Govt must introduce youth unemployment grants

ESWATINI is not a poor country. It has resources that can sustain the nation for many years to come. The problem we have as a country is that we have failed to set our priorities right. The affordability aspect is not an issue when we seriously engage on youth social grants to address unemployment and inequality.

While the Government of the Kingdom of Eswatini initiates or implements programmes on addressing the unemployment rate in the country, I humbly suggest to the State to create an Unemployment Benefit Scheme for our working-age youth.

I urge MPs to talk about such issues in the chambers, weighing probabilities of improving the welfare of our people.

A yearly budget of E1.2 billion budget can, for starters, enable 200 000 young people to receive E500 per month to buy toiletries. I know for a good fact that others can form groups to buy agricultural inputs with the intention of venturing into income generating projects.

Basically, we do not know what a person can do with a grant of E500 per month. Others can turn it around to benefit the entire kingdom.

It is a doable thing. We panic a lot, and it’s bad. Government can design a grant payment system that can remove names of people who have found employment. That would create space for incoming working-age youth to receive the grants.

The E1.2 billion budget equates to 4.1 per cent of the overall budget of the country.

The Kingdom of Eswatini’s National Development Plan (2023/2024-2027/2028) has enlightened me to the shocking reality of unemployment in the country. I am worried.

I presume we all know the effects of unemployment. The age group 6-24 comprises 41 per cent of the total population and represents the population in the education system from the first grade to tertiary level.

CHALLENGES

According to the NDP, these are the critical formative years of a child’s growth and period for family and government’s intervention in building human capital and a future for the children. Statistics indicate social challenges such as poverty, disintegrating families, HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, social unrest, Ukraine-Russian war which is pushing up prices and high unemployment.

According to NDMA (2022), food insecurity is expected to worsen with 29 per cent of the population facing a food security crisis.

I must acknowledge that the school feeding programme and accessing food through neighbourhood care points (NCPs) has been a relief to poor parents. According to the National Development Plan (NDP), to access food, people resort to negative coping mechanisms, including withdrawing children from schools.

As a result, government has realised that there are many negative factors affecting performance and productivity – disparities between rural and urban schools, private and public schools, investments in technology, behavioural and discipline issues, drug abuse, mental disorders, teenage pregnancy (12-19 years old), loss of interest in school, school drop-out and gender-based violence.

Now, the challenge is that they face unemployment upon completion of their studies.

It is mentioned in the Labour Force Survey of 2021 that the unemployment rate is 58.2 per cent. The World Bank asserted as well that poverty and inequalities have persistently been a big challenge in the Kingdom of Eswatini. It is said that Eswatini stands in the top 10 per cent of countries with highest levels of poverty and inequality. It is stated in the National Development Plan that between 2010 and 2017, the incidence of poverty in general was reduced from 63 per cent to 58.9 per cent with 20 per cent in extreme poverty.

However, an assessment done by UNDP during the COVID-19 period indicated a possible increase of five per cent point. I am happy to note that His Majesty the King appointed Dr. Thambo Gina to the same ministry to drive the NDP, which provides a critical platform for the country to make vital policy shifts.

It is, of course, important to invent new approaches as stated in the NDP to address new and existing challenges which are bottlenecks to economic, social and political development.

As government contemplates making those vital policy shifts, the taxpayer must release the grants to our unemployed young people.

They deserve to eat. Indeed, they need clothes. They have to also buy protection to prevent STIs. The United Nations in Eswatini states that the country is a lower middle-income country but the economic and social indicators are in contrast.

CRISIS

The UN notes with concern that economic performance continues to be very poor and has been in a crisis state for a number of years. Government started implementing the fiscal adjustment plan (FAP) agreed with the IMF from the financial year 2021/22 which will run for three years, aimed at achieving fiscal consolidation to establish a foundation for economic growth. It is my earnest observation that it is impossible to establish the foundation for economic growth without youth participation. On an empty stomach, how are they going to participate in nation-building?

In an attempt to trace the cause of the problem, the UN states that the poor economic performance is characterised by high vulnerability to the following:

● External shocks,

● Poor growth highly dependent on government activities for stimulus,

● Fiscal crisis with high deficit levels largely financed through borrowing leading to fast increasing debt levels with high interest payments and combined with increasing arrears that are forcing the

private sector into a state of insolvency. We are faced with challenge to overcome climate change effects, with the health system, not only poorly resourced, but manipulated by unscrupulous elements. It means the unemployed citizens are in trouble.

The risk of frequent drought occurrence and floods is exposing the vulnerability of agriculture and other sectors to changing climate conditions. Disasters are also a frequent likelihood. With these teething problems and high levels of inequalities and poverty, I am justified to call for improved support for our people. In his Speech from the Throne, His Majesty the King said emaSwati gathered at the cattle byre in Lobamba last year set an agenda for the government. The King said the primary focus was to address the pressing issue of unemployment which was also being witnessed around the world.

“It is important for Parliament to follow through on this task,” the King issued this directive.

His Majesty observed that the unemployment challenge had been exacerbated by the far-reaching impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It is vital for members of Parliament to address these issues and come up with well-established strategies to achieve good economic growth for the country,” he said.

Neal Rijkenberg, the Minister of Finance, in his budget speech, made similar remarks. Rijkenberg said two of the country’s most pressing challenges were poverty and unemployment. The minister said the only real way of sustainably addressing these issues was to grow the economy to yield more jobs for the people and create opportunities for quality employment.

DISRUPTIONS

“This in turn will lift our people out of poverty,” he said.

I pointed to the fact that the grants are essential in cementing political and social stability for the country so that government’s initiatives or programmes to create jobs are implemented without disruptions by those who are aggrieved. A hungry person has the ability to see things he would not have seen if he had food on his table. A hungry man is an angry man. He complains about everything and he becomes dangerous to society. The youth grants would minimise the youth anger which we do not want it to spiral out of control. There are ministries and departments that need to cut their budgets to finance this noble youth programme.

South Africa has, at least, tried to show commitment to meeting some of the basic needs for its people. The E350 Social Relief Distress may appear to be too small, but it does purchase a few things from the shop. In February this year, President Cyril Ramaphosa assured South Africans his government would extend and improve the R350 (E350) Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant as the next step towards income support for the unemployed.

Delivering the last State of the Nation Address (SONA) for the sixth administration at the Cape Town City Hall, the president said government introduced the special grant during the pandemic, which currently reaches some nine million unemployed people every month.

“We have seen the benefits of this grant and will extend it and improve it as the next step towards income support for the unemployed,” President Ramaphosa said.

I mentioned earlier that the grants are an investment. Just underline what Ramaphosa said: “These grants and subsidies do much more than give people what they need to live. They are an investment in the future.”

“Social assistance has been shown to increase school enrolment and attendance, lower drop-out rates and improve the pass rate.”

It is understood that more than 17 million people now live off grants in South Africa, which pay E1 800 a person per month. The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) states that social grants provide income support to poor households, with one- third of the population receiving a cash transfer from the State each month. The largest social grant programmes are the Child Support Grant (CSG), the Old Age Pension (OAP) and the Disability Grant. All target low-income households.

In Eswatini, I must praise government for introducing the social grant for the elderly persons and disability allowance, which is payable on a monthly basis. The grants are good as they help thousands of households, but they do not target the young person. Eswatini has a youth population, and we have invest in the young people.

The E500 billion set aside by the South African Government to mitigate the economic shock of a national lockdown caused by the spread of COVID-19 showed the ability of a country to take necessary risks to support its people. Mind you, nearly half of South Africa’s 60 million people receive social grants, ranging from child support to pensions. These grants were designed to provide financial assistance to people living in poverty.

RISK

Researchers said the largest components of the South African social grant system were introduced, or expanded to include the full population, in the 1990s. Since then, the system, they say, has evolved into one of the most comprehensive in the Global South.

We are a great nation, and we can also take the same risk and introduce those grants for the youth. For sure, the Government of the Kingdom of Eswatini should introduce the Unemployment Insurance.

Sulla and Zikhali concurred in the analysis in 2018 that social grants have proved to be effective at reducing the incidence of extreme poverty and preventing inequality from worsening. I personally do not subscribe to the notion or theory that social grants are unsustainable and capable of producing negative side-effects such as dependency, which is an idea advanced by Ferreira in 2017.

I did suggest that youth social grants, in a youthful population, give government a breathing space to create jobs and the payment system will remove beneficiaries who have found employment. I also did say that some people may even use the social grants to create jobs. The SMEs is a powerful vehicle for stimulating economic growth.

Let us give ‘reasoning’ a chance to prevail.