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Parliament and some experts were in Bulawayo last week for the traditional seminar that is staged ahead of the presentation of the national budget.

The Government holds the workshop to give legislators and the experts an opportunity to give their input towards the crafting of the spending plan for the following year. This is a very important platform, which demonstrates that the national budget is an inclusive product from its formulation right to its implementation.  

The pre-budget seminar was held over four days under the theme: “Building Resilience for Sustainable Economic Transformation.”

With this engagement done, all eyes are now on Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube to deliver a budget that responds positively to the interests of the people.

Prof Mthuli Ncube

This is a onerous task, balancing the often-competing interests of this side and the other.  Resources are rarely adequate, which makes his work much more challenging. Be that as it may, the job just has to be done and the person to do it is him.

The people are looking forward to a spending plan that prioritises social services while paying attention to sectors that drive the economy forward.  

They expect the Government to spend more on health.  Yes, we are proud of what the Second Republic is doing in terms of building new clinics and hospitals, especially through devolution funds.  However, we want more attention in that respect. The people want a clinic at a walkable distance from their homes.  They want district hospitals too as well as provincial ones, even if it means having two or more district hospitals per district, three or more provincial hospitals per province.

The clinics and hospitals must be well-equipped and stocked with medical drugs to treat various ailments that might be bothering our people.  

We have just been celebrating the arrival of air ambulances at various centres countrywide. They are very useful especially in terms of reaching far-flung areas whose roads are poor.  However, we want more ambulances on roads as well.

Education must be a priority too. As in the health sector, devolution funds have been used to build numerous schools and a number of colleges.  Houses are being built to accommodate teachers and support staff.  That is great.

However, we wrote the other day that we have a deficit of more than 2 000 schools.  That is a huge gap, which deserves attention.  We therefore look forward to Prof Ncube prioritising building of more schools nationwide.  These schools must have laboratories and workshops for subjects such as woodwork, metalwork etcetera.  

Another important area that deserves attention is spending on the needy among us – the elderly, orphans, the disabled and the like.  We implore the Government to come up with a strategy to promote viable projects for this cohort.  Handouts can only be given to those who are too old, too young, too sick and too disabled to work for themselves.

Indeed, there are many more areas to prioritise, but the foregoing, as well as agriculture must be the top four.