Swaziland’s Finance Minister Majozi Sithole has backtracked
on his claim that the kingdom’s economy is no longer in crisis, after
international observers proved he was not telling the truth.
Sithole claimed earlier this month (January 2013) that receipts
of E12.2 billion (US$1.1 billion) due this year to Swaziland, mostly from the Southern
African Customs Union (SACU), meant, ‘I can safely say the economy is now under
control. We have survived the worst economic challenges ever.’
Media in Swaziland took him at his word – all broadcast
news in the kingdom, ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last
absolute monarch, is state-controlled and one of the two national newspaper
groups is in effect owned by the king.
But once news travelled beyond the Swaziland borders,
economists, bloggers, journalists and expert observers on the kingdom pointed
out the truth: nothing had changed with the economy.
Swaziland is tied with Somalia as having the worst performing economy in Africa and the government continues to have the highest
public sector wage bill per capita in sub-Saharan Africa. It cannot fund health
and social welfare projects, but continues to waste millions of emalangeni
bankrolling King Mswati, his 13 wives and a Royal Family so large, no one is
sure how many members it has.
The king’s vanity project, Sikhuphe international
airport, remains uncompleted and unnecessary, but is still a black hole sucking
in millions of US dollars a year.
Now, Sithole has been forced to go back to the Swazi
media to change his story.
The Weekend Observer, one of the Swazi king’s newspapers, reported him saying the
receipts from SACU and money collected internally from taxes did not
necessarily mean that the kingdom had overcome its financial woes but only that
this came as some form of relief.
The Observer
reported that Sithole granted the newspaper after, ‘Commentators from outside
our border, also said the minister’s pronouncements were not in tandem with the
obtaining situation on the ground.’
The newspaper reported Sithole saying, ‘Swaziland was not
out completely from the economic quagmire but this was an opportunity to use
resource sparingly in order for the economy to sustain itself. He further said
he was worried about the growth rate, being the lowest in the SACU.’
See also
MINISTER WRONG ON ECONOMIC RECOVERY
IMF REPORTS GOVT ECONOMIC FAILURES
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