Swazi Observer

FULL STORY

NOTHING ELSE MUST GO WRONG

By PHEPHISA KHOZA | 2024-12-23

I know many people are already in the holiday spirit, but the stark reality is that amidst the joy and festivities, some have nothing to celebrate and are wishing for things to change.

I hope all your wishes come true, whatever they may be. Trust me, I do because I also pray that my only wish comes true and I will share it with you. I wish that nothing else must go wrong in the country. Whatever it may be.

This is because when things go wrong, they go terribly wrong such that everybody is shy of being associated with it. Look at the circus that is happening in our soccer.

To be honest I'm not much of a soccer fanatic but I do with specific teams in particular 'where I never get to walk alone' in the premiership.

I also used to watch another team locally but for some reason this team has spent more time in court than on the field. When you look at the structures of, dare I say, the big three teams, everything is falling apart.

No thanks to the administrators. Forget the Premier League because they definitely do not know what's going on. We actually should not be surprised by what’s happening in football because the mother-body created a system that keeps everybody out.

proud
Government cannot get involved in football matters which also should not go to court. Right now they are completely clueless on what to do with the Manzini Wanderers issue but possibly, they are too proud to ask for assistance. I stand to be corrected, but two games remain before the first round is concluded and the team hasn’t played a single game despite the court ruling.

Come to think of it, the problems in local football got me thinking that they in so many ways function exactly like government and the Judiciary. Nothing is working and problems keep getting worse. It’s like watching a circus without clowns.

Think about it, the people failing football are the same administrators who said it is time for change and connived to get Adam ‘Bomber’ Mthethwa out, blaming him for all the national teams’ disastrous performance and everything else they could think of.

They celebrated when ‘Bomber’ was eventually ousted from office saying it was time for change. Little did we know.

Look at the state of football now. Again there were celebrations when the late Michael Ramodibedi was fired as chief justice in one the most shameful incidents to ever happen in the Judiciary. At least that I experienced.

It was the first time that a chief justice was impeached. This resulted in a stand-off as he refused to vacate his house. A very sad and unfortunate incident, which given the current status of the Judiciary cannot be easily forgotten no matter how hard I try. His time in office almost collapsed the Judiciary.

blamed
Everything that went wrong, he was at the centre of it. But the jury is still out on whether he can be blamed for all the problems the Judiciary currently faces. I think not and I bet he is laughing in his grave right now. Not to say he was an angel, no he wasn't.

Do you notice the pattern?
When it comes to government, any officer will tell you that things went wrong when the late Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini was prime minister.

Yes, blame him for the drugs shortage crisis. Blame him for all the ills at the University of Eswatini, which has been reduced to a 'do not attend institution’ in the region.

Blame him for unemployment, low wages, and potholes and just about everything else you can think off.

And when the new Cabinet came into office they said "we are going to fix this" in exactly the same way our administrators in the football association said they would change things for the better. The same also happened after Ramodibedi left.

Now do you see the pattern?
To ‘Bomber’ and the rest of them, I do honestly want to sing a chorus from the Tracy Chapman song and say “Sorry, is all I can say" but no, they messed up pretty good.

But for some reason, things just flowed. I don’t know what or how they did it but it worked. It makes me wonder if reports of muti in football are true. Oh well, moving on.

But despite what is happening now, I will remain positive and not lose patience. The same can be said about the Judiciary and government, which is why my wish this Christmas is for nothing else to go wrong. When you look at the pattern, we'll at least the way I see it, the problems point to flaws in the system, how we do things. The systems are open to manipulation.

The Prime Minister, Russell Dlamini, made a valid point when he recently toured healthcare facilities, including the Central Medical Stores, where he rightly stated that the drugs shortage challenges were caused by problems in procurement.

I totally agree with him. However, I disagree that there are problems with the procurement systems as also alluded to by the health minister.

The problems are caused by weak controls in government, which allowed for some scrupulous individuals to deny the public the right to quality healthcare by selflessly enriching themselves with taxpayers’ money and at the cost of lives. Government has dismally failed to deal with corruption.

This is the problem which must be addressed. I have said time and again that there is no political will to address corruption because if there was, we wouldn’t be experiencing the problems at this magnitude.

That despite promises of arrests to be made and big fish targeted have been worthless.
approach

Evidence of this is how government continues to use the same individuals it accuses of being behind the problems.

I agreed with the prime minister when he said there must be a change of mindset, calling for a different approach to how things are done. I share the same sentiment.

This, however, can only happen if we all share a common vision and have the same goals, which is for things to be better for all.

I strongly believe that is this mentally could applied in all sectors and by everyone, we would see the change and improvements we desperately need.

The good thing is that to do this doesn’t need money.
Yes, this includes the football association and other sporting codes. Instead of having globetrotting officials, funds should be redirected towards developmental programmes.

I still fail to understand why the national Olympics association has to accompany two or three athletes to games.

This is not only to the Olympics but to other regional and international sporting events as well.
And they always complain about not having sufficient funds. It’s just plain ridiculous.

The globetrotting reminds me of the time when the former prime minister, Barnabas, issued a directive suspending international trips for parliamentarians, Cabinet ministers and government officials.

Permission had to be requested from his office before any trip could be taken. I don’t know who or what had rubbed him the wrong way but it worked as we became watchdogs, questioning each trip, why it was necessary and how much it cost?

These days, however, officials change luggage at the airport.
If we want things to change, we all have to be very active citizens and question everything that government does.

responsibility
I was concerned when the prime minister said they have run out of patience on the drugs shortage issue primarily because everything is happening under his watch. This to me appeared as if he was running away from responsibility.

Being a leader means he should know and be accountable for everything happening in government. From where we sit, we are running out of patience with his Cabinet because we have not seen any results since they came into office.

Rather than exposing civil servants, he should create an environment where they are able to seamlessly deliver services. Yes, they inherited a litany of problems but they were trusted with the responsibility of addressing all these and cannot afford to run out of patience when things go wrong at home, the head of the household calls the family and comes up with solutions and also seeks input from the family.

Thats what a father does.
The prime minister has experts who could advise on what needs to the done to address the problems.

If procurement is the problem, he could turn to the procurement regulator whose office I’m sure has procurement specialists aplenty. I cannot think of any better professional to best advise him.

He also has finance people who could advise on belt tightening and perhaps get state owned enterprises to stop being a financial drain to government.

Why is the ESEPARC report not being implemented? Things just have to stop getting worse and start getting better. It’s not all about policy.

In fact, without a stronger basis of trust in officials and institutions, policies will fail to have the impact they could. And the truth is nobody trusts government.
I’m not asking for too much, am I?
Merry Christmas

share story