Government's moves to manipulate the report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to retrench civil servants in the midst of the fiscal crisis must be vigorously opposed while intensifying calls for the reduction of King Mswati’s budget who continues to loot millions of taxpayers money to sustain his lavish lifestyle.
As the situation stands, most civil servants report to work to do nothing because government is failing to provide working tools, the non-availability of fuel within the various government departments and shortage of drugs in hospitals might render some civil servants like drivers and support staff within the health sector redundant.
Even accountants within the Treasury Department might soon be redundant because the scarcity of money in public coffers and the subsequent growing resistance by private companies to supply and or render services to this broke government is threatening their jobs that include processing payments.
Indeed, we can now safely confirm that this government is collapsing, but trade unions must protect the rights of civil servants, government might soon sacrifice the jobs of its employees for this collapsing regime to continue breathing.
Government should not shift the blame on civil servants by saying some employees report for duty to do nothing when we know it is the employer who is struggling to provide working tools and therefore, the employees should not be made to suffer as a result of a financial crisis that was intentionally perpetrated by King Mswati and his government.
The IMF's report was relevant ten years ago but now, the damage done by the royal looting in our economy suggests that it might be risky to retrench employees because almost all business opportunities in this country were grabbed by members of the royal family and their allies, ordinary citizens can no longer establish businesses with their pension monies or terminal benefits and survive.
It is therefore important to highlight that government's Enhanced Voluntary Early Retirement Scheme(EVERS) that was introduced subsequent to the IMF recommendations to reduce civil servants will not enhance economic recovery but instead, those civil servants and their depends will add numbers to the over 70% of the population living below the poverty line.
Therefore, as a country we must protect the thousands of unemployed poor citizens who rely on civil servants' salaries to put food on the table by making sure this government is prevented from retrenching.
It is surprising that in all this economic mess that rendered our country broke, King Mswati, being the perpetrator who looted our resources continues to live an extravagant lifestyle, it’s high time we stop him from retrenching government employees.
We cannot afford to sacrifice the lives of thousands of eMaswati just for one man and his family to enjoy a lavish lifestyle with our taxes, no retrenchments should be allowed in government, we must solve the main problem that is destroying this country.
It is a sad reality that even private companies are now forced to retrench and shut down because government is failing to pay for services rendered, instead invoices submitted by companies linked to royalty are prioritized by the Treasury Department.
This means the royal supremacy and looting is destroying this country and allowing it to retrench civil servants will be the last nail on the coffin, it must never happen in the midst of the current situation.
King Mswati