WINDHOEK: The Swaziland Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Mtiti Fakudze rubbished reports that economic situation in his country is critical.
Fakudze told the media on Saturday that the economic situation in Swaziland is under control.
“We are still managing our economic situation,” he stated.
Asked about international reports that said some countries have even cut their cooperation with Swaziland due the critical situation fo the economy, Fakudze said those reports are from truth, they are not true.
“We are still cooperating with our neighbouring countries, it is not true and will never happen,” he said.
He said Swaziland is also hard hit by the global financial crisis like any other country in the world.
According to reports, a mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that visited Mbabane late last year found that ‘Swaziland’s socio-economic situation is serious.’
The political crisis in the small Kingdom, in addition to the AIDS pandemic, was causing the economy to stagnate and poverty to spread.
An unresolved crisis in Swaziland’s judicial system, uncertainties over the new constitution, and concerns about governance in general were ‘fuelling social tensions and weakening donor sentiment,’ the IMF mission found.
Further, a significant widening in the central government’s fiscal deficit, ‘through non-social spending, threatens macroeconomic stability and sustainability,’ the IMF stated in its latest preliminary Swaziland report.
The Fund seems to be referring to luxury spending by the controversial Swazi King, Mswati III.