MINISTER of Labour and Social Security Phila Buthelezi has called on government leaders to stop complaining about bureaucracy and inefficiency.
Buthelezi said the country could not move forward if leaders continued to identify problems without changing the systems and practices responsible for them.
He said, when introducing Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini during an engagement with Professor Delanyo Adadevoh, members of the Prime Minister’s Office Parliament Portfolio Committee, senators and other MPs at Happy Valley Hotel yesterday.
Backing Dlamini’s call for the disruption of outdated systems and processes, Buthelezi said the country needed a change in the way government approached its work.
He urged leaders to move beyond what he described as whining about bureaucracy and inefficiencies and instead implement practical changes.
He said the current Parliament had an opportunity to change the narrative around government performance. He contrasted the current parliamentary term with previous periods when the phrase ‘business unusual’ was often used to describe the need for change.
He said there was now an added push because the prime minister was advocating for a different approach to the way government operates.
Buthelezi said the premier’s message of transformation was not merely rhetoric but something that should translate into how leaders and public institutions conduct their daily business. He said it was time for leaders to stop accepting inefficient processes simply because they had become established practices.
“Do this different for the country to move forward and stop whining,” Buthelezi said. He also said Emaswati sometimes needed to hear messages about their own potential from people outside the country.
He praised Dlamini for articulating issues that, in his view, resonated with the country’s development needs.
He suggested that messages from international speakers could sometimes reinforce what local leaders were already saying and encourage citizens to take those ideas more seriously.
The minister said the engagement with Professor Adadevoh provided an opportunity to examine the country’s development challenges from a broader perspective.
