The Sunday Mail
Nothing really personal, Mr Minister, but you got some of us REALLY thinking this past week.
I shall not go as far as questioning as to whether you really deserve the finance ministry portfolio, as such querying is tantamount to quizzing the wisdom of the appointing authority, but honestly speaking, your pronouncements in the week gone by have left many of us, those who look up to you for financial guidance, in a bit of a quandary.
The week began with you visiting Tokwe-Mukosi, to get an appreciation of the construction of the dam, the work done so far and that yet to be completed, of which the remainder is the smaller bit, 10 percent they say. Hopefully readers will not confuse this 10 percent.
If your visit was noble, you lessened its worth with your request for $30 million from Tongaat Hulett, the company running operations at Triangle sugar estates.
“Give us $30 million and we will give you water worth that much when the dam is complete,” is the message that came across to us.
The first question that struck most of us, neutrals, is why involve Tongaat at this juncture?
Is the dam their project?
What if they don’t have that kind of money?
And who said they will need water from Tokwe-Mukosi?
If they have been operating all along without Tokwe-Mukosi, where is the assumption that they might, in future, need the dam, coming from?
Furthermore, and more worryingly, aren’t we ceding our national duties to private companies?
And when we cede these obligations, aren’t we ceding our worth as a nation as well?
And/or ceding our rights to the same?
Supposing Tongaat is to avail the money, would it come cheap?
Wouldn’t they demand that certain terms and conditions be met?
And would they come up with terms and conditions that favour:
(i) The Government.
(ii) Themselves.
(iii) The communal farmers or
(iv) Any other competition that might come?
Logic will dictate that whoever will approve the disbursement of such money from Tongaat will look at the long-term interests of the company.
And that $30 million is no small amount. Like the country is ceding the rights to its resources to a private company. A dam that has taken this long to build, 60 years to be precise.
On the other hand, are we that broke as a nation that we cannot afford to pay the Italians the $84 million that is outstanding?
Where is the diamond money going?
The other inflows of revenue, like tax collections?
And as we were wondering for the answers, you ominously answered us when you addressed Parliament in mid-week, moaning that Government has been forced to pay bonuses when private companies have not even done so. A figure of $172 million was mentioned, as having gone towards bonus payments.
Forced by who?
Misplaced priorities. That is our problem as a nation. Why should we prioritise to pay $172 million to civil servants when we have not yet paid $84 million to the Italians for the work that they have done on Tokwe-Mukosi? On the other hand, agriculture is yearning for an investment, for subsidies yet we cry day-in and day-out that we don’t have money.
There are many other obligations that need this kind of financial intervention, from our power supply, road maintenance, social infrastructure, social services and delivery, yet we find the resources to pay bonuses. And given the level of corruption within the said civil service, many are querying why they deserved the bonus. What did they do?
Most companies, for good measure which are doing marginally well, did not pay bonuses and it was Christmas as usual for most families — so what was the fuss about civil servants’ bonuses?
Should we keep on digging a deeper hole that we cannot get out of, merely because we want to please civil servants?
And if the whole national economy were to grind to a halt, should we have sacrificed the national soul, just for the pleasure of a fraction of the country’s workforce?
The times we are living in call for tough decisions and belt-tightening, but the impression that is coming through, is that as much as the citizens are prepared, in fact have been for so long, to see the turning around of the country’s economic fortunes, that same feeling is not shared by Government.
After displacing thousands of families during the construction of Tokwe-Mukosi, many of whom thought that the completion of the dam would bring them joy through irrigation, especially to those resettled in the semi-arid Nuanetsi Ranch, but for them to hear that the Government is likely to cede the rights of the dam, because they have asked for a $30 million loan, would be another slap-in-the-face for locals.
Government has embarked on successful public-private partnerships (PPPs), the most celebrated being the Plumtree-Harare-Mutare highway which is due for completion any time soon. Such PPPs are usually as a realisation on the part of Government that it does not have the financial capacity to undertake certain projects, hence the marriage.
If Government, in 2011 when it embarked on the final push to have Tokwe-Mukosi completed, had noticed their financial inadequacies they should have engaged private partners to help finish the project. If they approached Tongaat then, it would have made a lot of business and financial sense.
But for Government now, when the project is just about to be completed, to turn to private players and ask for help either smacks of an arrogant establishment, used to arm-twisting tactics.
Honestly, as Tongaat considers Government’s request, and you can excuse them for taking all their time to examine all the intricate proposals attendant to the request, isn’t it the same amount of time which should have been spent completing the remainder of the construction work? And what would have been better, to take a certain chunk off the $172 million paid to civil servants, and pay to Salini-Impregilo than wait for a begging bowl?
When the idea to build Tokwe-Mukosi was mooted, some of us were not yet born and now that 60 years later the project has finally come to fruition, many were happy to see the many spin-offs to be derived from it.
But as it stands, all that long wait will count for nothing if Tongaat-Hulett will avail the $30 million and give terms and conditions that will deny the majority of the populace access to the dam.
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