OUR BUDGET POTHOLES

I have confessed before that I am not an extremely fast reader. My pace is at best average and the reasons are not too hard to find. I have a weakness for analysing – more like over-analysing - the things I read. When you over-analyse as you read through a text, you slow down considerably. My speed, however, is decent when I read unimportant material like magazines or books because I do not necessarily care even if I get to misunderstand any of the tit bits of what I am reading.

However, when it comes to very important matters like the national budget, I summon all my concentration and faculties as I read through the material. This really slows me down, to a snail’s pace.
This is why I found Martin Dlamini, the Honourable Minister of Finance’s budget speech last week encouraging and relevant on one hand but riddled with too many uncomfortable potholes on the other.
He succeeded in making the right remarks in some instances, especially when it came to capital projects but went on to invalidate them by being less transparent, especially on recurrent expenditure.

By their very nature, budget speeches are supposed to mirror the actual budget figures but it so happens that the narratives are deliberately hyperbolic and extremely enriched that one finds no reasonable cause to look at the actual figures on which these narratives are constructed.

In a budget setting, figures must inform the words so that whatever is said speaks unambiguously to the actual figures without deducting or enriching anything.
For instance, if there is an increase of allocation of a certain amount, say, to the army, the narrative must explain in no uncertain terms the justification for that increase and why it is more important than, say, the provision of more tertiary scholarships.

When this narrative is vague or, as is often the case, non-existent, it then creates the impression that transparency is being deliberately avoided, which then begs the question ‘why?’
It is things like that, that slow down my reading because they send my brain waves on a tailspin, frantically looking for legitimate reasons to explain the situation only to find nothing. Then I become wary.
However, the minister did a fantastic job of putting a human face to the budget and in recognising that he, like all of us, does what he does on behalf of all the Swazi citizens. I liked that statement a lot but unfortunately it did not go far enough to fill in the perceived potholes in the budget.

I also liked the commitment by government to invest heavily into capital projects. We have been moaning and groaning about the insignificant amounts of money being directed towards national infrastructure for a long time now.
Maybe we forgot to mention to government which capital projects we would have liked.  I think we forgot because, to government’s credit, we see a decent amount of money being allocated for infrastructure projects but unfortunately, it is not the sort of infrastructure we had in mind.

There is definitely a point of departure on the chosen projects and I am yet to find out if some convergence or common ground is still attainable seeing, as I do, the budget is still to be debated in various forums.
By infrastructure projects I had always contemplated projects like enhancing and linking the rural road network with major national roads which connect into hub centres like our regional cities.

Encouraging

I had always figured that these roads would form the backbone as supply routes into rural areas where we are encouraging cottage industries and other small businesses to be started, so that we achieve economic power devolution.
We cannot claim to be serious about devolving government to grassroots levels without the attendant infrastructural enhancements to remove physical impediments.
That is why the SPTC/MTN debacle, which has robbed us of rural connectivity, is a serious matter to me.
It defeats the whole national agenda for devolution. Telecommunications infrastructure and a robust road transportation network are, in my opinion, vital prerequisites for commercial activity, especially in rural or remote areas without which we might as well be playing around.

If we are serious about rural development, we cannot afford to fold our arms or bury our heads in the sand when commercial institutions like MTN and SPTC hold the entire country to ransom by hiding behind unintelligible legal jargon.
Someone somewhere must start talking and if there are personal interests involved - and I hope there are not - these interests must be declared openly so that we know exactly what animal we are dealing with here.
This secrecy and clandestine legal manoeuvring - and God knows what else - are not good for the First World vision.
In fact, these pranks are not good for anyone who is serious about His Majesty’s vision, yet all those who have the power and influence to mediate in this unfortunate saga are as silent as they can be, much like people enjoying the fruits of their handiwork.

By infrastructure projects, I had in mind thermal power stations to provide cheaper electricity so that we reduce or eliminate our reliance on South Africa, which is also running out of power to meet their own domestic needs.
I did not have in mind airports, which as we speak, have no aeroplanes to land.
I did not mean fancy convention centres and five-star hotels in which there are no customers waiting in line to sleep in.
All of these projects in my opinion are at best pie in the sky, yet millions and millions of Emalangeni are being pumped into them.
Yet we have many customers waiting for affordable and reliable electricity.

They are hoping and praying for it.
They want basic infrastructure to make their dreams of starting a small business at home possible; like cheaper electricity to run their small businesses and to power their homes, clean water to drink, a clinic to get healing, a telephone to communicate with suppliers or report an emergency, a small police station for safety, and a decent road network to use to carry their wares to the market.
This infrastructure I am talking about can pay for itself because more and more people in the rural areas would find themselves in the tax pool as their financial circumstances improve.
Rural areas could become a beehive of commercial activity at such a small scale that it could change the face of Swaziland for the better. 
I am happy that government is looking at upgrading roads like Bulembu and others around the country because Bulembu, as His Majesty pronounced recently, could easily become one of the sought after tourist destinations in the country, apart from bridging the distance between Swaziland and Barberton.

The Minister of Finance did a fine job considering this was his maiden budget speech.
However, for a man of his sharp calibre and intellect and who has a fresh mind and an independent pair of eyes, I think he could have done a bit more to persuade his colleagues to be sensible in prioritising national projects.
Five-star hotels and fancy airports are all good but not all good things are always the right ones.
It is my thinking that it was for economic reasons the Sun International closed the Ezulwini Sun hotel.

There is insufficient clientele for the Ezulwini Valley, particularly after the opening of the Happy Valley and Sibane Hotel.
That is why I worry about the profitability, in the same area, of a world class 500 bed hotel in the same venue. Will there be a return on the investment?
Former Minister Majozi Sithole spoke of a whooping figure of E80 million per month being lost to corruption.

We hope innovative initiatives yet to be introduced by the Minister with the help of the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) will plug this very expensive unaccounted financial drain from the meagre resources that this country has.
Imagine how far the country would have advanced if this money was addressing development.
The deafening silence of the budget speech not only on the elderly grants and the youth fund but also on the status of the controversial Finance Circular No.1 and the culmination of Finance Circular No.2 of 2013 need to be brought before the House.  Do the right thing, Sir.
I hope the horse has not bolted out the stable already for you to advise your colleagues accordingly.

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