Scant hope of economic and political progress

Reports by Swaziland's major business and civic organisations paint a gloomy economic picture, predicting that the tiny landlocked country may never return to the boom years of the 1990s, when it benefited from economic sanctions against neighbouring South Africa during apartheid. "The issue of fiscal discipline and the prudent management of the fiscus continue to be a concern: the spending priorities, which focus on capital projects such as the Sikhupe Airport; the dramatic increases in civil service salaries within a bloated civil service; the increasing expenditure on defence, when the only war we are fighting is HIV/AIDS, are worrying signals," said Treasure Maphanga, CEO of the Federation of Swaziland Employers and Chamber of Commerce (FSE/CC). "There is no prescription to be provided, except that we need a common vision for the country - we need to revisit the National Development Strategy, and link this to policy initiatives," said Maphanga, who was installed this year as the first woman to run the country's top private sector business groups. In the opinion of the business community, the authorities needed to engage the private sector and civil society on national issues, rather than ignoring them. "Government has to be alert to the value of participation of non-state actors, business and civil society in a meaningful dialogue that could lead to economic and social renewal," she noted. The business groups reported that economic as well as social indicators were declining. Citing the findings of the Economist Association of Swaziland, the Chamber of Commerce foresaw a further rise in unemployment beyond the current 40 percent, a worsening of poverty, and HIV/AIDS further damaging the economy. Jumping on the transparency bandwagon set in motion by Prime Minister Themba Dlamini's promise of an Anti-Corruption Bill, Maphanga indicated that the business community would also have to police itself. "We urge the authorities to put in place the appropriate structures to deal with this scourge, which can only increase poverty and poor distribution of wealth." Gone are the days when foreign investors found Swaziland a safe alternative to apartheid-era South Africa and civil war-torn Mozambique, when goods could be manufactured and sold to those southern African countries. With the democratisation of South Africa and Mozambique it was now King Mswati's royal government - which continued to function without a constitution - that investors saw as problematic. "As much as these may be perceived as political issues, they have a direct bearing on the business climate. Some of our members indicated that they are putting their expansion on hold and looking forward to a resolution of the critical issues, such as the constitution. This is because, to the business community, good governance is a cornerstone for sustainable economic and human development," Maphanga pointed out. At a conference with parliamentarians this week, the Coordinating Assembly of Non-Governmental Organisations noted that a national economic revival was impossible without a change in government's spending priorities. The umbrella NGO body expressed concern over the decline of the sugar and textile industries, noting that the European Union this week banned Swazi beef imports, which would worsen the situation. For years Swaziland has enjoyed a quota of beef sales guaranteed by treaty with the EU. "This was a self-inflicted wound. We did not have the necessary paperwork at hand to track the provenance of the slaughtered cattle, including their inoculations. This documentation is required by the EU," a source at Swaziland Meat Industries, the country's export abattoir, told IRIN. Swaziland's civic organisations strongly condemned what they called the government's "international propaganda drive, asserting that Swazis wish to preserve the royal government", as Mswati's brother, Foreign Minister Prince David Dlamini, told South African parliamentarians in Cape Town, South Africa this week. The coalition, made up of NGOs, legal and human rights groups, said it would adopt a policy of alerting the international community to the failure of government to enact political reform. South African government officials expressed satisfaction at the pace of political reform in Swaziland after hearing from the foreign affairs minister on the progress of a new constitution. The palace-authored constitution will keep absolute governing powers in the hands of the monarchy.