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LETTER TO THE MINISTRY OF WORKS

17/01/2019 08:17:00 By vusi Kunene

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IT is a new year and we expect to see and experience new things. We have made new resolutions for the new year and we will work towards achieving them. We have a new Parliament and a new Cabinet and we wish to see and experience new things as well.

With the new officers we also have hope. I am happy to know that we are, as a country, already reducing the deficit so early and that brings hope that we will achieve more with this leadership.

Let me address this message to the Ministry of Public Works and Transport because this ministry has failed the country in the past. I wish to state that we know that the ministry was stopped in its tracks trying to introduce high traffic fines on our country’s roads. I do not think that we are then going to see these fines introduced on our roads indirectly like what we saw the Ministry of Finance doing with certain taxes.

We are happy to know that the ministry is concerned with the accidents happening on our roads and we support the ministry in that regard. But statistics and experience have shown that high fines do not guarantee that people will not break the law. If that was the case I do not think we would still be having people appearing in our judicial system for the offence of driving under the influence of an intoxicating substance.

May I plead with the ministry to find out the reasons why people are driving unroadworthy motor vehicles. I say this because the general complaint is that it is the roads that this very ministry is tasked to maintain that is destroying the people’s cars.

It seems the ministry is failing to take at least the basic care of our gravel roads yet a number of people drive on such roads. I know that the excuse will be lack of money.

This excuse is one that confirms the view that most of the road fines are now used to raise revenue for the country. It said that was the main reason that the ministry wanted to increase the fines. This is not supposed to be. The country cannot raise revenue by fining the people. This is tantamount to double-taxing the people because they have contributed to the revenue of the country through the heavy taxes they pay.

The cry about the roads in the country is not only on the gravel roads but also with our tarred roads. I was happy to hear that the Lukhula-Lonhlupheko Road will be attended to because that was worse than a gravel road. I once travelled on that road and vowed never to drive on it again. It was worse than a gravel road. This is not the only road with the problem.

Travelling around the country you are surprised by the amount of damage on the roads. I was not surprised on Monday when travelling from Mbabane to Pigg’s Peak in that very small and meandering road to find about four cars by the roadside all with tyre problems. I noticed that most of them hit a pothole and damaged the tyres.

This is costly to the people and not supposed to happen when we have a ministry that is supposed to take care of the roads.
I would also like to implore and encourage the leaders of this ministry to work towards cleaning the image of the Ministry. This ministry is carrying the tag of being one of the most corrupt ministries. This does not bode well for the ministry because it works towards the usual narrative of lack of resources.

If the resources are misused then there will never be enough.We have seen government machinery from this ministry doing work for private individuals when it should be doing public work. But as mentioned earlier I have not lost hope on the new leadership and believe we will see some changes because I will not fear to say that the previous leadership has failed to put a stop to this.

I would also like to plead that it helps no one that the government tools and machinery be improperly used because it makes a lot of people suffer. When people are assigned to use certain machinery it would be good that the person takes care same. To use the machine recklessly so that it breaks and the person is paid for doing nothing is a huge expense to the country.

Fixing the machinery will cost money and the people to fix it have to be paid. The people who are to benefit from the machinery will suffer because they are not receiving the service.

Business as well as the economy will suffer just because one person wanted to receive a salary without working for it. The leadership have to look into this because maybe even the bad treatment the employees receive from their employer may lead to them being reckless so that they are paid for doing nothing. They are not motivated to do their work.