… As elections candidates engage with the public
BY KWANELE TSABEDZE
MBABANE – Ngete ngasala nasakha live letfu!
This slogan has indeed permeated all of Eswatini as witnessed in the posters, social media posts, and most significantly the campaign events in which emaSwati have been participating.
The Eswatini Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) has been organising campaign events across the country, where candidates for different public service roles have been engaging directly with the public.
Service delivery took centre stage as all candidates presented their plans to deliver good public services to their people in service of developing standards of living. The people were also very forthcoming with what kind of service delivery they need their leaders to bring in the next five years when they are in office. Education, economic opportunity development and health were some of the most reiterated subjects during the campaign events.
Whilst a couple of events have been cancelled due to a low turnout by the public, the majority of events over the past few days have recorded lively civic engagement between candidates and the people they would like to serve. Some successfully organised campaign events were held over the past weekend at Mhobodleni in the Manzini South Inkhundla, at Mtsambama Imkhundla in the Shiselweni region, eLuhlanyeni Inkhundla, at Gege in the Shiselweni region, and KaMkhweli.
Speaking during a campaign event documented by the EBC this weekend, one candidate from Mhobodleni spoke on improving care for the elderly.
“There is a lot we can do as a community. Some elderly people are not able to do much. If God blesses me with the opportunity to work for you, we will work for their development with you and the committees we have,” said the candidate.
“I have been a town councillor in the Manzini Town Council for 10 years, having been a deputy mayor for some of those, before becoming mayor for four of those 10 years. I have served in different portfolio committees in the municipality. While working in the municipality we were able to make developments and changed some of the ways in which the municipality worked. Previously, the municipality would handle maintenance work all over the town. However when I was the mayor I instituted a policy which saw to it that the maintenance work in each ward employed people from that ward,” said another candidate from Mhobodleni during the campaign meeting.
The candidates also answered direct questions from their potential voters on issues of youth employment and infrastructure development among others.
