CRISIS: ‘TIME FOR GOVERNMENT TO GO’

Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations

Statement

12 November 2011

As a result of the worsening economic crisis in Swaziland, and the inability of the Swazi Government to pay its November salaries on time, the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations calls for the entire Swazi Cabinet to step down and a government of the people to be set up.

This economic crisis is not a surprise, the government has been warned about it for years. But they continued to ignore the warnings and award themselves and their friends more pay rises, bigger contracts, more power. They have plundered our national reserves to make themselves rich.

When a government is not even able to meet its wage bill, it is time for that government to go. But to only change the faces at the top will not solve Swaziland’s problems.

Tinkhundla is based on lies. It is a lie those already in power know best. It is a lie that the people cannot be trusted. It is a lie that political parties cause violence. And the biggest lie of all – that the Swazi people actually want this system.

All that this system has done is to oppress and disrespect the Swazi People. It keeps the vast majority poor while the few get even richer. The people that drove us into this catastrophe do not have skills to get us out of it because they were chosen for their loyalty not their ability.

This government is so lost in a spider’s web of arrogance, deceit and corruption that it cannot tell what is real and what is not. It thought that it would be able to lie its way out of the trouble by making promises that it had no intention of keeping. In the end the only people that were fooled were its supporters, the loyalists who were well paid for years. Finance and economics do not work that way. They respond to hard facts not easy lies.

Bishop Meshack Mabuza Chair of the Swazi Coalition said “It is the economics of the pigsty. If the government meets the November wage bill from the money it earns in December, how will it be able to meet the December wage bill? We all know that there is money coming from the Southern African Customs Union in January, but what happened to the money that came in September?”

He went on to say “This is a crisis that will not go away. I have consulted widely on this and I can say with certainty that this government does not have the confidence of the people. It is time they went. 11.11.11 marks the day that the Swazi system of government called Tinkhundla died. It is now the duty of every true Swazi to give it a decent burial. It is time to set up a proper government of the Swazi People, for the Swazi People.

See also

PANIC AS SALARIES CUT NEWS LEAKS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/11/panic-as-salaries-cut-news-leaks.html