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THINK ABOUT THE POOR, UNEMPLOYED

15/11/2018 01:17:00 By vusi Kunene

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A certain music group once sang a song which is a true reflection of life. The song says it is very difficult to go to bed on an empty stomach.

The song may have been meant for entertaining but the message is clear. So in whatever our government, together with its parastatals think about it, they must consider the poor and unemployed.

I felt bad when I heard the new minister of Finance saying there is going to be an increase in taxes. I asked myself what is it that is going to be taxed because people are struggling to make ends meet because of the current taxes. An increase of taxes will drive some people to death.

Substantially

This reminded me of the erstwhile Parliament and the Bill that was going to substantially increase taxes which resulted in a huge outcry from different sectors, and now here is someone new in the office saying that taxes should be increased. Will the poor and unemployed be able to afford these taxes or is the minister saying let them die for being poor and unemployed.

And then there is a government parastatal, which should be prioritising service delivery over profits, clearly doing the opposite and it is hypocritical in its behaviour. The Eswatini Electricity Company declared millions of Emalangeni in profits this year but it has not thought about subsidising the poor and unemployed through the huge profits it made.

Instead of subsidising us, we are told that it has applied for an increment of electricity tariffs. Has it given thought of the fact that electricity is no longer a luxury but a necessity?
Will the poor and unemployed afford the increment or is the company telling them that it does not care about them? Electricity prices were increased by 30 per cent during the previous two years but the company still wants more.

Protested

When the Eswatini Revenue Authority wanted electricity to be taxed, the very same company protested, saying electricity would be expensive. Is electricity no longer going to be expensive now because the company is the one which wants the increment?

I also blame the Energy Regulatory Authority because it allows the increments to be implemented. Does it ever think that there are grandmothers who are buying electricity with their elderly grants? There are unemployed people who are trying to eke a living using the electricity.

Think of the lady who has saved so much to install electricity so that she could sell ice cubes so she can be in a position to send her children to school.
Will those children be able to go to school if the increment applied for is approved? Is the regulator really going to allow such an increment after the profit that was made by the electricity company?

Will that be fair on the poor and unemployed? Or both entities do not care about the plight of the poor and unemployed?
I will not be surprised though if the regulator approves the increment because it would not be the only one that has taken decisions that do not favour the poor and unemployed.

This is something that is very common with those who have the power to impose certain expenses on others. As I was going through newspapers over these past days, I read about protests from people who have been stopped from getting their source of livelihood, mealie meal from South Africa.
Looking at a picture of an elderly woman in the Times SUNDAY, my heart was touched. What is going to happen to these people in terms of food provisions?

Consumption

We know that as a country we are failing to harvest enough maize to satisfy the national consumption. Does this ban mean farmers will suddenly be able to provide enough maize for the country’s sustenance? How many people are going to benefit from the ban? Looking at it, only a few are going to benefit, and the poor and unemployed are going to suffer greatly.

I am waiting with abated breath to see what our new Members of Parliament are going to say about these decisions that are so bad for the struggling people of our country. These decisions are going to also impact those who are working and even those who were surviving through poor paying jobs.