They don’t really care about us…..
I found myself singing this catchy tune by the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson, on Tuesday morning after learning government had offered cabinet ministers, their deputies and members of parliament loans as high as six million Pula each.
According to media reports, cabinet ministers will each receive US$500,000 (P6 million) their deputies US$350,000 (P4.2million) while MPs will get $40,000 (P480,000).
This is quite a lot of money, especially considering most of these men and women are already well up beings who don’t necessarily need the extra cash. But, because of greediness, they will no doubt go ahead and justify why they deserve such staggering amounts.
Before I dwell much on this issue of loans, let me tell you why I thought it’s really each man for himself…
Over the last couple of years, the government has been giving both commercial and communal farmers free inputs ahead of the planting season. The minimum used to be 10kg maize seed and 100kg fertilizer.
But, this year, things changed as we were only given 2kg maize seed.
Initially, people thought it was all lies that farmers will be allocated 2kg but it became a reality last week as that is indeed what everyone in rural areas and farming communities were given.
People were quite disappointed, I must say, as they felt it was an insult – some even vowed to punish the ruling party in next year’s election!
I understand their frustration because very few people can afford to buy 10kg of maize seed, which is the minimum for most communal farmers and costs an average of US$30 (P360).
The explanation given was that govt coffers are dry hence the little inputs this season; yet the very same government has so much money to offer ministers crazy sums to buy more mansions and top of the range vehicles.
That’s when you see that the welfare of the people does not matter as long as those in power have lined their pockets.
Outspoken independent MP, Temba Mliswa, argued they deserve that money and more because of the nature of their role, which requires them to be on the ground and in touch with the people.
Opposition MPs are also at pains to justify the loans, which have been described as anti-people.
But, truly speaking, no one can turn down such an offer and it would be unfair for the electorates to expect the opposition legislatures to let slip that chance of ‘eating’. After all, it is common knowledge that government loans are never paid back!
