…as minority groups, vulnerable groups and ‘key priorities’ are left out
Emmanuel Chitsika
The month of October saw the nation once more engulfed in a series of meetings in form of public consultations as to how the purse for the year 2022 funds would be allocated to different areas of operations be it on the national scale or at local authority level.
Various intended expenditures were tabled alongside proposals of how to meet such expected costs in respective areas of interest.
However, both at national, provincial or local authority levels, it is the composition or incorporation of various interests of distinctive groups in society and the interests they represent that has raised more questions than answers after a series of such budget consultations.
2022 budget key priorities
The 2022 budget has seen a number of key areas or sectors being identified as part of commitment to the achievement of such issues.
A total of seven areas among them development and supporting of value added chains especially in agriculture and manufacturing sectors, optimising value in natural resources were identified, social protection, human capital development and wellbeing as well as aiming for inclusive growth and macro-economic stability.
The Zimbabwe Coalition for Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) had its list of priority areas that they felt the budget should put into consideration if at all interests of various people are to be served.
“The budget should set up women and youth funds that are inclusive in order to support cross border traders, informal sector workers and artisanal miners to recover from losses incurred during Covid-19 lockdown periods and access capital to grow their businesses and establishment of value addition chains.
“Revenue from the 2 percent remittance taxes should be used to ring fence cushioning allowances culminating in an increase towards youth and women funds. Government should put in place a disability fund that is aimed at cushioning persons living with disabilities. The disability support fund should also cater for special needs including assistive devices for those in schools,” read part of the document.
However, the selection of a few places around the country does not reflect the interests of ordinary people as those specific areas targeted would be translated into representing the general who were not even consulted.
Despite the fact that each particular area has its own issues peculiar to them, the committee decided to choose a few areas to represent others and thus the needs of one area are manipulated though on the false pretense of representing the whole area or province.
Capturing of true interests of people
In an ideal situation, the budget needs to cover the interests of the whole populace that is by ensuring total coverage to all corners of the country but the consultation process saw some few areas chosen at the expense of others.
Masvingo province has seven districts namely Bikita, Chiredzi, Chivi, Gutu, Masvingo, Mwenezi and Zaka. However the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Budget and Finance and Expanded Committee on Sustainable Development Goals chose only three districts in form of Bikita, Gutu and Zaka, to represent the province but arguably in terms of geographical location may have common interests. The committee might have overlooked the fact that Masvingo also boast of such areas like Chiredzi and Mwenezi that are home to some minority groups whose interests seem to be peculiar in their own right.
Finance Committee Chairperson Matthew Nyashanu (MP Buhera Central) however, insisted that the chosen districts would afford people the opportunity to input on their key priorities hence the reason for selecting a few districts.
“We selected a few districts in the province so that everyone will get the opportunity to speak on their key priorities and that is the reason why we only consulted three districts in Masvingo province.
“In most public consultations, most villagers wanted inputs for agriculture. Education was another key priority, as they wanted their children to be under the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) as well as improved remuneration for teachers. Under health, most villagers wanted health workers to be well paid, construction of clinics since they are walking long distances to access health facilities while access to clean and safe water was another key area in the consultations.
Economist Caleb Gwaindepi said the fact that budget consultations have been shifted to cater for the rural populace other than the previous scenarios in which the urban elite and privileged were consulted but was quick to point out that the consultations should not be just a matter of ticking boxes but address the real issues that affect rural communities.
“The consultation of people in those areas may be good for them as the budget will cover issues that may have been previously neglected. Generally, budgets used to be done only with the consultation of urban communities, the privileged minority. If the budget is going to really be truthful of the views of the rural populace it will be good. The issue is with those doing the consultations in that are they going to consider the needs of the rural populace because priorities in urban areas differ from those in rural.
“In a rural set up people talk about such issues to do with education, primary health care for mothers and kids, provision of food security which the people are concerned with and for the budget to make any meaningful impact, they have to look into such issues. There is need not to generalize the issues like having ‘one blanket-fit-all’ by using similar questions across the divide.
“With regards to coverage of the whole province, then we have to look at differences in terms of needs between the southern, central and northern parts of the province. There was need to consider coverage of such areas like Chivi and Mwenezi. If we look at districts like Chivi and Mwenezi, the most important issue is food security because of droughts. Then the consultation committee should have looked at the case of the people in Chingwizi displaced by floods at Tugwi-Mukosi dam. What has been done to address the plight of such people? Does the budget have scope to ensure that the resettled people can have a decent living because of government intervention? That event happened at one place and it does not cover the whole province, which means for you to find a solution to such a problem, there is need to go to that particular area. Generalizing the province after visiting only three districts which may have different issues from the others, may be premature as the general view of the province may end up not being reflected,” said Gwaindepi.
Use of virtual meetings in consultations
One of the major concerns raised on the national budget consultations is the use of virtual meetings during the outreach process with its effectiveness being called into question. Radio programmes were designed in such a manner that phone-in would be supported as a channel of inputting to the budget.
Some areas are in remote regions and it would be difficult for them to communicate effectively resulting in their no or little participation to the budget because of network challenges.
Radio frequency is hard to go by in some of the regions that mean such people are left out of the process.
Receive Nyamutamba a socio-economic activist with Youth Perspective Initiative (YIP) and Action Aid in Mashonaland Central province said the budget should have catered for the interests of all people and thus giving everyone the opportunity to present own views.
“A national budget is literally an embodiment of the values and aspirations of a nation. Thus, making equal representation in budget consultations a critical element in ensuring that the priorities of all people are captured. Now, zoom meetings are a conglomeration of the elite, the technologically versant and the haves.
Venders Initiative for Socio-economic Transformation (Viset) director Samuel Wadzai also said the limited timeframe used for the consultation was not enough to capture the interests of the general populace though he however said use of virtual meetings was good in enhancing coverage.
“Our view is that the consultations were supposed to be done in such a way that there is extensive coverage of all areas. We did not see that happening and the issue of the timeframe for the consultations; we feel that there is need to ensure that there is ample time at least three months of consulting. That limited timeframe shows the nature of the product we are likely to get.
“Citizens should be given enough time to contribute to the national budget. It is our wish that in future, these consultations should be done in a comprehensive manner and covering all areas. These ones tend to neglect the rural population. Yes, virtual meetings will go a long way in ensuring enhanced reach.
“In most cases, zoom meetings are usually filled with civil society organisations. However, these are just a minute fraction of the whole nation. What about the elderly in Chikafa (Mbire district) and others without access to compatible gadgets and money? The resultant effect of such consultations is an elitist budget that says nothing of the struggles and values of our people. Thus, in that manner, zoom meetings are not serving their intended purpose,” said Nyamutamba.
Local authorities budget consultations
The consultation meeting done on November 2, 2021 at Masvingo Civic Centre was judged unfair in terms of composition of delegates with the management at town house accused of selectively choosing a few people not representative of the whole citizenry.
MCC is accused of inviting the Provincial Development Coordinator (PDC) Dr Jefta Sakupwanya and mostly Heads of council-run schools at the expense of other stakeholders and residents.
Not only was the issue of delegates composition subject to scrutiny, council management also deliberately delayed arrival at the meeting venue, an issue that irritated the few residents who had pitched up to boycott the meeting.
The meeting was postponed because of a low turnout since most of the people had left the venue after being disappointed by the council’s officials late arrival that they feel is a delaying tactic meant to frustrate them.
Masvingo Residents and Rate Payers Association (MURRA) spokesperson Godfrey Mtimba condemned the attitude shown by council officials by arriving late at the meeting saying it is not the first time they had done something like that.
“There is no excuse to the attitude exhibited by council officials to arrive an hour late because they will be sitting in their big air conditioned offices, drinking tea with a lot of milk doing nothing while we wait for them to attend a meeting which they have invited us to. The authorities do not take seriously these meetings, for them it is a mere formality, which they need to fast track because they have their own budget that they need to cover up for because they know how to shot-down proposals. We respect council and they should not take us as fools otherwise they are pushing us to do something which we would not want to,” said Mtimba.
Masvingo Service Delivery Residents and Rate Payers Association (MASDRA) secretary general Moses Mavhusa said the meeting was a flop and city officials deliberately decided to come late without giving them any update.
“Most of the people left after waiting for a whole hour I do not blame them ,those guys should have at least communicated if there were any delays rather than not taking us seriously,” said Mavhusa.
Two major issues propped up in the budget that is the recurrence of Mucheke Trunk Sewer project and the ZW$ 160 million allocated for capital expenditure (furniture and equipment) being the major highlights of the proposed budget that has irked residents.
While ZW $ 15 million has been set for the purchase of 1000 water meters, council decided to shelve ZW$160 million for unspecified furniture.
Rujeko high-density suburb is reportedly having 26 percent of its water meters being mal-functional but council has decided to set aside the project.
Ward 5 residents in Majange suburb of Masvingo raised concern over the inclusion of the project that they feel should have been completed long back after it started nine years ago but later abandoned just two years into the construction in 2014.
The much-hyped Mucheke Trunk Sewer project is expected to appear in the budget even up to 2023 as confirmed by Engineer Edward Mukaratirwa.
“We cannot remove it from the budget since it is not yet complete. In the 2023 budget, it will be there. The project cannot take a year to complete because council is not funding it,” argued Mukaratirwa.
However, Youth Initiative Perspective (YIP) (sponsored by Action Aid) activist Abel Sibanda said the national budget shows that resources are there, but it is a case of mismanagement taking centre stage in the budgets.
“Seeing it from my understanding that resources are available but being mismanaged, we demand that local authorities channel resources towards availability of clean water, refuse collection and proper discharge of sewage and other waste to make sure that urban areas are habitable.
“The three issues should be and rather must be the top three priorities when crafting local government budgets not only for the good function of the local authority, but for the health and well-being of residents. We always maintain that access to clean water is a right and no one should be denied that right due to improper budgeting which does not prioritise the basics and allow resource mismanagement. Local authorities with known cases of sewage spillages such as Masvingo whose main water source Lake Mutirikwi has noted to be contaminated by Auditor General in its 2019 report.
To date the 7km stretch trunk sewer project remains incomplete despite the throwing of around US$ 4 million into it prompting residents to claim the figure was thrown down the drain after Harare based ‘bogus’ Engineering firm Mutual Construction was awarded the tender to do the construction.
Mutare council is accused of failing to cater for the needs of various groups found in the city in that the 13-member budget committee excluded women groups, disabled people as well as youths.
Manica Youth Assembly (MAYA) Coordinator Jussa Kudheze said the committee lacks balance in terms of representation as the three groups of people were omitted.
“The recently selected budget committee has no representatives of young people. Thus, we can refer to it as exclusive rather that inclusive. Although the deed is done, we expect that this under-representation of women and youths must not be taken lightly and has to be corrected in the next budget cycle.
“MAYA supports the work of the budget committee. However, we hope that the committee is not red herring. There should be no interference from other offices, hence it be free to make decisions as they will be accountable to residents over the budget,” said Kudheze.
Mutare Mayor Blessing Tandi said though the issue raised might be genuine, there is no reversal as far as the consultations are concerned because of limited time they had to do the exercise.
“There is no reversal or review of the budget committee as the committee is inaugural for the city of Mutare, it might have flaws here and there but we cannot correct them as for now we are racing against to come up with budget. If we try to ratify the mistakes and errors in the committee, it will derail the whole process. We have observed the concerns and next year we can know how to compose our committee,” Tandi said.
In Mwenezi, Rutenga ward 18 residents expressed discontentment over reluctance by council to reconstruct the area’s flea markets that the local authority razed down during the early days of Covid-19.During the area’s budget consultation meeting held on November 8.
After postponement from October 20 ( due to disagreements between council and residents), some residents expressed frustration over lack of seriousness on part of council to re-construct the markets.
Jasper Mhaka a resident of Rutenga said the RDC’s budget did not clearly spell out some critical incomes generated by the local authority.
“Apart from the fact that you presented a document which is saturated with a lot of errors and omissions, next time when you come back bring a detailed budget document where we would engage constructively so that our voices clearly reach the rightful destination,” said Mhaka.
Tineyi Mapepa said the RDC also insisted on the need for the budget to cover all areas and thus the entire district.
“Although you are consulting Rutenga residents and the budget for Rutenga, you need to also give us the general overview of the budget for the whole district. What you are doing in other Wards of the district, should be known to Rutenga residents as well. When you return make sure you will also give us an overview of the whole district,” said Mapepa.
Mwenezi RDC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Albert Chivanga said budgets are specific and in the event that there were some critical issues missing in the presentation, they would be addressed.
“Budgets are specific so the one that was presented before Rutenga residents belonged to them. In the event that there were crucial issues missing with regards to revenue in that specific area that will be corrected.
“With regards to the demand for a detailed budget for the entire district, the legal position is that council report to the Committee of council and the Finance Committee of Council is the one responsible for analysing cash flows and expenditure,” said Chivanga.
The 2022 budget consultations were marred by controversial circumstances as the responsible authorities have often been accused of trying to smuggle budgets that reflect their interests and residents did not get the platforms to air their views.
In some instances, the composition of the invited guests also raised alarm.
