EmaSwati not hungry enough for change

IAFTER THOUGHTS GUESTWRITER

’VE tried to analyse the people called emaSwati, with a specific objective to understand what it is they desire and the extents they will go at achieving same, especially in the political realm. At the risk of being offensive and painting all of them with the same brush, I am at pains to say they have no backbone. Martin Luther King Jr once said; “If you do not stand for something, you will fall for anything.” I find that this defines emaSwati in so many ways.

Honestly, it’s very difficult to understand what it is we stand for as a nation. The decades of brainwashing and intimidation have paid serious dividends for the ruling elite. I am yet to come across a more docile lot like us. I hasten to say I am a bona fide liSwati myself and this diagnosis does not count me out. My father once told me a story of how history has it that from time immemorial, emaSwati were known to be cowards.

Narrated

During the era of the conquering of nations, he narrated how when neighbouring clans would come to steal cattle belonging to this nation, the men would take their women and children, flee to the mountains and watch as their kraals were ransacked while uttering expletives at the marauding armies. Apparently, they would shout as the armies took off with their herds and tell say; “Even if you can take those cattle, we know your ears are full of our insults.” I don’t know if there is any truth to that but those cowardly tendencies, often hidden behind the cloak of respect and love for peace, are a salient attribute of this nation.

The reader may be asking themselves at this point, what would inform these patently disparaging sentiments about this nation known for being peace-loving, hospitable and respectful. The answer is simple. How do we explain how a nation of a little over a million people would allow decades of ill-treatment, human rights violations and a sub-standard life in a country bursting at the seams with potential? We have allowed a system of governance and its attendant parasitic institutions to subsist without a decent challenge. The results are a country so mismanaged that virtually all areas of service delivery are in total disarray. Look at the state of our education for starters.

Managed

Our once celebrated national university is in total shambles and no one is taking the responsibility for it. It is managed like we do all our institutions; like an outpost of the regime where corruption, impunity and incompetence are the order of the day. The least said about the deplorable state of education in our public schools, the better.

The health sector, which finally caught the attention of the country’s authorities, is light years from being what emaSwati deserve, even if the drugs supply issue is addressed. The state of our roads, especially feeder roads, is another grave cause for concern. Almost 56 years after independence, we still import a huge chunk of the food we eat. We produce an exiguous amount of the electricity we need and have exposed ourselves to the South African inefficiencies.

What of the unemployment situation which has plunged many households into abject poverty. The list goes on. Virtually all these problems are man-made. The way we do things our politics has failed to address them. While it is true that these issues are not unique to this country, I argue that our comparative advantages over so many of our counterparts in the region and beyond should have set us apart and made us a rare success story.

Silence

We have, instead, chosen to let greed and self-serving tendencies have sway. To the extent that as ordinary citizens we have acquiesced to it by our silence, indifference and lack of commitment to usher in a dispensation that changes the material conditions of our people for the better; we have allowed this and have no one to blame. Our failure or fear to speak truth to power and engage in sustained actions to bring the change we want to see suggests that we are not hungry enough for something better than this. Even the outfits that are supposed to be at the forefront of rallying emaSwati to demand what rightfully belongs to them seem to be at sea.

The trade union movement is at its lowest ebb; no activism, no agenda-setting, just infighting. You see by the way government runs roughshod over them at the negotiations table that they have lost their sting.

The mass democratic movement is also struggling to present a united front and give a clear line of march. We are clearly not ready for what we say we want. There is no commitment to processes and it appears gluttonous elements have infiltrated the progressive camp. We have a long way ahead of us.