BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – It is important for Emaswati to work on their shops in rural areas and townships so that they should not be taken over by foreigners.
This was said by Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini on his video posted on his Facebook page. The Prime Minister was answering one of the Facebookers who wanted to know the policy of Government regarding grocery shops owned by people of foreign origin in rural areas and townships.
Dlamini believes that by operating these shops, Emaswati would be able to close the space for any other person to operate these shops. He said the problem was that many Emaswati wanted to easily get money from the shop operators of foreign origin, hence they rented out the shop structures and land to the foreigners.
The PM advised Emaswati not to rely on rent money from the foreigners, but instead, run their own grocery shops to protect their own factors of production. Regarding Government policy, Dlamini said Parliament last year enacted a legislation that was meant to preserve certain businesses for Emaswati.
The Citizens Economic Empowerment Act of 2023 was enacted to enable Emaswati to run certain businesses, without having to worry about such businesses being taken away by people of foreign origins. Dlamini believed Emaswati who were worried such as this Facebooker would be happy after reading that Act.
