Few policy questions are more urgent or fraught with risk for Eswatini than how government compensates its civil servants.
In recent weeks, government has offered E1.29 billion for the salary review of more than 40 000 public employees. This gesture has not been gratefully received. Instead, leaders of the Public Sector Unions (PSUs) have rejected it outright, demanding more. Their discontent reverberates through the very fabric of national stability, a spectre that must concern every citizen.
It is tempting in moments of salary negotiation to pursue immediate gain and louder demands, but the truth is that such temptations must be viewed in the broader context of national sustainability. We, as emaSwati, share collective ownership of our State. Government is not some distant entity, but an embodiment of our daily hopes, sacrifices and aspirations. As Abraham Lincoln so memorably phrased it, government is ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’. In that light, mismanagement and over-expenditure within government is ultimately self-harm, wounding the very community it is meant to serve.
Lessons from other nations:
The fruits of unchecked government wage bills are sour, as history has demonstrated in country after country. Let us briefly examine six instructive examples:
Greece: For decades, Greece’s public sector wage bill ballooned, funded by unsustainable borrowing. By 2009, government salaries and pensions accounted for over 70 per cent of primary spending. The country was forced into brutal austerity and a sovereign debt crisis, culminating in IMF and European Union bailouts. Civil servants saw their incomes sharply reduced and unemployment soared.
Zimbabwe: Here, government spending on wages has consistently exceeded recommendations. In 2016, civil service salaries absorbed more than 90 per cent of government revenue. Investment collapsed, inflation soared and public services failed. Despite heroic teachers and nurses, the State simply could not afford a living wage for all.
Lebanon: A similar tale unfolded in Lebanon, where a bloated civil service wage bill pushed the country into fiscal free fall. Salaries for public employees absorbed almost half of State revenues, leaving little for infrastructure, education or health. The national bankruptcy declared in 2020 had deep roots in wage and subsidy mismanagement.
Jamaica: Jamaica’s economic crises of recent decades were, in significant part, the result of public sector wage bills that exceeded the productivity of the government. At some point, civil service pay consumed more than 11 per cent of GDP, crowding out investment in growth and social programmes. Intervention from the IMF required harsh public wage freezes and layoffs.
Portugal: During the Eurozone crisis, Portugal was compelled to enact painful pay and hiring freezes in the public sector. These were necessary to restore solvency after years when wage bills grew far faster than national income, weakening competitiveness and risking bankruptcy.
Argentina: Public sector wage inflation contributed to fiscal deficits in Argentina, most visibly during the 2000s and 2010s. When salaries outstripped the government’s means, the country resorted to printing money, triggering cycles of hyperinflation and poverty.
In every one of these examples, I want to mention today that the pattern is the same. Brothers and sisters, wherever you are, when public wage bills are allowed to outpace government revenues, the result is ruinous for workers and society alike. God forbid! Eswatini, though unique in many respects, is certainly not immune.
Eswatini’s precarious foundation
It must be stated, with clarity and gratitude, that Eswatini’s government remains the nation’s largest employer. More than 40 000 households depend directly on the steady flow of government salaries. For those of us who move in private sector circles, it is clear how rare and privileged this security has become, especially in the present when uncertainty fills so many lives with anxiety.
The very scale of government employment carries heavy risk when placed against the unforgiving limits of national revenue. If Eswatini’s economy were larger or more diversified, the strain would perhaps be manageable. However, our State is a small one, its purse supported primarily by Southern African Customs Union (SACU) receipts and modest international grants. No productive fiscal system can indefinitely allocate vast sums to a wage bill without jeopardising its own survival.
The government wage bill must be viewed collectively. Where private companies might employ staff according to revenue, governments that overreach risk default and collapse. Were Eswatini a private company, it would have long since closed its doors as debts are mounting, assets ageing and wage demands forever growing.
That, so far, salaries are paid monthly is something to marvel at, not to deride. Some political elements, as witnessed recently, have made statements advocating for Eswatini to be rendered ‘ungovernable’, a dangerous, reckless notion, often voiced from within political parties whose leaders also sit atop the PSUs. Such rhetoric reveals a careless attitude towards national stability and the livelihoods of ordinary emaSwati. A State that spends more on salaries than it earns will inevitably become ungovernable, not by the hand of protestors, but through simple mathematical certainty.
It is right to demand better pay, conditions and workplace dignity for our civil servants. No one would seriously argue otherwise. The last formal salary review, conducted in 2016, is now many years old. While government has implemented annual ‘cost-of-living adjustments’ (CoLA) to offset inflation, it is fair to debate whether these are sufficient.
Moreover, what is often forgotten is that even so-called small or average salaries become financially crippling when paid out to such a large cohort. It is not the size of an individual’s salary that imperils the treasury, but rather the cumulative weight. The E1.29 billion government has earmarked is, in the context of our national income, an immense investment, one that private taxpayers, themselves struggling, find difficult to accept.
Let us remember that a solvent, functioning government is the lifeblood of society. If it collapses, pensions, grants, healthcare and education will vanish, with no private sector large enough to make up the shortfall. In this sense, the wage bill debate is neither private nor sectional. It is, in truth, a matter of national survival. There must be a measure of appreciation, even within the civil service that employment carries with it job security, regular income and social standing. For those in the private sector, or those enduring daily unemployment, these benefits are a distant dream.
For those who speak as if government is an enemy that is distant, manipulative and corrupt, some reflection is due. Our government is our collective project. Its health is our health. Its failure would leave not just civil servants but all of society adrift. The solution must not be forced solely onto government. If we continue to rely on government, as the primary and almost exclusive, source of formal employment, the pressure on the wage bill will forever be unbearable. There needs to be a deliberate, vigorous emphasis on cultivating a resilient private sector, one that can absorb job seekers, spawn entrepreneurship and generate new revenue streams.
Other successful nations have achieved prosperity not through the omnipotence of the public sector, but by empowering entrepreneurs, small and medium enterprises and foreign investors. Indeed, if our private sector were robust, it is conceivable that government would require far fewer employees, perhaps only 15 000, making the E1.29 billion allocation seem not only sensible but generous.
Calls for careful spending are not meant to deny civil servants fair pay or good working conditions. In fact, we value their work and want their jobs to be secure, something only possible if government avoids financial collapse. Many other countries have suffered when they ignored this warning.
The challenge now lies with all stakeholders, the union leaders, political actors, private citizens and the government itself. It is time to frame salary negotiations in the context of national solidarity, not sectional interest. Eswatini’s financial resilience is and always will be, a shared burden. We must all do our part.
I thank you.
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