Mandla Hlatjwayo: Swaziland - Debt, International Finance, Economics and Development

Blossom of Thought

Mandla Hlatjwayo, Chairman of Letfu Sonkhe Institute for Strategic Thinking and Development returns to the show. Letfu Sonkhe Institute provides an interdisciplinary platform for researchers, practitioners, educators and politicians to meaningfully engage and discuss the on-going challenges of Swaziland. Mandla has provided leadership in a litany of areas including in various corporations in Swaziland and South Africa. His education Includes a law degree from University of SD, an Executive Development Program from the University of Stellenbosch, Cape Town, South Africa and a Bookkeeping- Intermediate from Pitman Institute in London. Mandla and I talk about debt, international finance and economics. Swaziland is equally exploited as other African nations and it presents a micro level of Africa's debt to the western world. Says Plutarch: The greed of creditors brings neither development nor dividends to the poor, and ruins developing countries. They do not till the fields which they take from their debtors, nor do they live in their houses after evicting them.” Swaziland’s debt makes up about 48% of the country's GDP. The Southern Africa Customs Union and to some extent the workers pension funds cushions the country's debt. Significant creditors of Swaziland are the IMF, African Development Bank, the Arab world as well as India etc.

So much capital has been put into projects that have become white elephants/unproductive. The informal sector is neglected, yet it should connect with the formal sector - and that's how wealth can be created for the small player in the street. Agriculture is a missing link in the empowerment of the masses.

The exploitative dynamics of Coca Cola in Swaziland manifests in little tax contribution despite its large share of the economy at 26%.Poor national governance standards contribute to the exploitation of workers, blood and sweat of labour is not equitable compensated in the labour intensive sectors of the economy.

As far as the education system is concerned, schools in Swaziland are not structured to have young people come out of school with valuable skills - to use their hands and minds in crafts and services. Investment in human capital to add value to the economy is seriously wanting. Hence, Swazis do not produce products of higher quality than the exploitative labour intensive industries in rural agriculture, textile and the small manufacturing sector. Therefore, the education system needs serious overhauling so that Swazis can be capacitated to take charge of their lives and create opportunities for their own participation in the economy as both workers and entrepreneurs. This requires the integration of new/modern methods of training and education in order to change the fortune of the economy/country and to catch up with the rest of the world.

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