MBABANE – Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg began the 2023 National Budget Speech by thanking His Majesty King Mswati III for guiding the Government, shortly after quoting a Bible scripture.
“Mister Speaker, it is my great honour to present to this esteemed house my fifth budget speech and National Budget Estimates for the 2023-2024 financial year to this the fifth session of the 11th parliament of the Kingdom of Eswatini. Let me start with the scripture from the first Peter 5 verse 10, ‘and the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you’ve suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast,” said the Minister in his opening remarks.
“Mister Speaker, I’d like to thank His Majesty the King for the clear mandate and direction that he gave the nation and his government in his speech from the throne at the opening of the 11th Parliament. His Majesty reminded us that we can achieve great things if we work together in the spirit of dialogue and each one of us have a role to play in contributing meaningfully to peace in the Kingdom. We also take great courage in His Majesty’s words of encouragement and hope as he declared the year 2023 as a year of turnaround for our nation, away from the pain and suffering that we have experienced in the last 2 years, so long as we continue to praise as a nation and call out to God for his guidance and wisdom,” said Minister Rijkenberg.
The Minister went on thank his colleagues in Government for their hard work.
“Mr. Speaker I would like to thank his excellency the right Honourable Prime Minister for his wisdom, leadership and commitment. I would like to thank the Honourable Deputy Prime Minister for his steadfastness in these trying times as well as my colleagues from cabinet for their support and collaboration. I wish to express my profound gratitude to this extraordinary team of men and women for their leadership, wisdom, humility, and public service. It has been my privilege to serve our King and Nation with you,” continued the Minister.
“Mr. Speaker let me also express my heartfelt appreciation to all those that have helped in the preparation of this budget. This includes the many organisations, individuals, and professional groups that presented expert briefs during the budget formulation meetings in the respective line ministries and the Planning and Budget Committee, the individuals and collective contributions from my colleagues and my dedicated team in the Ministry of Finance. I also thank honourable Members of Parliament, and in particular the Sessional Committee and the Finance Portfolio Committee,” remarked Minister Rijkenberg.
“I present this budget as a representative fiscal response to the current needs of our nation, and to best address our most pressing socio-economic needs and service delivery. Mister Speaker, I chose the scripture from 1 Peter chapter 5 for a specific reason. As you are aware, we have been working hard over the past few years to get our economy and our country on a sustainable growth path even without the COVID-19 pandemic, the unrest, the floods, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. This seemed to be an impossible task, but we have somehow managed to reach our goal notwithstanding all of these economic and social disruptions. In addition our economic growth has outperformed the region, while we have been reducing the actual budget and the budget deficit. Although we have worked incredibly hard and made significant sacrifices to where we are today, we need to acknowledge this miracle, and so all glory to God, because without his grace and mercy, this would have been impossible,” urged the Minister.
“I want to take this opportunity to thank all of those people who pray diligently for our nation, please continue,” implored the Minister of Finance.
