Budget unfair towards civil servants

First things first, we have a reason to celebrate this week. I have good news that we need to celebrate. But before we do that, this issue of being referred to as Ankele (uncle) makes me sick.

I tell you, every time I’m in the gym there’s this guy that always comes over to greet me and says, “Sure Ankele.” Ankele! Imagine a cool guy like me being called Ankele.

But Malomes (Malome) takes the cup. “Sure-da Malomes.” And I stand there thinking, am I that old?

Yes, are the champagne glasses ready? Firstly, I’ve just had a conversation with my property team at Shoprite and they have confirmed that Checkers is finally being rolled out in Lesotho. Yes! The first store will be opened at Maseru Mall in September this year. Cheers!

I’m lobbying hard for the next Checkers to be opened at the LNDC Centre. For the existing Shoprite to be converted to a Checkers. Wouldn’t that be refreshing?

You know, the LNDC centre breaks my heart. It looks like a shopping centre found in a place called Marabastad. It’s not reflective of a shopping centre found in a capital city.

Anyway, more good news! At long last, a new 20-storey tower building way taller than the Lesotho Bank Tower is about to be developed in Maseru City. Yes, at long last, the record will be broken after 40 years. Guys! After 40 years. 40! Cheers!

Thirdly, now this is a big one and wait for it. My father told me that his doctor (Doctor Roos) has told him that he knows Elon Musk at a personal level. Now, if you want a connection to Elon

Musk, I’m the go to guy. I suggest, we rename Kofi Annan Road to Elon Musk Highway. Yes, cheers!

You know, I wish the budget-speech would have been full of good news as well. But what the Minister of Finance proposed as salary increase/increment for the public servants just broke my heart.

No man, 2.5 percent is just not on!

You see, as much as we go on and on about how bad public servants are, a vast majority of them are hard working and dedicated people that want to do their work with diligence. However, these hard-working people are often undermined by corrupt public servants that are simply unpatriotic.

I mean bad people contaminate clean water. That’s a sad situation. But that does not justify giving people an increase of 2.5 percent. This is just a spit in their faces.

Why do I say that? Inflation! Inflation has caused a nightmare to the working class. The cost of living is unbearable. Look, I recently took a taxi from Mazenod to the City Centre and was shocked to find out that it costs a staggering M15 for a one-way trip. 15!

So, imagine a scenario where a mother that happens to be a public servant and heads a household made up of two high-school students. I don’t even want to complete this story because we can already see that things don’t add up.

That is why public servants are pushed into corruption as a means of survival. No, seriously, I don’t condone corruption but corruption ends up becoming a means to an end.

Public servant salaries are already shocking low. Shockingly low! The Minister of Finance, Dr Matlanyane further elaborated that inflation will average 5.4 percent in 2023 and I disagree. It will be way higher than that.

Check the price of fuel over a 12-month period. What about the price of food? Check how much a loaf of bread costs nowadays, as compared to a year ago.

What about the cost of transportation? Taxi fare? This is way above 10 percent. Then how does the 2.5% then make sense?

Okay, let me put it this way. The problem with low salaries is that they breed all sorts of social ills. Well, the first problem is that you end up with a terribly low output due to a very low staff-morale.

Let me tell you one interesting story. About five years ago, there was a gentleman called Tlelima that used to work at my mothers ‘Chicken Farm’. Chicken what what! You get my point.

So at one point, the chickens were just not laying eggs but consuming a lot of chicken feed. This was a problem. We needed the eggs in order to buy more feed but the formula was just not working.

The chickens kept on eating but not laying any eggs.

Being an expert on almost anything you can think of, I asked Tlelima whether he was feeding the chickens adequately and he said, “You see Ntate ‘Mako, my nature is to save. I believe in saving so

I rotate the chicken feed.” (Well, not in English of course) And I discovered where the problem was. Yes, the chickens we eating, but not enough to lay the eggs.

So I said to Tlelima, “pump up the chickens with more food and let’s see what happens.” The answer was no. Tlelima believed in saving the animal feed. Then I took matters into my own hands and started feeding the chickens every morning at 6am and really filled the feeding tray and guess what happened?

The chickens starting laying eggs. Not only that, but they started laying very large eggs and I asked Tlelima to come and see the results. I had won the argument and he had egg on his face. Voila!

But here is the gist of this analogy. Salaries are already painfully low. I mean teachers are paid peanuts. Check how much lecturers get paid at the National University of Lesotho and you’ll cry.

What about our policemen? How do they support their families?

Low salaries are catalysts for low-productivity and corruption. Then what would be the solution if I were Minister of Finance? I would increase salaries of public servants by 50 percent. Yes, by 50 percent. Yes, I’ve done my calculations.

This would mean adding about M3.5 billion to the annual wage bill of M11 billion. Yes, the IMF would get angry but it would be necessary. Yes, there would be fear of exacerbated inflation but my theory is that people need to catch-up with inflation.

But can you imagine how much that additional M3.5 billion can do if it were to be pumped into the economy?

Man, let me tell you, the economy would be abuzz. There would be life. Productivity would shoot up. Patriotism would increase. Crime would go down because money would exchange hands at a very rapid pace and this would cause a very high multiplier effect.

I mean this M3.5 billion would end up gaining value to as high as M21 billion (factoring the value multiplies by six). That will happen provided we plug all the leakages.

I tell you, tax revenue would shoot up because VAT would be up from all the trading. Priorities would shift because people would have more disposable income and I believe more and more people would start going into agriculture.

But the good thing is that even though the bulk of this increase would go into consumption spending, this would help shopping malls like Maseru Mall to gain more shoppers. Families would start eating out. Yes! Churches would have more collections and my priest, Father KK, would jump for joy.

Yes, this would be a true revolution for prosperity. But you see, if the government wants to plug the leakages and prevent money from leaving the economy, it should then set up funds. For instance, why not create a medical aid fund/scheme for public servants and deduct a percentage of the money from the increased salaries?

Do you realise that it would then create a totally new industry? We would start seeing proper private hospitals such as Medi-Clinic and Life Health Care mushrooming all over.

Lastly, why not float some shares on the Maseru Securities/Stock Exchange (MSE) exclusively for government employees? I am even surprised that Dr Matlanyane made no mention of the MSE yet it’s her baby. The MSE has potential to revolutionise our economy if used effectively. But we need to invest our government employee pensions in the MSE.

You see, you then deduct a percentage from the increase and finance a portion of the shares. This would work both ways because it would increase liquidity in our entities (Lesotho Post Bank) and give our public servants a chance to earn dividends.

You see. Then, we all become rich. This would also decrease the level of witchcraft (ma-flying-squad and ma-fly-by-night) in our country, hoba hee Basotho baa loea. Baa thagatha! Ebile ba mona.

Ebile ba khopo.

So, to conclude, this is a very bad budget. It is a repetition of what we have seen over the past ten years because it offers nothing new. It does not bring any revolutionary thinking.

What the RFP administration needs to be aware of is that, there are thousands of public servants that just go to work to simply ‘show up’. Yes, they are there physically, but their hearts and minds are elsewhere and this is costing the economy dearly. This is also chocking the private sector.

Yes, people show up at work on a daily basis but nothing get’s done on the ground. I say this out of experience because I have pending proposals on construction projects dating as back as 2020.

Nothing is moving on the ground.

So, expect more corruption, more absenteeism, low productivity and no commitment from the public servants in the year 2023-2024.

Last word, Dr Matlanyane would make an excellent Minister of Foreign Affairs.

‘Mako Bohloa