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BUDGET: THE POOR TO GET POORER

03/03/2018 23:37:00 By Jan Sithole

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his Majesty the King in his speech from the throne said: “This is a year of Golden Jubilee and a year of happiness.” Despite that, the Minister of Finance Martin Dlamini misinterpreted this when reading the Book of Joshua and he became mischievously courageous to ensure that this year turns out to be a year of crying, misery and gnashing of teeth for the citizenry. This he did by, on one hand taxing the poor to the bone and ensuring the zero growth on the wage bill.

This week, after hearing a night mare of a budget from the minister it, became clear to everyone that democracy gives more meaning to those in government and this is a clear indicator that our system of governance does not have the attribute of the separation of powers. Where separation of powers is not recognized and oversight role of Parliament gets undermined, the right for representation of the people is rendered worthless, and becomes an insult to the people who voted parliamentarians to represent their interests.

I wish to remind all legislators that representation and oversight means that we should ensure that the interests and priorities of the people are considered by the national budget and the voice of the people is non-other than the people they elected to represent them. Refusing to stand firm when representing the people who elected us would be nothing less than abandonment of duty and failing the electorate.

what South Africa does

It is a pity that when it comes to increases that take away money from the people, government cuts and pastes what South Africa does, but regarding benefits that the South Africa government gave to its citizens there was no cut and paste. For example, South Africa suggested an increase of VAT and Swaziland just copied that, they gave free tertiary education to those who earn up to E350 000 per year, Swaziland cut the meagre tertiary students’ allowances by more than 60 per cent without remorse.
May I take this opportunity to define how I understand the meaning of government, by saying it is a social contract between the governed and the governing. The governed are the citizenry who are also the electorate, and the governing is the government who are supposed to be governing by the mandate of the governed. Both those who participate in elections and those below the voting age and everybody who pays tax directly and indirectly. Every government thrives on taxes and revenue from the citizens and profits or levies from the economic activities taking place in the country and grants where available.

duty to ‘serve’ the people
In this context, the people are the employer and the paymaster and government on the other hand has a duty to ‘serve’ the people by ensuring that through all the taxes paid by the populace, services are made available, accessible and affordable. These include all services and commodities. It becomes an inherent duty for the executive arm of government to ensure that services are available, sustainable, reliable and last but not least, affordable to all who live in the country, rich, poor, able bodied and people with disabilities, young, elderly, male or female without any form of discrimination.
This is underpinned by several clauses of our constitution in the Kingdom. Section 59 on Economic Objectives of the Constitution reads thus: “The State shall take all necessary action to ensure that the national economy is managed in such a manner that will maximize the rate of economic development and to secure the maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every person in Swaziland and to provide adequate means of livelihood and suitable employment and public assistance to the needy.”
Section 59(2) (e) reads: “The State shall, in particular, take all necessary steps to establish a sound and healthy economy whose underlying principles shall include; recognition that the most secure democracy is the one that assures the basic necessities of life for its people as a fundamental duty.”
It is therefore a constitutional imperative that government has an obligation to ensure that the consumers’ basket is full of affordable basic commodities that include but not limited to bread, sugar, mealie meal, rice, cooking oil, beans, fuel. Again, it is government’s duty to ensure that these aforementioned commodities are available, accessible and affordable and to ensure that public transport is available, affordable and accessible to all citizens.
This also includes commodities such as water and electricity. These too should be made available, reliable sustainable and affordable. Government is also expected to ensure that high quality public health, education, is accessible and affordable. This is an imperative and a must do by any government to her peoples.

citizenry serviced
Government also has a duty to ensure that there is peace and all structures and institutions are put in place to ensure that the citizenry is properly serviced.
In ensuring an achievement of all these responsibilities, it is expected that the government utilizes taxpayers’ money.
Most governments provide for road and rail and also subsidises transport services for the most disadvantaged elderly and people with disabilities.
no public transport in Sd
It is unfortunate that in as far as public transport is concerned, the truth on the ground is that there is no public transport in Swaziland. This responsibility is provided by private owners with their own private facilities which they own privately. It is also true that these private owners are not subsidised in anyway but the public transport fares are controlled and regulated by government.
I appreciate that public transport was given as an opportunity in the private sector in line with section 59(2) (b-c) of the Constitution which reads: “The State shall, in particular, take all necessary steps to establish a sound healthy economy whose underlying principles shall include;
(b) Affording ample opportunity for individual initiative and creativity in economic activities and fostering an enabling environment for a pronounced role of the private sector in the economy;
(c) Ensuring that individuals and private sector bear their fair share of social responsibilities including responsibilities to contribute to the overall development of the country.
Other governments including ours create companies (parastatals) like Swaziland Electricity Company (SEC), NAMBoard, Post and Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC), Swaziland Water Services Corporation (SWSC) and many others to ensure that these companies provide high quality products for consumers at affordable prices.
profit making
These companies were not established for profit making but if they make profit, it’s a bonus and an opportunity to accumulate funds for expansion and also providing affordable tariffs. It is disheartening to read that a government company such as SEC has made profits and before you know, you hear or see a notification of intent to increase tariffs exorbitantly, something which will burden the consumer not on the basis of the prevailing inflation but twice or thrice the inflation.
Under such circumstances, it becomes clear that the consumer is completely neglected and short changed. Such unjustified increases by a parastatal that sometimes receive subventions is an act that can be equated to legalised pick- pocketing of the populace. The affordability of basic commodities is very critical and central to the country’s development and sustainability thereof, and poverty alleviation and lifting the standard of living of the people.

EXPENSIVE basic
commodities
The example of this is where basic commodities such as bread, mealie meal get more expensive and unaffordable and this will result in less people eating healthily and as such more people would starve and get prone to ill-health and this would increase both poverty levels and ill-health. These scenarios will compel government to spend more on health services, something which should have been prevented by correct pricing. The poor citizens would then be exposed to shylocks just to put basic food on the table and have more money to deal with the issue of increasing ill-health in the family.
Increased tariffs on basic commodities such as fuel, electricity and water also have a big impact as it will cause inflation to shoot through the roof. All the above commodities have ripple effects and the example is, if fuel, electricity and water increased exorbitantly, all other basic commodities would adopt the upward trend, yet wages and salaries are usually capped around the inflation even in the private sector.