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BE REALISTIC!

23/02/2018 00:37:00 By Martin Dlamini

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WILL they listen? This is the question yearning for an answer ahead of the forthcoming national budget speech by Finance Minister Martin Dlamini next week.

It comes after His Majesty the King directed Cabinet ministers to prepare and present a realistic budget that reflects our affordability as a country. Numerous projects are now grounded and hundreds of service providers remain unpaid simply because of an unrealistic budget.

This is one of about 22 directives that touch upon critical areas that need to be addressed for this country to realise the economic growth we urgently need. Evidently, His Majesty is tired of being promised heaven and earth and made to pronounce developments long before we even know where the money will come from. Truth be told, so are many people in this country.

We would like to thank His Majesty for putting it bluntly, because previous calls for fiscal prudence by Cabinet have been disregarded with impunity. The past two weeks have presented us with a more noticeable reason why public opinion does not matter to our soon-to-be former ministers. The prime minister’s swipe at columnist Vusi Sibisi and his lawyer’s letter to Nkwene MP Skhumbuzo Dlamini are just but two cases in point. Why take offence at being criticised while holding public office? For someone who is well versed on the role of the media given all the engagements we have with him, he knows better to respond to the issues raised not the person.

The less said about his attack on the Member of Parliament for comments raised inside chambers, the better. If the PM of a country will disregard the protection guaranteed by the very structures he uses to define the liberal beauty of our political system, then he should not be surprised if his critics thank him for confirming their suspicions. A serious dent to our Constitution no less.
There is a lot wrong that Cabinet has to answer for, but its attitude portrays a group of people who are unrealistic in their thinking.
Most recently we have had secret salary increments being implemented outside the salary negotiations table and the beneficiaries are those closest to Cabinet. Meanwhile, the general populace is told to be realistic about its demands because the country’s wage bill can no longer afford to pay out a single cent more.
With Cabinet on record raising concern over the unsustainable wage bill, how does it continue with unrealistic salary increments? A select few were granted salary review appeals. Then it was under secretaries and ambassadors, followed by the personal assistants to the ministers, promotions in the security forces and, most recently, a salary hike for Emabandla by as much as 90 per cent for some. This is being totally unrealistic. All this while the government negotiations team is deadlocked over a cost of living adjustment for all public servants. A strike looms as a result. It needs no rocket scientist to predict what will follow and the threat this poses to the peace that the King has called upon the nation to preserve.
Preserving the peace does not mean beefing up security, it means addressing the essential needs of the people first, in ways that would build a society that is more content with its livelihood and giving no reason for the State to worry about people revolting.
The country is struggling to become food self-sufficient but the budget for agriculture continues to take a knock each year and has been surpassed by that of national security. Is this being realistic? This country is blessed with arable land and alluvial soils but we cannot maximise their full potential. The Finance minister needs to correct this next week.
The future of this country also lies in quality education but the resources going towards this sector are a far cry from what could deliver the quality we need. Parents are forced to sleep outside buildings just to get study permits for their children who are flocking tertiary institutions outside the country. This is a shame. As a country, we can afford to build more universities if we just put aside non priority spending.
The Finance minister has a few months left in office to redeem himself before he goes down as the minister who put the last nail in the coffin of our economy with an unrealistic budget. We doubt if this bothers him and his colleagues though, hence the question; will they listen?