Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini has announced that only 300 000 people out of the 1.3million population will receive food aid without mentioning how the majority of the citizens will survive in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis.
Perhaps, let me remind the PM and the entire Cabinet that even before the outbreak of the coronavirus, about 70% of the population was already living below the poverty line. This percentage or figure is contained in various reports compiled by reputable organizations like the United Nations and it suggests that over 800 000 people are struggling with basic necessities of life.
This means with the job losses and halting of businesses that comes with the COVID-19 challenges, the number will increase as breadwinners might also be pushed into poverty and therefore, one of the alternative means of survival is to receive food aid from our government.
Now, for the Prime Minister and Cabinet to conclude that only 300 000 people will receive food aid might suggests that those who pay allegiance to the King through kukhehla and their relatives might benefit from this food distribution.
We were born under this oppressive Tinkhundla system of governance and as we grow, we have been watching its cruelty, corruption and nepotism even on programs that should be benefiting the people like food distribution.
In fact, some of us are beginning to question why our parents agreed to be ruled under this system that promotes greediness, pushing even professionals like teachers and other civil servants into poverty.
But this time, government should forget about fooling the people, in the next few weeks we might see the true colors of a hungry Liswati as the situation continue to be worse. Government must ensure transparency and that the food distribution is free from political discrimination.
The truth of the matter is that we don’t want to see chaos in our country that’s why we are always warning those in power to take decisions in the interest of the people.
Actually, the PM’s speech suggesting that only 300 000 citizens will receive food aid might result to chaos as he didn’t mention what will happen to the over 800 000 people.
Poverty in this country is a product of King Mswati and his oppressive leadership style, its very unfortunate that such a small country will now survive with food aid merely because our money was stolen to benefit royalty.
As the independent media, we will make sure, government is held accountable throughout the duration of the COVID-19 crisis, food should be distributed to every citizen regardless of political affiliation.
It should be noted that when it comes to taxes, government collects from everyone, even those who are opposed the current political system and therefore, we don’t expect people to be starved to death merely because they don’t pay allegiance to the King through kuhlehla.
Food distribution in East Africa