GOVT DRAWS OVER E1.4 BILLION FROM RESERVES TO PAY SALARIES

MBABANE – Government says it has drawn down more than E1.4 billion from its reserves at the Central Bank to pay salaries in November (2018), February and March (2019).

This was disclosed by the Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, in his confirmatory affidavit in the matter where government wants the cost-of-living-adjustment (CoLA) court case postponed to March 2020.
The affidavit by the minister comes after public sector associations (PSAs) called upon government to provide concrete proof that it did not have money. The PSAs are vigorously opposing the application to have the matter postponed to next year.
In his affidavit, the minister further highlighted that the country was now at risk of losing its peg to the South African Rand if government drew down any more money.

Treasury

According to Rijkenburg, government spent all of the money that was available at Treasury on a weekly basis.
He further disclosed that the state had accumulated more than E3.5 billion of arrears (invoices for services rendered and goods supplied that have not been paid).
The minister said: “We do not have money for this.”

“We are in a financial crisis. Road projects are on suspension (costing us more than E10 million per month), building projects have been stalled, suppliers are suing us and medical supplies are in short supply,” submitted Rijkenburg.
He said at the present moment, government could not pay salaries if it were to succumb to the payment of CoLA.
Meanwhile, PSAs claim that they have evidence that they could confidently prove and show with decisive evidence to the court, that government was frankly not broke.

 According to SNAT Secretary General, Sikelela Dlamini, the PSAs could further prove to the court that government misused and continued to misspend and misappropriate money daily.
Dlamini said despite that the PSAs could prove that there was adequate money to meet their demands, they did not have adequate time to prepare their opposition.  Dlamini then asked for the court’s indulgence to prove same at a later stage. “It is denied that the economic recovery strategies will be realised in the course of the next financial year and government is put to strict proof thereof,” he argued.

Allegation

He further contended that government had placed nothing before court that substantiated this allegation so as to persuade the court to postpone the matter.
Dlamini asserted that a prudent government looked at its liabilities such as the PSAs and made provision for them.

“The government has recently delivered its budget speech through the minister of Finance, who ought to have been a deponent in this application. In that speech the minister sought to raise enormous amounts of money in the form of taxes without fear or favour but pleads poverty and fails to include the PSAs’ demands in the budget,” contended Dlamini.

He told the court that it was bad business practice to pile debts and push them forward to the next financial year.

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