KZN 2022/23 Budget: MEC presents hatchet job budget as province faces even tougher times
10 March 2022
Yesterday’s KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) 2022/23 Budget, presented by Finance MEC, Nomusa Dube-Ncube is best described as a “hatchet job” aimed at portraying a rosy picture of the province despite the reality.
The MEC spoke about airport upgrades and introducing robotics in all schools. This while many KZN schools don’t even have flushing toilets and thousands are still living in transit camps.
The DA fully acknowledges the tough economic climate we are in. Listening to the MEC though, one would think that we are almost out of the woods.
This is not the case at all and the cold, hard truth is that KZN’s slice of the financial pie has just become a whole lot smaller. This as the allocation drops from last years revised budget of R142.3 billion to this years’ R140.3 billion.
Then there is the fact that the MEC has indicated that most government Departments will see an increase. The increase that she is referring to is based on the increase on last years’ budgeted amount – not the revised budget.
Last year, KZN budgeted R133billion this was however revised to R142 billion. The MEC is basing the increase on the R133billion. This sets a very dangerous precedent as spending pressures experienced last year will not miraculously disappear this year.
The budget also did not speak to the critical challenges facing local government, in particular the collapse of service delivery and infrastructure when it comes to water and electricity water supply.
Then there is the Department of Transport which sees a substantial budget cut, despite the shocking state of our provincial roads. If anything, there should have been an increase in the road maintenance budget which there is not. It’s all well and good allocating grants for new road projects but when you don’t have the budget to maintain existing road infrastructure it’s a futile exercise.
Then there is the elephant in the room – the ongoing saga of the payment of Izinduna in our province and the financial implications that this will have on the upcoming budget.
This financial nightmare is the result of an unfunded mandate placed on the province by Jacob Zuma which has already seen KZN pay out R200million in remuneration. This does not include the R600million in back pay that still needs to be addressed.
The DA was informed during a recent Scopa portfolio committee that an agreement had been reached with national Treasury, who would be settling this bill and paying money back to the province. Yet the MEC said nothing about this yesterday and one must wonder what exactly is going on and when this critical situation will be addressed.
As the DA Caucus, we will take our concerns around the proposed 2022/23 budget to the upcoming Finance committee hearings in order to be heard. What KZN needs is a budget that is aligned to the needs of the people of our province and not the ANC.
Issued by Francois Rodgers, Leader of the DA in the KZN Legislature/DA KZN Spokesperson on Finance, 10 March 2022
