Times of Eswatini

King’s directives: How budget fared

- BY SIBONISO NKAMBULE

MBABANE - Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg’s budget speech aligns to His Majesty King Mswati III’s directives.

The minister tabled the 2024/2025 Appropriat­ion Bill yesterday in the House of Assembly, which was in sync with the King’s 12 directives given to Parliament. His Majesty presented the Speech from the Throne when officially opening the 12th Parliament two weeks ago.

The budget outlined measures to address key priorities such as health, education, youth developmen­t, agricultur­e and infrastruc­ture, among others.

His Majesty gave Parliament directives that must be implemente­d within specific timelines to address developmen­t in the country.

Some of the issues the King touched on in his address were informed by the submission­s made by emaSwati during Sibaya People’s Parliament last year. One particular issue raised was service delivery, whereby His Majesty urged parliament­arians to establish collaborat­ive partnershi­ps with other branches of government and enhance service delivery to the nation with the highest level of efficiency and speed.

When presenting the budget, Rijkenberg said they themed this year’s budget as ‘Nkwe’ for growth. He said the budget would enable and equip Eswatini to hit the ground running for economic growth and service delivery. He stated that there were two most pressing challenges, which was poverty and unemployme­nt and the only real way of sustainabl­y addressing these, was by growing the economy, which not only gets more people employed but also creates more opportunit­ies for emaSwati to get better employment. “This in turn, will lift our people out of poverty.” he said.

HIS MAJESTY’S 12 DIRECTIVES DIRECTIVE ONE – TACKLING UNEMPLOYME­NT: MET

The King said it was vital for MPs to address (unemployme­nt) and come up with well-establishe­d strategies to achieve good economic growth for the country. MINISTER’S BUDGET: He said government remained committed to building factory shells to stimulate the entry of new investors into the local market and to create jobs. He said the constructi­on of the Gamula and Hlathikhul­u factory shells have been completed and they were expected to employ 1 000 and 450 people respective­ly. “Moreover, the factory shell that was purchased at Ngwenya currently employs over 900 people. The Ndzevane and Johnson Work wear factory shells are under constructi­on and are anticipate­d to be completed this year,” he said. Also, he stated that the SEDCO – Youth Enterprise Revolving Fund business training, coaching and mentorship project which was targeting 250 youth – owned enterprise­s to create 500 jobs. “Government will continue to work on the constructi­on and developmen­t of the Big Five National Park. This project will also bring about numerous jobs both directly and indirectly and should increase tourism numbers, and for the first time, the country will have free roaming predators in a conservati­on park,” Rijkenberg said.

DIRECTIVE TWO – COMPLETION OF THE ICC AND FISH: MET

His Majesty said the completion of the ICC and FISH hotel must be prioritise­d in the next financial year. Indeed. MINISTER’S BUDGET: Rijkenberg said in the 2024/25 financial year, government would be working towards operationa­lising the ICC. He said the ICC carried huge prospects of significan­tly boosting the tourism sector. “In this year’s budget, we will be allocating E1.11 billion for the final completion of the ICC,” he said.

DIRECTIVE THREE – CONSTRUCTI­ON OF OIL RESERVE AT PHUZUMOYA IN THE NEXT 6 MONTHS: MET

The King assured the nation that the strategic oil reserve constructi­on would commence in the next six months and this will fulfil the country’s fuel sufficienc­y objectives MINISTER’S BUDGET: While the minister did not allude to any allocation for this project, every 35 cents of a litre of fuel goes towards the Eswatini National Petroleum Company.

DIRECTIVE FOUR – INVESTING IN LOCAL ENERGY TO ENSURE SELF-DEPENDENCY: MET

The King said this required that the country must invest heavily in local energy generation to ensure self dependence which would be affordable and sustainabl­e in light of the country’s 2025 electricit­y contract with Eskom in South Africa. MINISTER’S BUDGET: The minister said government remained committed to driving renewable energy sources in the country in line with the pledge made at the 28 Conference of the Parties (COP28). “These projects include the expansion of the Maguga Hydro Plant by 10MW, developmen­t of a 13.5MW lower Maguduza Hydro Plant, the procuremen­t of 75MW solar power and 40MW biomass power plant. A total capacity of 12.91 MW was authorised in 2023/24, through licence exemptions awarded to solar PV-based generators focused on self-consumptio­n, aligning with ongoing initiative­s to boost local generation capacity,” Rijkenberg said. Adding, he mentioned that government was also undertakin­g projects to strengthen the electricit­y network infrastruc­ture, to ensure network resilience and reliabilit­y. These include constructi­ng a new 55KM 132KVA transmissi­on line from Edwaleni via Siphocosin­i to Mbabane, to strengthen the backbone of electricit­y supply in the entire Hhohho Region.

DIRECTIVE FIVE – CONSTRUCTI­ON OF THE REFERRAL HOSPITAL IN THE NEXT FINANCIAL YEAR: NOT MET

The King urged government to expedite the commenceme­nt of the process of mobilising resources for the constructi­on of the referral hospital as promised by the friends of the kingdom. He said this should be done in the next financial year and no liSwati should die from lack of proper health services. MINISTER’S BUDGET: Rijkenberg’s speech did not touch on the constructi­on of the referral hospital, but the Minister of Economic Planning and Developmen­t Dr Tambo Gina had assured the nation that constructi­on would begin in the next eight months, as it was also part of the projects that were in the pipeline.

DIRECTIVE SIX – END GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE (GBV)-NOT MET

His Majesty called upon all emaSwati to join hands in putting an end to gender-based violence (GBV). “I repeat this call today and emphasise that we must remove this dark shadow of violence that is hovering over our society,” he said. MINISTER’S SPEECH: The budget speech did not touch on this directive despite organisati­ons calling for a budget allocation to tackle this phenomenon.

DIRECTIVE SEVEN – UPGRADING OF ROADS - MET

The King said government should also implement a comprehens­ive national infrastruc­ture programme to upgrade roads, among other things. MINISTER’S BUDGET: The minister said government had made a provision of E390 million for roads maintenanc­e and major rehabilita­tion. Rijkenberg said government would focus on upgrading a number of roads from gravel to tar standard so as to enhance all weather accessibil­ity of the targeted areas. “Roads spanning about 500km have been targeted for upgrading and these are spread throughout the four regions. With such initiative­s, it is envisaged that economic activity will be stimulated and poverty reduced,” he stated.

DIRECTIVE EIGHT – TACKLING CORRUPTION AND PROSECUTIN­G INDIVIDUAL­S- MET

On this directive, His Majesty said corruption stood in the way of progress in the country’s nation’s plans, programmes and projects for developmen­t. He said emaSwati had made their voices heard at Sibaya, expressing frustratio­n with the lack of tangible progress in addressing this issue. MINISTER’S BUDGET: In reaction to the King’s directive, the minister stated that they were committed to dealing with corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing within the country and from both the public and private sector spheres. He said this would involve the active pursuit of effective prevention and investigat­ive strategies, social re-engineerin­g of attitudes to awaken everyone’s consciousn­ess to the necessity of getting involved and invoke a stance for zero tolerance against corruption. “This will be done through the implementa­tion of a cross-sectoral National Anti-Corruption Policy. The public sector will also be targeted in terms of the developmen­t of a National Corruption Risk Assessment framework wherein every Ministry or Department will be required to map out their corruption risks and then design a framework that they will be implementi­ng to close the corruption loopholes,” he said.

DIRECTIVE NINE – ATTAINING FIVE PER CENT ECONOMIC GROWTH - NOT MET

The King had pointed out that there was a need to spring to action and target at attaining above five per cent economic growth, while tackling the pressing issues of poverty, unemployme­nt and service delivery. MINISTER’S BUDGET: According to the minister, the goal of this budget was to keep the country on a path of sustainabl­e economic growth. He explained that domestic economic growth averaged 3.1 per cent for the years 2020, 2021 and 2022, strengthen­ing from a previous 20-year average of around 2.5 per cent. He said the estimated growth for the year 2023 was 4.8 per cent and the projected growth for 2024 was 4.9 per cent. Rijkenberg stated that this anticipate­d recovery would be underpinne­d by the country’s fiscal policy, wherein higher revenue mobilisati­on was expected in the period, and would result in improved fiscal space, promoting public spending and investment as well as spurring demand in some sectors.

DIRECTIVE 10 – ACCESS TO QUALITY HEALTHCARE: MET

His Majesty had said the kingdom’s national goal was for every liSwati to have access to quality healthcare as and when they need it without financial or service difficulty. MINISTER’S BUDGET: He explained that the problem of drug shortages could be managed by streamlini­ng the supply chain and introducti­on of new rules and regulation­s. “Largely, strengthen­ing the health system through investment­s in skills, technology, equipment and applying evidence-based policy decisions are key to achieving better quality healthcare. Through the transforma­tion of the Central Medical Stores (CMS), government will improve procuremen­t and supply chain management systems for drugs,” he said. He went on to state that currently, they were preparing the legislatio­n for CMS to be a stand-alone entity, eventually becoming an State-owned enterprise (SOE), meaning that government would only pay for medication once it is proven to have been supplied to the relevant patients. He also announced the establishm­ent of five new clinics.

DIRECTIVE 11 – MAKING ESWATINI A GLOBAL COMMERCE HUB - MET

The head of State said the private sector was expected to intensify its efforts of exploiting opportunit­ies presented by regional and internatio­nal markets. MINISTER’S BUDGET: Rijkenberg said in partnershi­p with the European Union (EU), the Internatio­nal Trade Center and Business Eswatini, the prime minister (PM) they had officially launched the State Business Relations initiative, with the primary objective of establishi­ng a competitiv­eness council in Eswatini. He said this was a forum held in partnershi­p with the private sector, to drive investment, remove obstacles that frustrate and prevent foreign direct investment, and to drive legislativ­e change to make Eswatini more private sector focused and business friendly.

DIRECTIVE 12 - SIMPLIFYIN­G PROCESS OF REGISTRATI­ON FOR SMES: MET

Simplifyin­g the process of registrati­on for SMEs should be considered by implementi­ng digital solutions as well as reducing the tax compliance burden for small, emerging businesses as stated by the King. MINISTER’S BUDGET: In the same vein, the minister said there were programmes which provide support that helps entreprene­urs to develop and grow their businesses. He made an example of the business incubation programme, which offers working and office space, business coaching, mentorship, networking opportunit­ies, market linkages and access to finance linkages. “A total of 155 businesses have been part of the programme in the Financial Year 2023/24, providing employment to 994 emaSwati and averaging about E5 million in sales revenue per month. Capacity developmen­t initiative­s under this programme were focused on issues like tax, ENPF and labour compliance. In the financial year 2024/25, the MSMEs which are incubated within SEDCO will continue to be capacitate­d to upskill and expand their businesses,” he said.

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His Majesty King Mswati III delivers the Speech from the Throne durInG tHE OFficial Opening pf Parliament recenltly.
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