Have you ever wondered why the Kingdom of Eswatini has the highest unemployed rate on the youth? Why the government has not reviewed personal allowance for tertiary students in years? Why it took so long for the government to ease COVID-19 regulations on the entertainment industry? Why Emaswati are still not allowed inside sports stadiums something which affects mostly the country’s youth?

Well, the government through the Minister of Tinkhundla Administration has indirectly provided answers to the aforementioned questions and many more. In a statement he made during yesterday’s agent parliament sitting, the Minister advised other MPs to ignore the youth because “they do not influence the country’s elections.”

“Elections are not decided by the youth that barks on Social Media, these people do not vote, in fact elections are not influenced by Social Media so MPs must just ignore the youth,” said the MP who is also a former Minister of Sports, youth and Culture.

Worth noting is that the country’s youth forms the biggest share of the country’s population and therefore ignoring the youth may be seen as ignoring the whole populace.

Surprisingly, the Minister may have misled the MPs. If the 2018 Elections report is anything to go by, the country’s elections are indeed influenced by the youth as 54% of the votes that came through during the 2018 elections on a national level came from the youth.

In fact, according to the report, 54% of the votes that were casted under the Sigwe Inkhundla were from the youth. What is Ngcamphalala talking about? Personally, I think he should be ashamed of himself as he literally, insulted the country’s youth something that has not gone unnoticed.

A snippet from the 2018 Election report.

Emaswati should not trust anything the Minister says in the near future because he has proven to be unreliable. Moreover, the silence from the youth organization is worrisome as they should be seen condemning the Minister’s statement for subjecting the country’s youth to poverty merely for demanding justice and accountability.