BY MBONGENI NDLELA
MBABANE – As the countdown to the budget speech continues, the business sector and the entire nation is looking up to Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg to, among other allocations, consider a meaningful budget to address the deteriorating road infrastructure.
Tomorrow, all eyes are on Minister Neal as he is expected to share what is known as the central policy document of government, showing how it will prioritize and achieve its annual and multi-annual objectives. Apart from financing new and existing programmes, the financial budget is the primary instrument for implementing fiscal policy and thereby influencing the economy as a whole.
Economists who spoke to this author explained that the budget speech entails two parts; part A covers a review of the prevailing economic situation of the country and is more concerned about the ‘macro’ aspect of the economy.
Part B provides the broad framework of expenditure in detail for different sectors, introduces new schemes, and explains the priorities of the government.
Eswatini, like neighbouring countries, is faced with a fresh disaster caused by rains.
Due to the torrential rains, which have left many roads in the country damaged or inaccessible, some Emaswati are calling upon government to increase its road infrastructure budget to allow the maintenance of public and service roads. Currently, rains have significantly disrupted services in the country as Emaswati are finding it difficult to access services at schools and hospitals.
In fact, Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku today disclosed that the rains have already caused extensive damage to the country’s infrastructure, especially roads, bridges, and houses. The DPM having said this, NDMA Chief Executive Officer Russell Dlamini also disclosed that the damage is worth E45 million so far.
According to DPM, the government has swiftly committed a sum of E8 million to cater for the current damage and potential challenges expected from cyclone Freddy, in the event it hits the kingdom.
During last year’s (2022) budget speech, Minister Neal allocated an additional E80m to the Ministry of Public Works and Transport for the maintenance of roads. He stated, in his speech, that government had re-prioritized an additional E150m to the ministry’s capital budget to start resurfacing existing tar roads where patching is becoming counter-productive.
The minister hinted that the maintenance of Eswatini public roads had been glaringly inadequate for many years.
“Coupled with the recent high rainfall, this has led to the devastating deterioration of our roads. There has not been enough preventative maintenance of our tarred roads which involves the sealing of cracks and keeping the drainage open. Our gravel roads also need to be shaped more regularly and re-graveled when needed. We have allocated an additional E80m to the Ministry of Works for the maintenance of roads and have re-prioritised an additional E150m to their capital budget to start resurfacing existing tar roads where patching is becoming counter-productive,” Neal said in his 2022 budget speech.
He further stated that the establishment of a Roads Agency Fund had been tabled in parliament, as a sustainable and permanent solution to the roads crisis.
“The objective of this Fund is to tender out all roads maintenance to the private sector. We envisage it to be funded by the savings from shutting down Government departments currently responsible for road maintenance, the road toll charges at the border crossings, additional funds from the fiscus, and an additional 30 cents fuel tax that I intend to table with the Fuel Tax Bill. Discussions with the affected civil servants have started and I would invite them to use their retrenchment packages to form companies to do the actual maintenance work as we would like to see the Road Agency Fund empower smaller local roads contractors. Once again, I would like to thank the members of Parliament for this wonderful initiative,” he said.
