By Zweli Martin Dlamini

This week I had a telephone conversations with the Managing Director(MD) of one of the giant companies in the country and with huge influence in Cabinet, it was like I was speaking to a Lecturer as the businessman narrated to me how businesses within the Small and Medium Enterprise(SME) are collapsing.

In fact I felt like I know nothing about the magnitude of the financial crisis in my country, the businessman told me that, as Business Eswatini they are vigorously opposed to Prime Minister(PM) Russell Mmiso Dlamini’s leadership style and that the economy will collapse under his administration.

The businessman said “as big businesses we are doing well and making money in this country but you can’t run an economy without supporting the small businesses that also create jobs and increase the tax base for sustainable economic growth”.

Indeed, we are facing a serious problem in this country as even shops in the rural areas are now at the hands of foreigners while on the other hand, Government is destroying other small businesses by delaying payments for services rendered.

We need a law that will force Government and/or the Treasury Department to process payments for indigenous businesses within the Small and Medium Enterprise on time.

Money is not circulating in this country and it seems Cabinet is sleeping or snoring without understanding the magnitude of the crisis.

In this country, businesspeople who were once successful and have capabilities to work, are now financially broke and as a country, we are doing nothing to assist them with resources and business friendly policies.

It is very unfortunate to note that, if this problem remain unaddressed,we are heading to a disaster and we are losing control of the economy.

We can’t have a country where almost all citizens are financially broke and Government is doing nothing to address this problem.

In the retail industry, we are now left with Lincon Motsa of the Ok Foods, I may differ ideologically with him but he is now one of the few emaSwati in that industry and deserves to be supported.

This country is collapsing and by the time we realize the magnitude of the crisis where citizens are becoming literally financially broke without solutions from the State, it might be too late.

Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini must identify key stakeholders and work with them in the interest of this country, the economy is collapsing and the introduction of Forex transactions worsened the situation.