I sat down this past weekend and found myself reflecting on the number 10.
Perhaps there is something inherently special about it. We are fresh from celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), a milestone that marks a decade of relentless work towards building resilience in our communities.
And then, almost serendipitously, I read in the news that for the 10th Eswatini Customer Service Awards, my name appeared among the nominees for the Business Leader of the Year category.
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It felt almost poetic. The number 10 presenting itself not once, but twice, as if signaling a period of reflection and recognition. One might naturally begin by congratulating all the nominees, and indeed I do.
It is a privilege to stand alongside individuals and organizations that have committed themselves to excellence. If I were to be honest, I had hoped that my organization, which I have come to call the resilience hub (NDMA) would have been recognized for its solid dedication to service.
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Still, I look forward with optimism to next year, confident that the work we do will continue to speak for itself.
Many people tend to associate customer service strictly with profit-driven entities, the kind where transactions, sales, and loyalty programs dominate the conversation.
However, at the NDMA, while we may not have a dedicated customer service unit, every aspect of our work revolves around creating an excellent customer experience.
Our ‘clients’ are our most vulnerable citizens, those who depend on our interventions, support, and guidance in times of need. Every interaction, every program, every disaster response effort is designed to meet the highest standards of service.
Time and again, feedback from communities has shown us how our officers are perceived. The appreciation, the critiques, and even the suggestions are not taken lightly. They are carefully studied and used to improve the services we provide.
When a citizen visits the resilience hub, attends a training session, or receives assistance after a disaster, it is imperative that they leave with a sense of respect, dignity, and assurance that their needs matter. Every conversation and every visit, becomes an opportunity for us to strengthen that trust and confidence. And that, in itself, is a form of customer service that goes beyond profit. It is service rooted in compassion, efficiency, and integrity.
This year’s theme for the Eswatini Customer Service Week, Mission Possible, could not be more fitting. In our work, every encounter with a client is indeed a mission.
In the private sector, customers usually arrive with optimism and expectation. In our world, they often come carrying grief, frustration, or fear.
They are mothers whose homes have been destroyed by storms, farmers watching the land dry and crack under relentless heat, and families displaced by floods with nowhere to go. Their eyes do not shine with excitement; they are heavy with uncertainty. And that is where our mission begins, at the very point where hope feels distant.
Working with such clients demands more than technical expertise. It requires emotional strength and the ability to remain calm when tempers rise from pain of vulnerability.
It means seeing beyond the words spoken and hearing what the heart is trying to say. Each complaint is really a call for stability. Each question, a plea for reassurance.
Our officers are not only responders; they are listeners, mediators, and healers in their own unique way. Whenever an NDMA officer sits beside a farmer who has lost everything, or walks through a community assessing damage after a storm, that moment becomes more than duty.
It becomes a mission to restore belief that tomorrow can still hold promise. That is what Mission Possible means in the language of resilience. It is the conviction that there is always a way forward, even when everything seems lost. Every call we answer, every coordination meeting we hold, and every visit to the field carries one message to the nation — we can rise again.
This conviction is not theoretical; it is lived. We see it in the farmer who dares to plant again after drought, in the volunteer who walks long distances to deliver relief, and in the NDMA officer who stays behind to make sure a family is safe before nightfall.
These are not isolated acts; together they form the heartbeat of national resilience.
I was recently reminded of this while watching the Asibambane Sibe Ngumndeni programme introduced by the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office to promote reconciliation and forgiveness within families. One particular episode which brought me to tears featured an elderly man who had been assisted in constructing a resilient structure, a living reflection of our slogan of building back better. The story, however, reached far beyond the bricks and the cement.
The man had once struggled to support his children, and over the years, their hearts grew cold towards him.
They carried wounds of abandonment, believing he had failed them as a father. After suffering a stroke, he lived in isolation, visited only occasionally by his youngest child.
Through the compassion of the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office, his children were located and a reunion was arranged. What followed was a moment that touched the soul. Pain that had long been buried finally found its voice. The children spoke through tears of anger and disappointment, releasing years of silent hurt. Then the elderly man, frail but sincere, whispered, ‘Ngiyacolisa bantfwabami’.
That simple apology carried the weight of a lifetime. It captured the essence of true resilience, not the rebuilding of walls, but the rebuilding of the heart. It reminded us that healing the human spirit is as vital as restoring what disaster takes away.
Forgiveness stands as one of the highest forms of resilience. It rebuilds invisible bridges of trust that have collapsed under pain. It revives relationships once believed beyond repair. It teaches us that the hardest mission is not repairing what storms destroy, but mending what separation and disappointment have torn apart. And that mission remains possible.
Our national journey of resilience mirrors this truth. There are seasons when we feel broken by disaster, by loss, or even by one another. But when we choose to forgive, to reach across divides, and to begin anew, resilience comes alive. The same hands that once clenched in anger can one day hold in unity.
In this moment of reflection during this customer service week, there may be among us who have withdrawn from family because of old pain or unresolved conflicts. You do not need to wait for an institution to mediate.
The choice to forgive, to reach out, and to restore broken bonds lies within you. A simple acknowledgment of past mistakes, a genuine apology, can open the door to reconciliation and renewal. It can mend relationships, heal hearts, and trigger the rebuilding of trust that may have long been fractured.
That willingness to reconcile and restore what was broken is exactly what the nation needs to secure enduring resilience and a future capable of withstanding any challenge. So while the focus may largely be on companies delivering customer service this week, the gift that truly matters to the nation is forgiveness and reconciliation within your own family. It is mission possible.
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