MEC David Maynier on 2020 Nation Budget
26 February 2020
The Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, has lost control of our public finances and provinces will have to absorb significant budget cuts over the medium term to bailout zombie state-owned enterprises, which risks compromising service delivery in provinces like the Western Cape.
The fact is that provinces will have to absorb a R7.3 billion reduction in equitable share, a R18 billion reduction in conditional grants and part of the proposed R160.2 billion reduction in the public sector wage bill, over the medium term between 2020/21 and 2022/23.
However, the full horror of national government’s mismanagement of our public finances is reflected in the fact that, despite imposing significant budget cuts on provinces, national debt still spirals out of control over the medium term to a terrifying R4.38 trillion, or 71.6% of GDP, in 2022/23.
To put this in perspective, national government will be spending R290 billion on debt service costs in 2022/23, which is a staggering R239 billion, or 5 times, more than we will spend on delivering frontline services such as education, health and social development this financial year -2019/20 - in the Western Cape.