Govt’s forked tongue fanning fear

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5<,1* to figure out government¶s - indeed the leadership¶s game plan towards resolving the political stand-off is like playing 5ussian 5oulette as the kingdom totters on the brink with prospects of resolution getting bleaker and bleaker with each passing day of what is increasingly unfolding to be an uncertainty future while the nation remains captive to fear. ,n-between government is projecting contradictory positions that resonate with the truism that the truth is relative in these shores ostensibly because it is not a forte upon which the obtaining polity was constructed.

International

7he international community is, by way of (swatini¶s foreign policy perspective, routinely lectured on the virtues of resolving differences through dialogue to ensure peaceful coexistence.

Penchant

%ut, as , see it, it could well be government¶s, indeed the leadership¶s, penchant to burn the veldt during windy days, possibly because of an apparently misplaced self-belief in its invincibility, that ultimately will bring it down as the unintended consequence of its denialism, omissions and commissions apropos the calls for political transformation. %ut while it is not every day that political leaders would willingly enable a dialogue that has the potential to dislodge them from power, conversely it is also unwise to resist change because it is a force of nature with the propensity to swallow everyone and everything standing in its path. *overnment, once more showing its unwillingness for dialogue in resolving the political impasse, has in the middle of a political storm connived a plan - typically fanning veldt fires in the middle of a windy day, that will see fewer emaSwati children getting scholarships for tertiary education. )orget the hogwash that this has anything to do with shortage of funds. 1ot when there are members of boards who are being paid huge salaries, albeit illegally, and consistent and sustained wasteful expenditure elsewhere. 7here is enough money in this country to go around but is only for the enjoyment of a minority if not directed towards multibillion (malangeni )irst :orld projects that have little or no prospects of ever becoming economically viable except benefitting a chosen construction companies downstream.

Polity

Perhaps the reasoning behind the drastic reduction of scholarships to emaSwati children is that this will neutralise the winds of change fiercely blowing across our land by limiting access to higher education to those loyal to the obtaining polity.

$s with recruitment to the security forces ± forget the charade that recruitments are done openly at tinkhundla centres as this is empty window dressing - those who are selected are from within the sanctum of families or relatives orbiting the political centre ± would be considered for scholarships. $nd government does not think this profiling of scholarship beneficiaries to exclude those with a potential for social and political activism could trigger another civil unrest, especially in a country that, if it were not run like a criminal enterprise, would be providing free education from cradle to the grave. 7he same would apply to health services and poverty would not be a weapon of choice to instill loyalty on the majority of the people forced to live off the crumbs from the high table of political elites.

-ust how desperate the tinkhundla political system has become in a bid to survive the political headwinds of change was displayed in no small measure in the aftermath of the Siphofaneni by-election where 1omalungelo /a=wide Simelane replaced her exiled husband, 0dudu]i µ*awu]ela¶ Simelane. 7here they were, from ministers to the (lections and %oundaries &ommission to government¶s spokesman to 0angololo, all singing the democratic credentials of a system responsible for the multitude of ills facing this nation when in fact they were smarting over an unequivocal vote of no confidence on this polity. $pparently tinkhundla¶s democratic credentials begin and end with elections as if one swallow makes a summer. $nd /a=wide¶s victory could be a precursor of things to come in next year¶s elections now that more political parties are warming up to the idea of participating in order to take charge of parliament to enable them usher in the constitutional and political changes that will install the people at the centre of political power and, by extension, champions of their collective destiny.

$ forked tongue as a scorched earth weapon coupled with toxic strategies and policies that seek to profile, malign and marginalise the vanguard of multiparty democracy in order to stop the movement towards an open and free society is unlikely to stem the tide of change that government is attempting to achieve simply because the time for change is now.