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W Eare fast approaching the end of the fiscal year, soon the Finance Ministry will be tabling the budget for the year 2022/23. I have been pondering on a couple of budget items regarding our public purse, the small issue of the E200 million budgeted for COVID-19 vaccines. Today I will focus my energies on a call for accountability and transparency regarding the public purse.

In an ideal society, issues of the public purse are to be of public interest and it is the inherent right of every liSwati to follow up and demand accountability on the expensing and utilisation of public funds. Hence, today I devote this article as a call for transparency and accountability, this is a very critical component of fiscal prudence and due diligence. Time and again, the Finance Ministry always throws around words such as fiscal prudence and discipline, and today is the time to put that to the test. Fiscal prudence is not just about belt tightening only, it is also about accountability and proper follow up procedures.

The COVID-19 millions

It is a common secret that all the vaccines we have received as a country came as donations, and none of the money that was budgeted has been used as far as we are concerned. We know for a fact that in the budget for 2021/22, a sum total of

HAVE you ever sat across a self-absorbed and obnoxious man, checking their wrist watch or phone every two minutes while huffing and puffing on how they are in a rush and how terrible the economy is? In an attempt to respond with courtesy, you are met with another self-invested response on what the country needs to do in order for things to get better, with a reference from ‘rich dad, poor dad’ or ‘101 ways to invest’, while chirping in how these books have profusely changed his life?

Just about the right image of the guy society does not need and among other things, this has brought me to the personal introspect of how good things can have a negative influence and that for every good thing that is not understood, the act of reading must be critically accompanied by an understanding of reading.

When one intakes knowledge, but does not know what to do with it, they become a menace in social spaces. Or the one who will speak over everyone at a braai with his Heineken in hand, boasting about how he read the ‘48 laws of power’ and thus qualifies to be heard over everyone else and knows best. This guy is accompanied by a noise that dies down as he speaks and the guys sitting down are secretly eyeing each other thinking ‘there he goes again’and rolling their eyes at the mere fact that he doesn’t leave it for the quotes of his WhatsApp status, but has yet again managed to turn the man’s day out into another opportunity for him to look like the smartest guy in the room. When a reader wants to simply look like the smartest guy in the room, the higher the chances that they got nothing from what they read. Reading is not a premises of devaluing nor sewing negativity in their ‘ignorance’; there is ignorance in so doing.

Types

There are two types of people, the learned one who feels that they are better than anyone, and the learned one who feels that they know best and are the accolade of righteousness as a result, and both are examples of how knowledge is both good and dangerous. It can either be a tool for growth or a tool for self-destruction and both are equally a possibility. There is no doubt about the narrative that exists that intelligence is solely on the basis of a good reader and that the best thing a human can be is a lover of books and, as a lover of books myself, I have come to the conclusion that to love reading alone is not enough to make anyone a cut above the rest.

Like any other categorised group in society, and

as it is a habit of human beings to group individuals in society, readers are not an exception. When one reads and continuously intakes knowledge, but fails to implement and process it, It becomes a barrier in social settings. It feeds the ego and becomes a foundation for self-acclaimed righteousness. It brings the individual to a place of comparison and criticism that brings down those around because ‘they know best’and ‘you should read to be better’.

While this is true, that reading serves the purpose to improve us as people, it should not make us feel we are on a pedestal above the rest and too knowing to be listeners. A good reader understands the value of listening and that knowing is not a mask for better-ness but rather a means of personal growth. As soon as you feel better than everyone else – in how you treat people – you don’t know the purpose of reading.

There is a thin line between understanding the dynamics of a community, and as a reader, helping others grow through reading and teaching others the value of reading, this is important to create a community that is self-aware and equipped with knowledge and understanding to cultivate a healthy and economically high value society. In understanding these dynamics, we are then able to utilise them effectively and use them to help others instead of using them as a way to camouflage and create self-esteem at the detriment of being healthy social beings. Every day is an opportunity to read and learn, to groom self as a means to produce desired output, it is equally important to understand that we must know what to do with that knowledge and how to utilise it in order to be productive readers and not passive readers.