Swazi Observer

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NOT JUST US, ANGER IS EVERYWHERE

By Ackel Zwane | 2019-09-21

“These prophets in the likes of Bhushiri, Omotoso, Magaya, Lukawu are having a date with the law when the book of revelations shall be read in its entirety. Similarly the overnight tycoons whose properties are being seized and bank accounts frozen also put South Africa back into the spotlight of xenophobia...”

In recent weeks the hands of time have been ticking rather fast, no sooner had southern Africa woken up from criminally induced xenophobic attacks than our civil service owned the streets of every town and city. Next week if government fails to draw its trump card of running to the courts at the last minute schools would be grounded once more as was the case on Tuesday and yesterday. Eswatini civil servants have been calling for their Cost of Living Award (CoLA) which is non negotiable as it swings in either direction of inflation or deflation (the latter never happens in a lifetime) but they have been told for three years running that there is no money despite having worked for it and prices ever hiking. Government claims to be in a similar predicament in that it cannot afford to pay the mammoth civil service wage bill without bringing the country to its knees. Now the only way out, in the words of government, is tolerance until such time that the economy picks up while on the other hand public servants would hear none of that, saying inflation is killing them and their families while government is able to attend to other priorities at their expense.

The public servants at least want government to commit or make an offer to rollout the CoLA in tranches at reasonable intervals. Government also blames the global economic downturn that has affected even the richest of nations where certainly, giants that they may be, are also struggling with giving their workers the CoLA. The adage that if Uncle Sam farts minnows like Eswatini sneeze, could mean nothing but the current global economic situation, literally.

The so called xenophobic outbreaks in nearby South Africa could not have been sparked by hatred of foreigners but most likely by deeply cutting economic hardships all because the global and subsequently the domestic economy are not performing. This is because the said attacks were also meted on South Africans on the continent such as in Zambia, Mozambique and Nigeria after what appeared to be misleading propaganda appealing to the emotions of criminals in those nations who began looting South African business outlets and threatening to boycott everything South African. It was not so much a ‘brother-eat-brother’ affair in the dog-eat-dog fashion but yes, people were worried about their economic space especially when criminals abandon their own countries to manufacture and distribute their poisons in South Africa.

All those who attacked foreign nationals and looted their goods must be protected for criminal activities; so far we have been told 700 are waiting to fill the docks. These surely are not representative of the thinking this part of the continent but yes these are sponsored acts of violence most likely by crime and political motive. It is pleasing that the visibility of security agents has crushed the near uprising.

Dozens of Ibo drug lords have already taken over trade routes at the Cape Flats and have intensified gang wars emanating from control of territories where these drugs are traded. Media reports are to the effect that this has resulted in the importation of the tribal wars between the Ibo and the Hausa, a Nigerian war now being fought in South Africa. Matters reached unprecedented levels last year when police in the Northern Cape arrested six suspects, a majority of them Somalis linked to a counterfeit goods production factory in Hartswater worth about E77 million.

The cops managed to close down the business which churned counterfeit spices, sanitary pads, sanitary towels and shoe polish, to name a few.

Last Wednesday again police seized counterfeit goods worth more than E10 million at the Dragon City Mall in Fordsburg where more than a dozen suspects were rounded up. Here cops found counterfeit clothing, shoes, bags, jewelry, condoms and cosmetics.

False prophets have flooded the local and South African markets with fake cures and false hopes to the unsuspecting innocent members of the public, in the process siphoning millions of hard earned currency out of the countries to Nigeria, Malawi, Zimbabwe, the United States, you name it. These prophets in the likes of Bhushiri, Omotoso, Magaya, Lukawu are having a date with the law when the book of revelations shall be read in its entirety. Similarly the overnight tycoons whose properties are being seized and bank accounts frozen also put South Africa back into the spotlight of xenophobia when in fact these elements are linked to criminal activities as the investigations indicate, they are not the purported innocent gospel traders who respect the laws obtaining in the countries in which they come to pry their illicit trade.

Come to think of it, it is still a wonder, if we are not consuming counterfeit foodstuffs given that government does not even have the capacity to check everything it imports from South Africa especially the junk coming through our porous borders courtesy of unscrupulous Asians.

The EastAfrican reports that Common Market for Eastern Africa Competition Commission (COMESA) has opened investigations into firms operating in the 19-member economic bloc, which exploit consumers in the name of maximising pro0fits. Pharmaceutical and construction companies are targeted in the initial phase of investigation on production of fake goods. The next phase of investigations targets firms in the banking, telecommunications, dairy, beverages and water sectors. Firms operating across the region engage in exclusive agreements, and form cartels, forcing consumers to pay relatively higher prices for goods and services.

The East African cites a regional competition watchdog as asserting that trading malpractices among firms operating within the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa member states have seen prices of certain goods and services inflated by between 25 and 30 per cent by unscrupulous traders. The products highly susceptible to price fixing are white rice, white sugar, frozen chicken, bread, butter, flour, milk, potatoes, eggs and chocolate. Retail prices of 10 key consumer goods are on average at least 24 per cent higher in African cities than in other economies around the world even after factoring in transportation and other input costs.

Back at home everybody seems to be angry, very angry. On the one hand government says there is no miracle in the short-term while its workers say they can no longer survive in an economic atmosphere where prices are spiraling upwards with incomes devaluing due to the absence of the CoLA. Around the same time tertiary institutions were home to violent protests by students who wanted what they called an acceptable distribution system of their allowances.

Looking around, there is however a false impression that the cost of life is not high because foreigners own all the shops in town and enjoy a highly favourable economic status compared to the citizens who form the bulk of the poorly paid working class. A traveller passing through would most likely buy a snack at the upmarket eateries around the malls and carry with him lasting impressions of a metropolis yet if this traveller would spend just one meal with a family at Murray Camps near Fairview in Manzini he would return to his country with lasting impressions of Down River Road in downtown Nairobi.

There’s anger lurking everywhere including the gun totting Americans, the sinking of migrants by Europeans in the Mediterranean, the killing grounds of the Middle East, suicide bombing in New Zealand, the Hong Kong burning, the count is lost.

We can only pray for a peaceful transition in this ‘dark age’ as opposed to confrontation that would result in loss or injury to life and destruction of property.

The loss of production in the absence of labour power also has far reaching consequences to the already fledgling economy. This nation was of the impression that the handshakes and hugging between government, employer and employee representatives heralded good times ahead way after Geneva 2019, but Lo and behold daggers are drawn.

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