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Cape Town - A Fin24 user who lives in rural Limpopo makes an impassioned plea to Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene to clamp down on terderpreneurship and corruption by rather working closely with communities to take ownership of their living conditions.
Responding to a call for Tips for Nene, Christopher Barends writes:
Infrastructure
1. I live in Limpopo close to the Senthimule area. I am very passionate about rural development and how eagerly young and upcoming farmers want to till and produce on their traditional land, but they don't have access to water on a regular basis. I suggest that you seriously find a way to empower the hundreds of communities in the Makhado municipality to get access to water by laying a new or upgraded water system from the Albasini dam to these areas.
2. In Senthimule about 40 000 people must drive 40km daily to a simple shop like Shoprite in town to get basic necessities. These are our people who made sacrifices to overcome apartheid but who do not enjoy the fruits of democracy as they don't have access to such retail facilities.
3. In every village I would like to see more running water and an allocated tractor at least to scrape the gravel roads and maintain it. Why is it so difficult to allocate money for this?
4. Mr Nene, there is a need to provide old age homes for our aged as they need that special care. Old age homes should be provided in the townships and rural areas just like you provide clinics. It will help many of our old aged members, who are abused by their families on a daily basis - their dignity is important.
5. Mr Nene, we seriously need a railway system between Johannesburg and Beit Bridge because the N1 can no longer handle the large freight volumes, especially during festive seasons. Hundreds of people die a year because we are ignorant and don't plan proactively - the road freight system is long overstretched and a danger.
Education
6. Mr Nene, I encourage you to seriously consider scrapping the Seta (Sector Education and Training Authority) system as it does not fully provide for the larger needs of society, especially in the technical and mechanical fields. We need to go back to young people qualifying as apprentices and get their trade like in the old days.
7. Mr Nene, make your FET colleges rather fully-fledged artisan schools where young who want to become artisans can qualify and not just do different vocational subjects which don't help them to be qualified in a certain direction. Let these artisan schools be even fully integrated in the township and location schools. The more youth can save on travelling costs, the better.
Money matters
8. Your work on pension and retirement is truly a life saver and a rescue plan for future generations. However, I plea with you to make it compulsory for providers like Sanlam, Old Mutual and others to explain every cost and fee to the client and also to minimise the unnecessary fees so that those who have retirement annuities can get maximum returns.
9. I encourage that you make it much harder for any one to run an illegal money lending scheme or allow the money lenders to overcharge people with huge interests.
10. I encourage that you seriously tax people who run effective businesses in townships and villages to contribute so that the community they live in can be upgraded or uplifted.
Tenderpreneurs/ collective responsibility
11. Make churches and religious groups responsible to have a compulsory community project that uplift the community in order to strengthen social cohesion and overcome the challenges communities face in partnership with each other and the government. It should not only be the government that provide, but all who benefit from the people.
12. Mr Nene, BEE has given tenderpreneurs a boost, but it has also created a new world where corruption has become rife. Kindly move swiftly to curb the exploitation of tendering in our country, for example stop allowing people who tender to make 300% profit on taxpayers' money. You need to find a way to educate tenderpreneurs at government that it is the people who must be important and not only the business. Why should a person put up such a high mark-up on a price which is far less in reality? Tenderpreneurs should never have been allowed to make 200% - 300% profit from the state. It is clear if we continue on this path, in another few years we will see a massive increase in poverty and oppression due to the greed of the rich. Certain tenders should only be reserved for community cooperatives so that the whole community can benefit.
13. Mr Nene, stop building or allow the building of poor structured small RDP homes. Do not just build rows of houses, because rather than create community, it breeds crime. Build RDP homes around a creche, school, play ground, soccer field, indoor sports centres, post office and clinic. Many of theses should not be tendered out as it will encourage corruption and break social cohesion. Rather let the same community through cooperatives work together to build these structures for them to take ownership and maintain them. The Habitat for Humanity have an excellent approach to this. The poor need the same dignified housing like the average person.
Please stop going the tender route, it has become our curse in many ways.
Thank you Mr Nene. You have a huge job and shoes to fill. I hope my tips help a bit.
* Send your budget tips to Minister Nhlanhla Nene.
Disclaimer: All articles and letters published in MyBudget have been independently written by members of the Fin24 community. The views of users published on Fin24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent those of Fin24.
