The Times of
Swaziland newspaper and the kingdom’s Finance Minister Majozi Sithole have
combined to mislead the Swazi people about the state of the economy.
Under the headline ‘Financial
crisis in Swaziland is over – IMF’, the newspaper reported, ‘It is now
official; Swaziland is out of the financial crisis it had plunged into since
2010, the IMF has declared.’
The paper then allowed Sithole to say, ‘We have no
problems with their assessment that we are out of the crisis.’
But, the IMF never said Swaziland was out of its
financial crisis.
The Times and
Sithole misrepresented a report called Restoring
Sustainability in a Global Environment Options for Swaziland that was widely circulated yesterday (6 February
2013) and written by Olivier Basdevant, Emily Forrest, and Borislava Mircheva.
It was published by
the International Monetary Fund, but the IMF clearly stated at the beginning of
the report, ‘The views expressed in this book are those of the authors and should
not be reported as or attributed to the International Monetary Fund, its
Executive Board, or the governments of any of its member countries.’
So, no endorsement from the IMF for Swaziland.
The authors do not say the financial crisis in Swaziland
is over. They say the opposite.
Commenting on the management of the economy (on page 49
of the report), they say, ‘The current economic policy stance in Swaziland is
unsustainable over the medium term. On current trends, the fiscal position is
likely to deteriorate further, reflecting uncontrolled spending coupled with a
projected decline in Southern African Customs Union (SACU) transfers over the
medium term.
‘Given that external budget financing from donors has not
been secured yet and domestic financing is limited, the government is not
expected to be in position to repay all its arrears in 2012/13, despite the
higher SACU transfers. The financing gap could nonetheless be filled with
credible policies aimed at reducing the wage bill by E300 million, thus
restoring confidence in fiscal policy.’
There seems to be a concerted effort by Finance Minister
Sithole and the Times to mislead the
Swazi people and the international business community that the financial crisis
in the kingdom is over.
Last month (January 2013), the Times Sunday published an interview with Sithole in which he said the
IMF had been ‘shocked’ by the kingdom’s ‘economic resurgence’ having ‘spelled
doom for the country a long time ago’.
Sithole claimed receipts of E12.2 billion (US$1.1
billion) due this year to Swaziland, mostly from 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 one of the
highest public sector wage bills 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.
On that occasion Sithole was forced to climb-down and
admit the economy had not recovered. 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 an interview after, ‘Commentators
from outside our border, also said the minister’s pronouncements were not in
tandem with the obtaining situation on the ground.’
See also
ECONOMY: IMPOSSIBLE TO CUT POVERTY
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