Calmness stepping stone towards dialogue - PM
MBABANE – Government, through the Prime Minister’s (PM) Office, appreciates the prevailing calmness in the country and has labelled it a foundational stepping stone towards ‘finding each other’ as a nation.
This is in respect to a question that was posed by Nkilongo Member of Parliament (MP) Timothy Myeni to the PM Cleopas Dlamini, during the latter’s portfolio committee annual performance report presentation in Parliament over a week ago.
Myeni said they heard utterances of a peaceful and calm environment in recent days but nothing was being said about the dialogue.
Calmness
Myeni said since everyone was appreciating the calmness, why was the nation not engaging each other just as the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) was now engaging communities.
In his response, the PM said the prevailing calmness was very much appreciated and the provision of the E30 million for the dialogue in the budget estimates for the financial year 2023/24 were all good signs of a nation willing and committed to harmoniously moving forward in a nation building mood.
“Government believes that these are all foundational stepping stones towards finding each other,” said the PM.
Deputy Speaker and Mhlangatane MP Madala Mhlanga said the E30 million budgeted for the dialogue in the financial year 2023/24 was an acknowledgement that indeed there was a need to dialogue. He wondered when the country would at least start to prepare for the dialogue and unpack the concept to ensure that the nation was on the same page, in terms of what needed to be done. “It would be better to have a pre-dialogue engagement even before the elections, to avoid deterioration of the situation,” said the Deputy Speaker.
The PM responded by stating that indeed government remained firmly grounded on the principle of peaceful engagements to resolve disagreements, hence the E30 million budget.
“It is government’s priority to see emaSwati peacefully engaging one another and coming up with home grown solutions to whatever socio-political challenges. Government further wishes to see successful elections towards the end of 2023. Every suggestion on how best the country can peacefully move forward in a harmonious way and within the provisions of the Constitution is most welcome,” he said.
Gege MP Musa Kunene enquired from the PM if government was attaching importance to the E30 million budget for the dialogue.
“If so, how can you budget without setting a specific date and timelines?” he asked. The PM responded to the legislator’s concern by stating that government did not necessarily set timelines with the budget proposal and estimates submitted for appropriation by Parliament.
Budget
“For activities in the budget, timelines are set once at implementation stage after the budget appropriation and release. Members will appreciate that there are processes that need to be exhausted before a date can be set for the dialogue in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution,” stated the PM.
Shiselweni II MP Strydom Mpanza also touched on the subject of the dialogue and shared that, engaging each other was fundamental in this regard and the nation needed to agree to disagree. He said the violence and killings were not necessary and no one would be victorious ultimately. The legislator said it was, therefore, the nation’s collective responsibility to let common sense and logic prevail.
It was previously reported that government had reiterated its statement that the national dialogue would have long taken place.
However, government said it became risky to hold the dialogue because of the foreign sponsored terrorists, who ploughed the country into violence, through the random killing of the national security services officers.
Statement
In a statement issued previously by the Government Spokesperson, Alpheous Nxumalo, he said the national dialogue would have taken place already but was delayed by the destruction of both public and private properties, through arson attacks and many acts of intimidation and threats perpetrated by unknown people.
“The kingdom has clearly maintained one position on the question of dialogue, that is a national dialogue would have taken place already if it was not for the foreign-sponsored terrorists, who have ploughed the country into violence through the random killing of the national security services officers, destruction of both public and private properties through arson attacks and many other acts of intimidation and threats perpetrated by some unknown people,” read the statement.