Owen Nxumalo,the Minister of Education and Training praised King Mswati at Mandvulo Hall when campaigning to be appointed into Cabinet,he said, the King’s leadership “is out of this world”.
But when the results of Mswati’s poor leadership and looting of public resources manifest while neglecting the education system,the Minister opted to speak absolute nonsense, blaming the COVID-19 and the recent political unrest.
The truth is; the poor recently released Junior Certificate(JC) and Grade seven(7) are the results of Mswati’s poor leadership.
It is worth mentioning that,the education system in this country is being deliberately destroyed by the State particularly the King who prioritize an extravagant lifestyle while schools struggle without adequate working resources.
But we cannot blame only the King,corruption and looting of public resources by the rich,powerful and politically connected resulted to Government struggling to provide resources in schools,that’s the reality Mr Education Minister Owen Nxumalo not the nonsense you uttered.
The Education Minister must understand that, the duty of the stomach is to accommodate part of the digestive system not to speak.
Even though the long twisting tube digestive system starts from the mouth and goes through the oesophagus,stomach, small intestine, large intestine and ends at the anus, the stomach was not meant to speak or influence the thinking.
But politicians have a tendency of thinking and speaking through their stomachs when in fact, a normal human being is expected to speak through the tongue and mouth after using the brains and/or the mind for objective thinking.
It should be noted that,the agenda by Mswati and his government to destroy the education system resulted to the employment of teachers on contracts despite that fact that,teaching is a continuous job that requires permanently employed teachers of course,to enhance the quality of education and competitiveness within the teaching profession.
The poor results announced by the Education Minister on Friday remains the product of the education crisis that was orchestrated by the corrupt Tinkhundla government.
Therefore, only a political hypocrite like Education Minister Owen Nxumalo can shift the goal posts to blame the political unrest and COVID-19 and like a chameleon, a political hypocrite changes its thinking as the political climate changes.
In this country when things goes right, the people are told to shout “Bayethe Wena Waphakathi” and King Mswati takes the glory even on other people’s achievements.
A perfect example is that of the late Simon ‘Mbhuzulwane’ Kunene who was a malaria expert in the Ministry of Health.
Kunene is not even celebrated for his efforts that resulted to the country earning global recognition for fighting Malaria.
Instead, King Mswati and the eSwatini Government took the glory and I’m quite sure that,if the JC and the Eswatini Primary Certificate(EPC) results were impressive,Minister Owen Nxumalo was going to praise King Mswati for his leadership.
But in leadership you can’t take the glory when things goes right and then leave the criticism to be shouldered by others,glory and criticism is a package for leadership in the public administration.
The education system is in crisis, government is even struggling to pay bonuses for contract teachers not to mention the peanuts they are paid as salaries.
The State is paying contract teachers a mere five thousand Rands(R5000.00) per-month, this is a salary paid by a whole government that expects good results for our children.
I once attended a parents meeting in one of the community schools, the Headteacher told parents that the school was struggling to even purchase chalks, children sometimes attend classes on empty stomachs.
Education Minister Owen Nxumalo is just hiding his face behind a transparent leaf, the poor JC and EPC results have nothing to do with COVID-19 and the political unrest but, these are the results of the King’s Government failure to prioritize education.
Education Minister Owen Nxumalo.