Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana believes there is no crisis within the basic education sector.
Despite the Western Cape Education Department’s intention to cut nearly 2 500 temporary teacher posts by the end of the year citing lack of funding as a result of budget cuts, the National Treasury made no allocation for basic education in the 2024 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS).
Those seriously lobbying the National Treasury to rescue the situation warned that cutting teacher posts will not only stretch the education system but could be detrimental to the future of the most vulnerable children in the country. However, this has not moved Godongwana who maintained that there was no crisis as far as they were concerned.
“In February I reinstated those budgets, which means the outcry is no longer founded. The problem is once it gets into the Equitable Share of the province, it is the province that decides where the money goes. It does not necessarily go to the teachers,” he said.
Godongwana said it was the provinces that decided how much money went into compensation of employees and wage bill.
“That is becoming a major problem. As far as we are concerned there is no crisis. If it is, it is self-inflicted,” he said during the MTBPS media briefings ahead of tabling his budget speech.
Build One South Africa joined those in disappointment at the MTBPS delivered by Godongwana.
“While funding the education shortfall should have been first priority, Godongwana chose to use the Special Appropriations Bill to allocate additional funds not to education, but to the Presidency, Justice, Transport and International Relations.”
Godongwana also allocated an additional R683.955m to the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) to reconstruct and rehabilitate municipal infrastructure damaged by floods in Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Free State.
An additional R750m was allocated for expenses related to the deployment of SANDF as part of the SADC mission in Mozambique and an additional R2.1 billion for expenses related to the deployments of SANDF in the DRC.
The Presidency has been allocated R17.359m for the department’s filing of a memorial to the International Court of Justice for the country’s case against Israel over the war in Gaza.
“The fund will be used for the appointment of legal representatives, professional fees of interpreters and translators, and travelling costs to the court.”
Tabling his speech in the joint sitting of Parliament, Godongwana said tax collection for 2024-25 was expected to be R22.3bn lower than what was estimated in February.
He also said in the absence of faster growth and external risks, tax revenue would remain under pressure and force the government to make difficult decisions on where to spend.
“Lower revenue also means that we cannot, within the envelope, accommodate all of the demands on the fiscus.
Difficult trade-offs, in all spheres, will have to be made.”
However, Godongwana was confident that despite the weaker revenue, the immediate pressures would be addressed.
This as R5.117bn was tabled as part of the Special Appropriation Bill to provide mainly for the Sanral debt repayment for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project.
Godongwana said the consolidated expenditure was expected to increase from R2.4 trillion in the current financial year to R2.8 trillion in 2027-28.
He said implementing structural reforms, including those on Operation Vulindlela, will continue to grow the economy.
MK Party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela said the DA-ANC alliance signalled a troubling commitment to IMF backed policies.
“Their empty budget policy statement presented under the guise of structural reforms and private sector privatisation clearly signals an intent to defund, collapse and privatise our SOE,” Ndhlela said.
The DA said it welcomed the MTBPS that contained numerous measures it has long fought for.
EFF leader Julius Malema said they rejected the first neoliberal budget of the GNU which prioritised racialised styles of economy.
“Its intention is to continue prioritisation of strategic centres of the economy. How come you have a mid-term budget policy statement that has got no clear plan on how to reduce unemployment? The issue of infrastructure development is lip service and there are no plans on how to resolve that,” Malema said.
Cosatu parliamentary co-ordinator Matthew Parks said they were underwhelmed and disappointed by the National
Treasury’s continued approach to tackling deep-seated economic and governance crises.
“A projected GDP growth rate of 1.8% over the next three years will not generate the jobs we badly need,” Parks said.
Cape Times