The Swaziland (eSwatini)
Government failed to meet its promise to repay E3billon (US$200 million) its
owes to suppliers by the end of September 2019.
Public services, especially
in heath and schools, are in crisis because businesses are refusing to provide
goods and services until their bills are paid.
The government has failed
to secure loans to settle the arrears. The failure is a significant setback to
the government, that was not elected but handpicked by absolute monarch King
Mswati III.
After it came into power following
the September 2018 election it pledged to get the ailing economy back on track.
The Times of eSwatini,
the only independent daily newspaper in the kingdom, reported, ‘When
asked whether they had been able to meet the September deadline as earlier
promised, Ministry of Finance Communications Officer Setsabile Dlamini could
only say: “raising money for the settling of arrears is work in progress.
However, it still has to go through Parliament.”’
Dlamini added, ‘Government was
engaging a number of financiers, both local and external, with a view to pay up
the arrears with intent to ultimately bolster eSwatini’s economy for the
better.’
The Times reported, ‘Dlamini
assured that a detailed austerity measures report would be issued soon.’
It added ‘In his
presentation of the integrated annual report, Central Bank of Eswatini Governor
Majozi Sithole further noted that the economic activity was projected to
decelerate to 1.4 per cent in 2019 from 2.4 per cent in 2018.’
This contradicts a
statement by Finance Minister Neal Rijkenberg who as recently as September 2019
told the African Development
Bank, ‘We believe there’s not a problem we can’t solve … We believe
that we’ve turned a corner. The indicators … are turning from an unsustainable
future to a sustainable future.’
In June 2019, he told newspaper editors in the kingdom, ‘Government
is working on proposals to financiers to secure funding of arrears of around
E3billion as at 31st March 2019. It is important to note that payment of
suppliers is an ongoing process, payments have never stopped, we pay as and
when revenue is received.’
Meanwhile, the Swazi
Government continues to insist that it does not have the money to pay public
servants 7.8 percent cost-of-living salary increases. Unions have been striking
for more pay while the government has offered zero percent.
Public services across the
kingdom have ground to a halt with reports
of people dying for lack of medicines and children
going hungry because the government was unable to pay suppliers of meals
for children.
In 2017 King Mswati was
named the third wealthiest King in Africa by the international website Business
Insider. It reported he had a net worth of US$200 million (about E3 billion
in local Swazi currency). The King rules a population of about 1.3 million
people and seven in ten of them live in abject poverty with incomes of less
than E30 per day.
King Mswati and his family
live a lavish lifestyle, at the expense of the people of Swaziland.
The Swazi Government paid US$30
million to buy the King a private jet plane in 2018. King Mswati now has
two private planes, 13 palaces and fleets of top-of-the-range BMW and Mercedes
cars. He wore a watch
worth US$1.6 million and a suit
beaded with diamonds weighing 6 kg, at his 50th
birthday party in April 2018. He received E15 million (US$1.2
million) in cheques, a
gold dining room suite and a gold
lounge suite among his birthday gifts.
His family regularly travel
the world on shopping
trips spending millions of dollars each time.
Meanwhile, the World
Food Program said it could not raise the US$1.1 million it needed to feed
starving children in the kingdom.
See also
More
deaths in Swaziland as government fails to pay medicine suppliers
Swaziland
schoolchildren learn under trees or in tents as government runs out of money
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