AS the nation marks the double milestone of His Majesty King Mswati III’s 58th birthday and his Ruby Jubilee, marking 40 years on the throne, businessman Walter Bennett has offered a sweeping and candid evaluation of the kingdom’s journey.
At 71 years of age, Bennett bridges the eras of two monarchs, providing a perspective that is both deeply loyal to the institution of the Throne and fiercely critical of the administrative machinery surrounding it.
Reflecting on the 1986 coronation, Bennett noted that the sense of national exhilaration has not faded.
“When His Majesty was crowned and today, it is the same feeling; we are still on Cloud 10, not just Cloud 9,” he said.
Despite the challenges of the intervening decades, including the 1996 national stay-away and various university strikes, Bennett observed that His Majesty has consistently ‘come up trumps,’ maintaining stability through a leadership style defined by restraint and a fatherly concern for the nation.
For Bennett, the ‘epitome’ of the king’s character was the February 2003 directive to establish the Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) Fund. He noted that what began with a humble E16 million has blossomed into a billion-Emalangeni safety net that has transformed the lives of countless citizens.
“If you want to deal with poverty, do so through education. One teacher is like a single maize seed that brings about a cob, which eventually feeds the nation. One educated student impacts an entire home.
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“Education is the muthi (medicine) that deals with poverty.”
He credited the king’s personal capacity to deal with issues effectively for the fact that the nation has moved beyond Free Primary Education (FPE) to producing a generation of graduates who would otherwise have been left behind.
Regarding infrastructure, Bennett identified the Millennium Projects as the king’s most significant strategic achievement. He added that in an era where the private sector was often constrained by pessimism or a lack of capital, state-led projects like the King Mswati III International Airport, the ICC at Ezulwini and the railway network filled the investment vacuum.
However, the businessman was blunt about where the vision falters: the operating side.
“The biggest problem is not with the projects but us locals and government,” he said. He pointed to the stalled audit of the ICC Fish project and the medicinal shortages in clinics as evidence of a ‘misaligned’ government.
He specifically criticised the handling of the drug crisis, where a parliamentary inquiry into the sale of expired drugs was reportedly ‘thrown away’ by players seeking to protect personal interests.
