ESWATINI GOVERNMENT RELEASES POLICY STATEMENT AND PROMISES GOVERNMENT LED ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION

Pictured Above: Eswatini Prime Minister Russell Dlamini

On Thursday 12th September 2024, The Government of Eswatini as led by the Prime Minister Russell Dlamini presented their policy statement in Parliament in which they outlined their plans going forward. The policy statement contains twenty two (22) priority areas as follows; Fiscal Discipline and Budget Strategy ,Sustainability, Infrastructure Development, Economic Policy , Wealth Creation and Inclusive Growth ,Public Sector Management and Service Delivery, Foreign and International Relations, Tinkhundla Governance System and Development Vehicle, Energy, Education , Health and HIV/AIDS, Labour, Social Welfare and Social Security, Disaster Risk Reduction, Corruption, National Identity and Family Heritage, National Security, Agriculture, Parliament and Judiciary.

The policy statement makes daring aspirations including a prediction of economic growth that reached 12% in the next ten (10) years and interestingly makes a bold statement to pursue a government led developmental agenda where the statement boldly stated that, "Government will not be a passive enabler for business environment ,instead the government will be an enabler leading in developmental business concepts ,securing partnerships with global players and innovative financial models".

Different stakeholders such as trade unions and business have reacted to the policy statement with Business Eswatini criticising the policy statements bold statement of having the government lead the developmental path while the trade union federation TUCOSWA were full of cautious praise for the policy statement because on the one hand the statement talks about a government led development while on the other hand they are talking about resizing the public service. They said, "the policy statement serves as an important rollback from the suicidal private sector led policy championed by business".

The launch of the policy statement was however overshadowed by the scenes on Friday 13th September during a breakfast meeting with editors when the Prime Minister clashed with editors in particular the Managing editor of the Times of Eswatini Martin Dlamini as well as the editor of the Nation Magazine Bheki Makhubu who split public opinion in how he addressed the Prime Minister during the meeting.

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