A delusional hallucination

What does the word tautology mean? It means an unnecessary saying of the same word twice or a repetition/interpretation of the same word twice. A close example of this is a common mistake we usually make at my church, the Catholic Church. Examples such as Ntate Father, Mme Sister, Ntate Brother. This is what our national budget has become. An unnecessary repetition of the same thing, year-in, year-out. We have heard it all before. This budget has also become delusional because of one point. “How do you plan to finance the Budget Mr Minister? How?” This budget has now become a hallucination because there is simply no money to fulfill most of the wishes made. Our domestic tax collection ability is about M7.2 billion. The M7.2 billion tax-revenue collection is our report card. It’s literally our performance of the entire year. On the other hand, the public-servants wage-bill stands at M6 billion. M6 billion per annum! Now, tell me, where does the rest of the money to finance the budget come from? So we’ve been told that the rest of the money will come from SACU and grants estimated at M19.7 billion? We all know that it’s a fabricated truth. Someone once asked a pertinent question and said, “Why don’t we budget what we have collected.” If our collection ability is 7.2 Billion Maloti, why don’t we budget for 7.2 Billion Maloti? That is because the needs of our country far outstrip our ability to finance them. I estimate our needs at M50 billion per annum. At this point, this budget estimate of M24.8 billion then becomes a string of wishes or hallucinations to put it mildly. Imagine a security guard who earns M2 500 promising his wife and kids a double-storey house somewhere at Masowe-four. On top of that, promise to school his kids at Montessori. Well, it’s nice to have wishes but if the father persists on this wish, it then becomes a medical term named delusions of grandeur. If the poor security guard persists on this plan, it now becomes a mere hallucination. His wife will have to come to his aid and hit him with a pan on the head (bang), to bring his senses back to order. In any case, you may find this interesting little fact quite surprising. I’m a big jazz fan and a jazz music collector. But if there’s someone that possibly has the biggest jazz music collection in the country is, wait for it, yours truly, Ntate Tom. I thought I collect Jazz but Ntate Tom has a vast collection of music. I tell you. From Tania Maria, to Michael Franks and even Bheki Mseleku. By the way, if you have access to Google, You-tube or Apple Music, try listening to a song by Michael Franks named ‘Popsicle Toes.’ You could even ask Ntate Tom whether he knows it and I’m pretty sure he’ll tell you a thing or two. Or rather ask him about a song named ‘Wamemeza’ by Nokukhanya Dlamini and tell me what he said. Unfortunately, I no longer have his cell number. I guess I was one of the people Lady-D cut-off from his contact list. Let me tell you another interesting fact. A world renowned musical genius or should I say a piano maestro by the name of Bheki Mseleku, once lived in a village named Ha Paki, in Mazenod. Ka tlasa Ha Ntate Fisenti (Vincent Masoabi). Yes, indeed, ha Ntate Tlotjela, to be precise. If you have no recollection of who Bheki Mseleku is, Google search his song named ‘Celebration or Angola’. Yes, Ha Paki, Mazenod. Well, I thought you might find those facts interesting before we talk about something very boring and that is the budget speech. But what I never understand is our format of delivering the national budget. Who actually came-up with this way or format of delivering the budget to the public? Because it does not make sense and it usually leads people to just focus on civil-servant salary increments. You know, I still don’t understand why we even bother with announcing the budget speech. Why don’t we focus on the income and expenditure statement rather? The most logical thing to do is to report on last year’s collection ability, tax revenue collection (revenue) and issue a statement of expenditure. This would then help us the public to know what the benchmark for this year could be and what to expect. Mr. Minister, why don’t you issue an income and expenditure statement of the previous year before delivering the budget? Then, before delivering the budget, give us the public, a projected income statement for this year. “What is the source of income to support your budget”? Maybe the Finance Minister needs to publish a government/state balance sheet. That would reveal quite a lot of interesting yet horrific information. For instance, does anyone know the number of vehicles that the Government of Lesotho owns? Does anyone know the number of properties that our government has (property, plant and equipment)? How much debt does the Government of Lesotho have? Shouldn’t we rather focus on that instead of listening to a wish list disguised as a budget? On the other hand, maybe we need to go back to the basics and start with a “T” account. Back to the principles of debit and credit. Do you still remember it? Debits on the left, credits on the right hand side. Maybe we need to refresh our minds and study how an income and expenditure statement works. Maybe we need to go back to our notes and re-learn principles of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) because the way we go about in publishing our national budget is just not it. I may sound a bit arrogant but this is certainly not the way to go about things. The way this budget is composed makes it nothing but a mere wish list. “I wish to fill-in potholes. I wish to give all citizens electricity. I wish to give every citizen a job.” How Mr Minister? Look, we need to be very careful because we could now be dealing with a case of a failed state. The symptoms are all there and quite glaring.