Foreign Policy Blogs

Swaziland Retrenches Public Servants in a Bid to Gain IMF Loan Approval.

I am not sure if it is just me, but it is dawning on me that the IMF  has one standardized economic solution when it comes to tackling Africa’s economic crisis: Cut spending, cut spending, and cut spending!

Under the guise of the so-called “fiscal road map” presented in October to the International Monetary Fund (otherwise known as IMF), the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB), thousands of public servants in Swaziland are due to lose their jobs in that country’s bid to gain approval  for a loan from the IMF.  Apparently, according to Swaziland’s finance minister Majozi Sithole, “these cutbacks will not affect health and education,” reports Africa News.

I am not an economist, but I would think that a person’s being unemployed also means cutbacks in the affected individual’s ability to afford education and health for his/her family who largely depends on his salary. Is retrenching 7,000 civil servants really the only way for the tiny Southern African monarchy to find its way out of this economic crisis? How about being a little bit entrepreneurial here?  After all, policy is the art of the possible as I learned in my Policy 101 class.

Too many questions with no answers, but I won’t be surprised if  huge sum of this loan would end up supporting the country’s autocratic royals instead of ordinary citizens.<-->

 

Author

Ndumba J. Kamwanyah

Ndumba Jonnah Kamwanyah, a native of Namibia in Southern Africa, is an independent consultant providing trusted advice and capacity building through training, research, and social impact analysis to customers around the world. Mos recently Ndumba returned from a consulting assignment in Liberia in support of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).
In his recent previous life Ndumba taught (as an Adjunct Professor) traditional justice and indigenous African political institutions in sub-Saharan Africa at the Rhode Island College-Anthropology Department.

He is very passionate about democracy development and peace-building, and considers himself as a street researcher interested in the politics of everyday life.
Twitter: NdumbaKamwanyah