
The ANC pushed through a pro-cadre adjustment budget that will see millions of rands diverted from service delivery towards the provincial salary bill, despite the Democratic Alliance’s vehement objections.
ANC-deployed cadre millionaire managers will sit comfortably this holiday season, secure in the knowledge that their salary increases are covered, while the children of our province continue to starve.
While it is true that an additional R2.3 billion was received in the adjustment budget, this has been allocated for salary increases, which total R3.6 billion, leaving a deficit of R1.3 billion that needs to be financed somewhere.
Meanwhile, drastic cuts to conditional grants totalling R761 million, most notably in Health, Education Infrastructure, Housing and road maintenance, will have a horrific impact on service delivery.
The DA has repeatedly expressed concerns over this adjustment and called for the province to declare an intergovernmental dispute, as the Western Cape government has done through the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act.
We believe that social services to hungry children and the protection of frontline workers such as nurses and teachers, along with infrastructure, should come before the needs of the millionaire managers in the civil service.
The impact of the adjustment budget and its impact on individual departments has not been fully interrogated. We did not meet with the Chairpersons of the various Committees so they would have the chance to ask pertinent questions.
Most of the DA’s questions to the Provincial Treasury relating to the adjustment budget have not been answered, and we are particularly concerned about how the wage bill will be financed in the ensuing years.
The DA has a plan to rescue the Eastern Cape that puts food on the plates of the hungry and creates an environment to bring jobs for the unemployed people of this province.
The ANC has once again shown that they will continue to put themselves and their cronies before the people of this province.
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