NO ‘NKWE’ IN PRIME MINISTER’S ACTION PLAN

MBABANE – Despite that the policy statement presented by Prime Minister (PM) Russell Mmiso Dlamini has been themed ‘nkwe’, the pace has been slow in terms of making public government’s action plan. This is because while the PM promised Parliament that the action plan was available and even apologised for not having circulated it among the Members of Parliament (MPs), it is yet to be publicly seen.

The action plan, as shared by the PM himself, is the one that will provide insight into the initiatives that government will embark on to achieve the goals set out in the policy statement, including timelines. By definition, an action plan is a document that lists the action steps needed to achieve project goals and objectives. It shares insight on the resources that will be needed to reach those goals, makes a timeline for the action items and determines which team members are required. Experts explain that an action plan is similar to a project implementation plan, is very helpful during planning and project execution as it details the list of activities to be undertaken to complete the project goals, from the start of the project to the finish.

Action plan

The PM revealed that there is an action plan to accompany the Policy Statement on Thursday October 17, 2024, during a sitting at the House of Assembly. This was when the MPs got an opportunity to debate the Policy Statement, which they eventually passed. Before responding to the submissions the MPs had made, the PM said, “Mr Speaker, I must apologise that the statement did not come with a plan of action that supports it. There is a plan of action that details the initiatives that we will embark on and I am sure that members will, once they see it, be convinced that this policy is possible. I do hope that before the end of the day, the plan of action will be available”. After the commitment made by the PM, this publication has been making follow-ups on when it will be made public.

At first, the response received was that it was still being fine-tuned and will be made available soon. In the last attempt, this publication sent a questionnaire to Government Spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo on Friday morning. Nxumalo was asked when exactly the action plan will be made available and he responded by saying that the PM was currently out of the country and that he (Nxumalo) will make a follow-up as soon as the premier returns home. Worth noting is that during the debate of the policy statement, MPs posed a variety of questions to the PM, including where government is going to secure the funding of the many projects it has detailed.

In response, the PM said the Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg was going to shed more light. He also said: “What I can say is that it is not expected that the funding of the plan will all come from government. For example, we can choose to build a referral hospital, but it can also be built completely and run by the private sector to a level where we will not need to go to South Africa through the Phalala Fund. Instead of going outside the country, we will have a state-of-the-art hospital in the country. That is the innovation and change of mindset that is needed.”

The MPs decried that the policy statement did not provide timelines or share much in terms of the initiatives that government will explore in order to achieve the goals it has set out.
Also worth noting is that the PM has presented the Policy Statement after almost a year in office. Despite the current PM not having availed the action plan to the public, government has now and again been unpacking the policy statement on its Facebook page. PM Russell presented the policy statement on September 13, 2024 and said it is inspired by Sibaya submissions.
He said His Majesty King Mswati III, during the opening of the 12th Parliament, gave a clear policy direction necessary for Eswatini to attain a developed country status by 2030.
Dlamini said he knew that the statement was long anticipated, and that it is an outcome of a clearly thought out agenda. The PM said while pursuing a broad-based sustainable development agenda, government will focus on a few priorities through a sustainable and integrated approach.

Economic growth

He said government is committed to pursuing an economic transformation strategy focused on fostering sustainable economic growth, eradicating poverty, strengthening the health systems and ensuring transparency and accountability in governance. He said the new administration will rigorously pursue the vision for Eswatini to move from a lower middle-income country to attaining high income country classification.  “We have charted a policy framework to create and support an environment that will attract mega investment, promote innovation and foster exponential economic growth with the intention to transform our nation into a thriving, prosperous, and equitable society where every citizen has access to economic opportunities and quality healthcare.”

He said the country faces surmounted challenges, most of which were clearly elaborated during Sibaya, including, but not limited to, unemployment, poverty, domestic violence and a poor performing health sector. He said there are severe headwinds and major downsides facing the beautiful and peaceful country and that they have emerged in recent times and can only be addressed through a new way of thinking and approach. The PM said the policy statement proposed an ambitious pathway and disruptive modus operandi for the transformation of the entire economy of the Kingdom of Eswatini.

He said the agile (nkwe!) execution of the economic transformation strategy is paramount in attracting investment, ensuring progression enabled by a business-ready environment in Eswatini. Also, he said it is a growth-oriented strategy anchored on investment in infrastructure development to stimulate exponential growth, improvement in morality and integrity to root out corruption, and advancement in traditional and family values for nation building.

Transformational agenda
The PM also said progressive funding models will be formulated to enable government’s transformational agenda and highlighted that Eswatini is confronted with surmountable multiple crises on the backdrop of poor service delivery at 0.35 on the public service delivery index and low economic growth, namely high rates of poverty at 58.9 per cent in 2017, unemployment at approximately 35.4 per cent as of 2023 and deteriorating health service. He said the policy statement will not yield the intended outcomes without the support of the civil service, Members of Parliament, the private sector and all emaswati. Among other things, the PM said government will prioritise the construction of a national referral hospital for highly specialised cases, so as to reduce the cost of Phalala Fund, while increasing access to quality and advanced health services.

Also contained in the policy statement is that government has set a 12 per cent economic growth in the next five years and the PM said a progressive investment and industrialisation policy framework targeting an average economic growth rate of 12 per cent within the next five years will be developed and implemented. In previous terms, PMs have come up with their own plans on how to turn the country’s economic fortunes around. PM Russell’s predecessor, Cleopas Dlamini, in his two and half years in office, used Mandvulo’s Post COVID-19 Kingdom of Eswatini Economic Recovery Plan – carving the path to a private sector-led economy. On the other hand, Barnabas Dlamini had ESRA I and ESRA II.
ESRA means Economic and Social Review Agenda.

Absalom Themba (AT) Dlamini unveiled a programme styled ‘SPEED’ (Smart Programme on Economic Empowerment Development). Through the SPEED, AT’s administration intended to achieve the mission of government within ‘the next three to five years’ by implementing components that would facilitate such achievement and create opportunities for the fulfilment of the State’s vision. The programme detailed clearly the challenge areas and suggested policies and programmes to mitigate them and further spearhead a sustainable economy, expand the private sector, improve global partnerships for national and regional development.

These policies and programmes were put in place to address issues such as HIV/AIDS, poverty, unemployment and job creation, small and medium enterprise growth, good governance and corruption, as well as fiscal discipline and accountability. Meanwhile, when responding to questions in Parliament, PM Russell shared that a Grand Plan expected to spearhead the transformation agenda of the country’s economic growth will only be known next year. The PM said government has formulated a short to medium-term plan anchored on the submissions made during the Sibaya and Speech from the Throne.

He said the plan precedes the development of the country’s long-term plan, that being the Grand Plan. The PM said the Grand Plan is coming and that government has achieved a 40 to 50 per cent progress of completing it. He said the plan is to have it by the end of February and acknowledged that it is easy for people to say that it has taken took long, but that emaSwati need to be realistic and learn to do things differently. He made an example of how animals breed and said it takes a chicken 21 days to incubate, while a dog takes about three months to give birth to a puppy.

For a female elephant, he said the process takes about 24 months. “A dog gives birth when the elephant has not. But when the elephant is born, it is bigger than the dog that was born earlier. So we are preparing a Grand Plan, one that is long-term and of a minimum of 30 years to transform the economy of the country,” he said.

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