King Mswati and his Government must conduct an introspection to ascertain why a majority of the citizens in this country live below the poverty line despite the availability of adequate State resources.
The about 70% of the population living below the poverty line include some University graduates, civil servants and security officers who, despite being employed, can no longer afford a decent meal and/or basic commodities.
Indeed there are factors that contributed to the lowering of the standard of living for civil servants and this includes the ever escalating costs of living.
Efforts by the workers to negotiate a Cost of Living Adjustment(COLA) through collective bargaining was met with resistance by the Government and sometimes, such resistance would be through violent means to suppress the voices of workers during protests.
Personally, I am struggling to understand why the Tinkhundla regime adopted hunger as a political oppression tool against the minds of the people.
The salary review commissioned by Government through a Consultant must produce the desired results, all civil servants must receive a salary increment.
Pay as You Earn(PAYE), electricity and water tariffs were increased in complete disregard of the citizens’ plight as salaries remained stagnant resulting to the lowering of the citizens’ standard of living.
The duty of a Government is to improve the lives of the people not to steal from their pockets through the increase of water and electricity tariffs among others, while salary remain stagnant.
The process of reviewing the salaries for all civil servants must be concluded as a matter of urgency, hunger is an urgent crisis that needs urgent solutions, it cannot be postponed.
King Mswati(pic: Gov).