
The Eastern Cape provincial government needs to have the courage to stand up and declare an intergovernmental dispute, as the Western Cape has done, in relation to the latest provincial budget cuts.
This government cannot roll over like an unspent conditional grant and accept the status quo.
Although an additional R2,3 billion has been made available, the cost of the exorbitant 7.5% wage hike for civil servants is going to cost the province R3,6 billion, meaning that there is a gap of R1,3 billion that still needs to be covered.
Finance MEC Mlungisi Mvoko, in his provincial adjustment budget speech, failed to mention how this shortfall would be financed.
Added to this are the deep cuts to national conditional grant funding, which will have a horrific impact on service delivery in the province.
These cuts, totalling R761 million, will particularly impact schools, clinics, hospitals and our road network. R133 million was cut from Health, R247 million from Education, of which R228 million was cut from the school infrastructure grant, and R70 million from Road Maintenance. The biggest cut was R256 million from the Department of Human Settlements.
In response to questions from the Democratic Alliance, Premier Oscar Mabuyane said these budget cuts would result in reduced access to healthcare, fewer patient resources, longer waiting times, and some critical services might even be eliminated. The cuts would also result in increased workloads for health workers.
The time has come for the ANC to put the needs of the people ahead of the needs of the millionaire managers in the public service and multi-millionaire managers in public enterprises that should already have been rationalised.
The people need to come first. It is the only way we will put this province on a new trajectory where it can be a place of rising opportunity for all and offer the future we hope for.
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