house owners. These thieves also expose themselves to mob attacks,” said Dube.  

The economist further highlighted that some women had become sex workers or started engaging in illicit practices with the intention of making money, despite the fact that they were exposing themselves to infectious diseases such HIV/AIDS and sexual transmitted infections (STIs), which lead to death at some point in time. According to Dube, people living in countries such as Britain and Japan, among others had a majority of an old age population as compared to African countries. He said the high number of old people in developed countries was as a result of a conducive political climate.

Developed

“Government in developed countries is taking care of them (old people) and has old age homes where they are looked after,” said Dube. Meanwhile, Dube said a lot was supposed to be done by government in as far as corruption was concerned. He, however, lamented on the current reports of corruption allegations leveled against some Members of Parliament (MPs), which he said it was, therefore, questionable on how they would enact laws in Parliament that would take the country forward. He said due to such allegations, it would be difficult for them to reprimand each other when something went wrong. He was responding to questions on what government needed to do to help assist in dealing with such a low life expectancy prediction expected to be below the retirement age, being 60 years. He said the nation had a long way ahead in dealing with corruption, which he said it had immensely affected the country. “A high unemployment rate also results in corruption because some people are not hired based on qualifications but through nepotism. There is a need to sort out this issue,” he explained.

Reasonable

The economist further pleaded with government to start paying civil servants reasonable salaries and its suppliers faithfully. He said once that started happening, it could lubricate the economy. “Three months would be enough for the country’s economy to change for the better if government starts paying its suppliers on time. If government can be faithful for a year on this, then the country’s economy can be completely different,” he said. Furthermore, the economist said once the unemployment rate was minimised, it would result to emaSwati starting to expand their businesses as a result of economic confidence. According to the economist, once the business people begin to expand, they would start to recruit more people to help in producing more and later exporting their products to other countries. He said such exportation would result to the growth in gross domestic products (GDP) of the country. He further said if government and parastatals would be committed to dealing with the aforementioned issues, then the economy of the country would change for the better.

Action

“Government’s rise to action can lubricate all the stresses faced by restaurants and others from shutting down their businesses. I have also noted that it is no longer busy on weekends in towns due to the fact that people don’t have money,” he said. Also, Dube noted with concern that the ease of doing business they had been advocating for would not be effective if emaSwati did not have money in their possession. He then lamented by stating that  some businesspeople, soon after doing businesses with government and some parastatals, ended up not getting paid,  leading to them closing down their businesses. “It is so unfortunate that some small businesses are still being owed by government a sum of E800 000 for three years. This then frustrates the businesspeople because they fail to run their businesses properly,” he said. Also, Dube said if Eswatini would start losing certain skills as result of deaths before the age of 57 years, government would be greatly affected in terms of getting relevant skills. “If employees die as result of long illnesses, then government is expected to pay more. Government has to pay its staff while being admitted in various hospitals which increases the financial load,” said Dube.

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