The signal! Scramble for 200 police posts
THE past two weeks we have been witnesses to the long, winding queues of scores of youth endeavouring to deliver their application to the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS), for the post of constables. This signals the depth of the unemployment problem in this country, it goes to show how dire the situation is for the youth and it requires immediate attention from us, and the authorities. It goes to show how we have failed the youth as a nation, we did not make the right investment to support our youth hence they are left in the fringes with little to no recourse, and something needs to change! We need to safeguard the future and protect the future of this country.
Spiralling crisis
If we continually fail to arrest the problem of youth unemployment, we are in essence selling out the future of this country. This is because the unemployed youth today, is tomorrow’s adult population and later on geriatric population. We are experiencing what we call the spiral of economic problems, or what we call the dynamic inefficiency loop. We are currently experiencing a youth that is the third generation to be caught in the problem or this spiral. One should notice that the problem gets worse as new generations get trapped in the spiral, historical data proves this, in 1991 the unemployment rate in the country was 21.3 per cent, in 2007 it stood at 27.4 per cent and now in 2021 it is sitting at 33.3 per cent and well above 50 per cent for the youth.
Radical macroeconomic policy
Historical data and trends prove that what we have been doing in terms of our macroeconomic policy has not worked, not at all, we have a defunct economic policy. We need as a country to overhaul our economic policy frameworks, we need to analyse the binding constraints to the country’s economic growth story and take action to intentionally dismantle that which is holding us back and mount that which might take us forward into a brighter future as a country. A future with balance and sustainable growth, a growth in which everyone benefits from the wealth of the nation. I will make suggestion of a couple of radical steps that we need to take as a country.
Radical redistributive policy framework
Eswatini ranks number 10 among the most unequal societies in the world. This means that the wealth is not evenly distributed among the population. Instead of focussing on increasing the tax brackets on pay as you earn, we need to focus on a wealth tax. In essence, most of the affluent are not working class, they have their wealth in assets and business ventures with a myriad of avenues to avoid payasyouearn (PAYE) or reducing the amount of tax they pay to a mere 10 per cent on dividend shares. We need as a country to consider introducing a wealth tax of up to 50 per cent on the top richest 10 per cent of the population. The working class is already overly taxed, while the ultrawealthy in this country are not at all taxed. There is also need to review all tax laws in the country to ensure that all that draw rents from Eswatini pay the proportionate tax, no one should be exempt from taxes all businesses should pay tax. The additional revenue that could be collected should be invested in setting up background infrastructure for the telecoms sector and liberalise the sector so as to usher in the 4th industrial revolution.
Rethinking access to finance
There is need to overhaul the whole access to finance system in the country. We need to make access to finance equitable so as to fund startup companies. We need to cultivate a finance structure that will afford access to finance for startup companies. If we are to grow as a country, we need to nurture start-up companies and support them as they grow from nascent firms to matured firms. It is for this reason that I still advocate for capitalising the youth fund at least at E200 million this year.
Also, through other government initiatives aimed at banking the unbankable we need innovating ways to finance local startup companies that would fall outside the parameters of general retail banking. This way we would give much of a needed life line to businesses that is requisite for private sector led growth. We need a system that will create the liSwati Dream, something akin to the American Dream. It is critical that we cultivate a system that will allow a person to come from humble beginnings and join the ranks of the elite and the affluent. We need a system that does not require one to come from a rich background in order to make it in business. It is critical that we dismantle those barriers and cultivate an economy with equality of access to opportunities.
A new normal
We cannot continue doing the same old thing and expect a different result. Radical thinking is required to engender a new future of balanced, broad based and sustained growth.