ESWATINI PRIMARY ELECTIONS- HOPING WE MADE THE RIGHT DECISION

The country is fresh from conducting successful elections. Umkhaya, friend, former teacher , former soccer-mate emerged a victor and I wasn’t surprised when I saw a lot of the forgetting people grabbing the seam of his shirt.

Based on my initial sentiments, I proposed that the people of Msunduza elect Harries Madze Bulunga not because we share a couple of medals on the bench of our beloved Umbelebele Football Club BUT BECAUSE I KNEW THAT HE KNOWS Mbabane East like the back of his light skinned hands. He was born and raised in the Msunduza Township and has been a teacher in the area for over two decades.

The reasoning behind his nomination was nothing which was motivated by bribing the community with crates of cold beer and food but he relied on the trust of the people from the area. This is a lesson to his competitors and losers is that the reason they lost is because they made such a choice.

Being a person who has been a victim of urban poverty myself, record shows that rural areas developed faster because their former Members of Parliament took sound decisions on their constituencies interest. It of no surprise that the people of Siphofaneni still believe in Gundvwane Gamedze even after 15 years.  Since his tenure as Member of Parliament in the area , his small town Siphonaneni has developed from the agriculture sector where the areas of the constituency have been empowered into sugar cane farming schemes, development of the area’s infrastructure etc. Success these areas which also include Siteki has not required magical intervention and it had not demanded the Government of Eswatini to provide special conditions to enable our respective constituencies to develop in the form of commercial structures or donations preferences.

Imagine a former Member of Parliament decrying loss of Parliamentary seat when he/she had over ten years of ensuring that they invest in flashy cars and basking in the glory of kickbacks of travelling in gravy seats to African Parliament Association forums. They never seized opportunities of acquiring international grants to develop their respective constituencies instead they had been too nosey on operations of respective Ministries blaming them of corruption  and poor service delivery.

One may argue that the former parliamentarians were facing bigger challenges of being caught wanting and being pushed in passing long over due Bills and legislature whilst in the same vicinity had others like Mr ‘Suit’ Shongwe (sorry they abuse you were accorded during the primary elections-maybe it was a way the boys needed to express their no thanks to your fashion sense) who would make a lot of noise in the guise of acting under priviledge. These are nothing like obstacles these people needed to overcome but they are not excuses for failure.

Unlike those who have failed to shape the country better I am hopeful that the potential Members of Parliament have realised the potential of development already. The country’s youth due to the high level of abuse on alcohol and drugs like dagga are seemingly far from  being huge source of talent and energy to be harnessed but due to the high level of unemployment and lack multiple opportunites of education cannot be regarded as the destabilising force in development.