Increase minimum wage – some MPs
MANZINI - Some MPs are in support of the call to review the minimum wage as part of a shortterm intervention to the increasing cost of living, but say it should not be a national minimum wage.
Kukhanyeni Member of Parliament (MP) Malavi Sihlongonyane said he recently conducted a study on the matter with the intention of moving a motion in Parliament.
He said this followed the rise in prices of basic commodities, which increased the cost of living in the country and caused leaders of the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) to march and petition various government departments.
Sihlongonyane said he was of the review of the increased minimum wage in the various sectors, but said it should not be implemented as a national minimum wage because it could affect some workers and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Helpers
For example, he said if the national minimum wage was set at E3 500 per month, some workers who hired helpers might struggle to pay them that amount.
On the same note, he said people who operated spaza shops, which fell under SMEs (retail), might not afford to pay their workers E3 500 per month, which other retail businesses (supermarkets) could manage to do.
In that regard, he said government should look into the minimum wage of the different sectors of the economy and down to other categories; SMEs and large chain stores. He said a national minimum wage could discourage SMEs, yet the country needed them to stimulate the economy.
On the same note, MP Sibusiso ‘Scorpion’ Nxumalo said indeed prices of basic commodities had strained most families in Eswatini and the inflation had eroded people’s income due to the recent catastrophes such as COVID-19 and the ongoing Russia/ Ukraine war.
Again, he said in terms of civil servants’ cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA) (three per cent, plus a once off payment of one per cent of their annual salaries) would not be sufficient.
“So, the minimum wage proposal is similar to the salary review,” the MP said.
Again, he said emaSwati needed short-term interventions from government that would be time bound. He said if government could not meet their salary demand, it should do shortterm interventions like tax cuts for a certain period, which should last until the dust settled as far as the inflation rate was concerned.
He stated that the Russia/Ukraine war and the inflation would not settle anytime soon, thus the people and government needed to think outside the box.
“I also suggest that we cut pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) as an intervention since we introduced value added tax (VAT) as a country. I think the time has come to consider a PAYE decrease as a short-term intervention because the tax is too high,” MP Nxumalo said.
Other parliamentarians who supported the call for a review of the minimum wage included Nkilongo MPTimothy Myeni, Gilgal MP Kenneth Sandla Fakudze and Mkhiweni MP Michael Masuku, among others.
The Gilgal MP said the sharp rise in food prices had significantly affected household consumption as food accounted for a larger share of families’ budgets in the country.
He said: “Sisebentela nje kutsi simane sidle (We are working to survive).”
Mistrust
The Gilgal MP said government needed to improve collaboration between the public and private sector because there was mistrust between them.
This, he said, had contributed to the domestic food price volatility because it increased the uncertainty in decision-making.
He said a higher degree of predictability and transparency in the behaviour of government and the private sector should be pursued through various ways, like sharing of market information and various arrangements of public–private partnerships.
Thereafter, he said policy interventions to be introduced in subsequent periods of time should be made public and opportunities for anti-competitive behaviour and corruption in the supply chain should be reduced or eliminated. He also added that government needed to take proactive steps in monitoring the price increases to prevent abuse or manipulation by certain parties.
“We also need to trace a product’s path from the beginning until it reaches the consumer and see how we can minimise the cost,” the Fakudze added.