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2017: WE HAVE TO CHANGE

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When the year began, the task assigned to our Cabinet ministers was very clear; ‘fasten our belts tighter’
This was aimed at accommodating the projected E2 billion fall of receipts from cash cow SACU for the 2016/17 fiscal year.


Cabinet was to ensure that plans for the period ahead should be focused on the transformation imperatives that would accelerate growth, eradicate poverty, create work opportunities, achieve food security in light of the persistent drought and reduce inequality.


“It requires government spending to be aligned to available resources,” the King emphasised from the Throne.
Come year end and there is no guessing that the exact opposite happened! In fact, the Finance Ministry said it was in no position to cut expenditure to suit our pockets.


There can be no better example of this stance than when Cabinet increased the civil servants wage bill by an astronomical 13 per cent on average while politicians pampered themselves with a 32 per cent pay rise that government cannot sustain.
This, coupled with channelling resources into numerous unviable projects, has left the drivers of our economy drowning in debt due to non-payment by a government that is struggling to pay E1, 1 billion to the business community for services rendered.

As a result, instead of creating employment, Cabinet has ruined the livelihoods of hundreds of workers, some of whom have had to go for months without pay.
The mismanagement of our economy has crippled many sectors of our society.


Dispersing regiments over the weekend, the king lamented the rising number of people reporting hunger and now wants to know the exact number affected. He is hoping a national census will help the country plan well and therefore provide better.


This is all well and good but only as far as the decision making is concerned. If a Cabinet cannot follow simple instructions that could make this country better for all citizens, what hope is there that it will use all the information at its disposal to make the right decisions?


Parliament will be opening in a few weeks time. What value should the citizenry attach to this important occasion if the King’s men will continue to do as they please to such an extent that people cannot even move because the country has no travel documents?


The year 2017 provides an opportunity to make things right for this country. We call upon all decision makers to do no less than put the people first for a change. Is that too much to ask?

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