Constructing a Dynamic Swaziland

It is with utmost great pleasure to congratulate His Majesty, King Mswati III for a successful and much needed People’s Parliament. The People’s Parliament is a forum where all Swazis, regardless of their socio-economic status come together to advice iNgwenyama on various topics so that He is aware of what is happening on the ground. I don’t want to believe that Sive Sasiti Hhamula nje, as those views were Swazis experience around the Kingdom and also their intelligent views on how the country could move forward. For Swaziland to construct a better country; well governed and resources shared across all communities, we need to work together and decisions need to be driven by data. As a country we need to unite around a common vision, have a people-oriented government and develop effective ways to manage our limited resources. There is no straight forward solution to our challenges, but to me it is apparent that change is inevitable. Change is painful, change is continuous and it takes place when people change their behavior and adopt innovative ways to transform their environment. In order to realize development we need to bring together the public, private and community sectors together to work on a common vision. One of the areas we need to be able to work without fear is the private sector. In developed economies the revenues generated from the private sector contribute immensely to the funding of the public sector. To achieve a sustainable economy Swaziland needs to raise the level of fixed investment so that the economy, especially the private sector is labour absorbing. The following areas still need development: telecommunications, mineral resources, agriculture, agro-processing, tourism, health and the financial service industry. The challenges that we are currently facing as a country is due to too much interference and non-efficient management systems among government parastatals. The government parastatals and the private sector are not operating at an optimal level. For example there is a great need to open the telecommunication industry. Right now we have a situation whereby SPTC basically owns MTN therefore MTN having to abide by SPTC’s rule. MTN needs an International Gateway and SPTC and the powers that be are singing a different tune about security threat to the state. From my perspective that is effectively closing off the market than opening it so that all players can compete in the mobile telecommunication industry. Some of the suggestions I would like to make: • Realign the ministries to the current vision of the country. We do not need more than ten ministries. The key ministries needed are: the finance, foreign affairs, home affairs, education, health, works & mineral resources, tourism, labor, agriculture and PM’s office as head of government. All Principal Secretaries (PS) in the ministries be employed on a renewal five year performance based contract and their hiring approved by parliament. Even the ministers themselves should go through an approval process in both houses of parliament so that they occupy the ministerial positions on merit. • In case we adopt the strategy whereby the PSs run the ministries both houses of parliament would have to appoint an executive council made up of five members working as Head of Government. The executive council would work directly with His Majesty, The Ingwenyama as The Head of State. That means there would be no need for the Swazi National Council (SNC) as the Ingwenyama would be directly advised by the people during the People’s Parliament which would be important that it is convened every year or when deemed necessary. • Remove housing allowances from all executive teams and only be entitled to car allowances. All government structures should be in use and those who opt to stay home be allowed with no cost to government except those who live more than two hours away from their offices. • Minimize the number of commissioners and retract their housing allowances too. People should stay home and come to work from their homesteads that will strengthen families and keep those commissioners close to the ground instead of congregating around cities. • In order to face reality and make well informed decisions we need to stop associating Tinkhundla with deity. If the system came from God the country would not be suffering from poverty, political instability and lack of infrastructure. We need to develop the system so that it is responsive, accountable, effective and efficient. • As a country we need to grow the private sector and give lower tax rates as private enterprises is capable of developing a sustainable economy, unlike state owned enterprises or parastatals always looking for subventions from the government. • We need to develop policies that are investor friendly thus will improve on the World Forum competitive index as an investor friendly destination. • A detailed itemized budget should be approved by parliament after thoroughly debating it. The revenue generated from mineral resources should be used for development purposes. That revenue should be put in the public domain and then be allocated on need basis through data driven strategies so that it is used to directly benefit communities. There should be an officer within the Ministry of Finance in charge of this initiative. • Instead of buying more cars we need to add more tractors at the RDAs. Government need to invest on affordable cars like Toyotas for PM, DPM, Ministers and other Government Executives. If they feel those cars do not meet their status then they can kiss that office goodbye since to them is all about the status not making a difference. That is the only way, as a country we can demonstrate our seriousness in transforming the Kingdom of eSwatini and regulating our limited financial resources. All areas that are underperforming should be fixed and recruit able MDs for all our parastatals and let them work without any fear. If need be, privatize all the parastatals so that ministers do not have a hand in the appointment of board members which is currently not transparent resulting in most parastatals not operating at their optimal levels. If we continue to lose our young and talented citizens to our neighbours Swaziland will continue to stumble and be left behind. Those who are in power should carry out the King’s order and stop the tendency of interpreting His Majesty, the Ingwenyama as we all have ears functioning so we do not need interpreters. Also would like to command the SNC for putting the cabinet in their rightful place safa ngibo always putting our beautiful country in a state of confusion.