PART I
The observations by Hon. Bob Sichinga that this appears to be an MMD budget is an intelligent one and factual, the ability to transition from ruling party another in any economic setting is not easy and calls for high levels of humility.
The 2012 national could be described as pro poor and indeed a clear balance between ensuring that the commercial sector remains viable as well as distribute wealthy to the majority poor in the country. There has been relief provided to the lower income earners by increasing the tax threshold to 2million kwacha which if you take a snap survey you will realize that the majority employed young people fall in this bracket and therefore this directly benefit the people that voted the PF government into office...On this one the PF government has scored.
Agriculture
The Government has increased the allocation to the agriculture sector by 37.9% interpreted into figure as K1,698.0 billion compared to the 2011 budget which had an allocation of K1.231.6 billion. This clearly shows that the PF government are interested in continuing the good agriculture policies that the MMD government was implementing, however the challenge in this sector remains a huge one, the ability to deliver input on time to the farmers, the ability to buy off outputs and improvement in storage system remains a nightmare. I want to make note of the fact that agriculture output contributes positively to the reduction in inflation, this sector has made Zambia make strides in this respect, it is important to note that we have a relative stable national food security because of production exceeding national consumption requirements for some commodities such as maize, soybeans and wheat. However lack of competitiveness in agriculture exports due to noncompetitive prices in certain export markets, this the government will have t address squarely. The Minister pointed to the productivity which i agree if the sector is to be redesigned to become an export oriented, otherwise it does not make sense to improve productivity and then have the produces rotting. The government should also priotize and re-organize the failed cattle restocking programme which am afraid to say has not been looked into by the PF government but we continue to eat T-bones everyday.
Local Government
The PF government has remained committed to the decentralization promise they made to the people of Zambia. Hon. Chikwanda's remarks on this issue are very encouraging. The local government lack of capacity has been sighted as one of the things to be addressed before the devolution of responsibility which is a good approach given the fact that many City councils fail to perform even under the current responsibilities they have. The Increase in grants to the council by more than 100% in the 2012 budget could be interpreted in two ways:
1. The increase marks the difference between the MMD and PF parties view on local administration visa vi' allocating funding to grassroots in the spirit of decentralization. What this means is that the councils will have more funding to provide the much needed services in compounds, services such as garbage collections, repair and refurbishment of impassable roads in townships, maintenance of street lights, and improvement of public community halls. Therefore the outcry by the UPND President lacks merit because despite CDF not increased according to his suggested figures the increase of local government grants outweighs his argument.
2. That the responsibilities of minute nature could be undertaken by the local authority other than a situation where the central government has step in every time there is a crisis especially in the area of public healthy.
Health
The Ministers deliberate increase in allocation for the healthy sector is well placed with the PF campaign messages. They are addressing a situation that they constantly cried about when they where in opposition (Chansa Kabwela saga). The increase has been focused to address the immediate need for drugs and and medical supplies.which i must commend the PF government. This is clearly in an effort to reverse a grave situation where the sick went to buy their own drugs from pharmaceuticals in most cases people cannot even afford the medicals. Construction of 5 new hospitals in a year is quiet ambitious and i like it, the recruitment of 2,500 front line personnel is tandem with a plan to construct..This a very smart, construct and recruit, a sharp contrast with the MMD approach.
Overall in my first analysis the three sectors have been provided adequately except for areas mentioned as omissions by the government, cattle restocking is key to our agriculture sector. capacity building of the local government is key as well to the decentralization proces.
Masheke Akashambatwa
Associate Director
International
DEYOS-ZAMBIA
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