The queues of youth scrambling for police jobs has been described as frightening, exposing the desperate competition for employment in a country where even university education remains out of reach for many.
Businessman Walter Bennett said he was shocked by the number of young people who turned up for police recruitment.
He questioned how a country could have so many job seekers competing for an undisclosed number of vacancies.
He said the situation reflected a wider national crisis, where young people were struggling to secure employment, access higher education and find opportunities to build their futures. He argued that the large number of applicants compared to the available positions exposed a serious contradiction in the country’s employment situation.
“What is happening is frightening. I was surprised and I could not believe it,” said Bennett.
The same struggle was evident in the education sector, where deserving students were unable to access university opportunities because of limited places and funding. He said it was painful to see young people struggling to access university education because of funding shortages, while students were reportedly returning home because their allowances had not been paid.
He had witnessed this when accompanying a dependent to sign for a scholarship, questioning why the university had not been expanded over the years to accommodate more students.
Instead of increasing capacity, he argued, admission requirements were being raised, leaving even students who performed exceptionally well unable to secure places.
Bennett illustrated the problem by saying a university could have the academic capacity to teach 3 000 students, while accommodation facilities could only cater for 2 000. He questioned the logic of having resources to pay lecturers for a larger student population while facilities prevented all those students from enrolling.
He said the result was that young people were being shut out of opportunities to improve their lives, while the country continued to witness long queues for the few jobs available.
The concerns, he said, were particularly troubling because Parliament had made undertakings following the riots, yet he questioned what tangible action had been taken to address the frustrations of young people. He said factory shells were a positive investment, but questioned how many jobs they actually created and the quality of employment being offered.
Bennett said the country needed to confront the reality that young people could not continue to depend on limited recruitment exercises while other employment opportunities remained scarce.
His criticism also turned to government’s spending priorities, particularly expenditure on official trips, allowances and vehicle loans. He questioned whether public funds were being directed towards the needs of ordinary Emaswati, arguing that money spent on government activities should be examined against the urgent needs of students and unemployed youth.
Bennett specifically questioned why certain travel benefits and allowances were allegedly treated differently from benefits received by private sector employees for tax purposes.
He said it was difficult to justify looking for money to fund education and youth development while other areas of public expenditure were not being sufficiently scrutinised. He also raised concerns about the reduction of corporate tax from 27.5% to 25% in 2020, arguing that government needed to assess the revenue implications of the decision at a time when unemployment had become a crisis.
Bennett questioned the country’s commitment to fighting corruption, particularly the resources allocated to the Anti-Corruption Commission.
He said the institution needed to be adequately capacitated to carry out its work, while Parliament should not remain silent when oversight institutions faced challenges. He also questioned the capacity of the auditor general’s office and other accountability institutions, saying if they were understaffed, government needed to address the problem.
Bennett further questioned public spending on benchmarking trips and other parliamentary activities, arguing that the country needed to establish how much was spent annually and whether the expenditure was justified.
He said the situation facing young people should force national leaders to account for how public resources were being used.
“How much do we spend in a year, in a quarter, on trips and how much?” he asked.
