Budget 2017: R5 billion is not enough to address real student crisis issues
Belinda Bozzoli MP - DA Shadow Minister of Higher Education
Today the Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, in his budget speech announced that there would be an increase to the Higher education budget of an additional R5 billion for 2017/18 to assist poor students.
While this R5 billion aligns with current government promises to the recent student funding crisis, it is a short-term solution, and is nowhere near the amount needed in the Higher Education Sector to sustain our Universities and Colleges in the longer term. The Minister knows perfectly well that tens of billions more is required to put the sector back on an even keel after decades of neglect.
The DA also believes that the Minister of Finance should have announced a significant increase to the higher education infrastructure allocation which would have allowed for the building of more student accommodation and facilities.
That is why we need a comprehensive spending review which would make more funds available for helping the lost generation, specifically so that they can access the higher education sector.
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Main Budget 2017: More to the NHI black hole
Dr Wilmot James MP - DA Shadow Minister of Health
Today the Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, in his budget speech announced that the government would be moving into the next phase of the NHI, by creating a NHI fund.
The minister’s proposed funding mechanism is very similar to the financing model at the heart of the Democratic Alliance’s Our Health Plan (OHP). Whilst the minister may have appropriated the DA’s funding model the proposed use is problematic for a few reasons.
Putting the money into the NHI is like putting money into a black hole, no doubt generating highly inefficient expenditure. In Our Health Plan the money is better spent as conditional grants to provinces.
The funding of a National Health Insurance (NHI) Fund that will support only some of the important priorities of the nation: maternal health, school health and disabled, geriatric and mental. In the DA's Our Health Plan we prioritise Maternal and Child Health, Emergency Services, Fixing Broken Hospitals, Building More Clinics and Training more Doctors and Nurses, we prioritise the people.
Furthermore, NHI as a delivery model has performed no better than that of the average hospital or clinic, it centralizes rather than decentralizes control and management and it (NHI) will create a bureaucratic machine that, given the state's record, will strangle health care delivery. In Our Health Plan, the DA focuses on bringing health by health professionals to South Africans on a local level in response to local health burdens.
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Main Budget 2017: Social Development Reax: ‘Still no clarity on Social Grant crisis’
by Bridget Masango MP - DA Shadow Minister of Social Development
Today the Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, in his budget speech made no mention of any transitional arrangement for the continued payment of social grants. Similarly no mention was made of the Department approaching the Constitutional Court despite the fact that any extension of the existing contract with CPS would be in breach of the existing court order.
There is however an indication that the Department continues to plan to spend around R2 billion per year on the disbursement of grants over the next three years, which would imply that they have not budgeted for any major changes in the system. The truth of the matter is that with only 38 days left until the 1 April deadline, there is simply no clarity on the issue.
Today’s budget showed us once again that Minister Dlamini is uncaring about the security of the most vulnerable of South Africans, social grant recipients. She continues to delay and obviate the matter, as if we are not in the midst of a full-blown crisis.
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Budget 2017: A budget to hamper service delivery
Kevin Mileham MP - DA Shadow Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs
Today the Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, in his budget speech announced a baseline reduction in conditional grants to provinces and local municipalities of R2 billion in 2017/18 and a total reduction of R6.4 billion over the next three years.
The DA is opposed to this decrease in funding as we believe that it could result in hampered service delivery.
Specifically, this R2 billion includes large decreases to the human settlements development grant, the health facility revitalisation grant, the educational infrastructure grant, the water services infrastructure grant, the public transport network grant, and the municipal infrastructure grant.
Once again this shows an ANC-government out of touch with the needs of ordinary South Africans.
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Budget 2017: Executive protects itself over the victims of crime
Zakhele Mbhele MP - DA Shadow Minister of Police
Today the Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, in his budget speech announced that there would be an increase in VIP protection services of R 131.8 million.
The DA firmly believes that this expenditure is wrongly prioritised and should instead have been directed to vital crime fighting efforts, such as much needed specialised units.
Increasingly the ANC-led Executive are focusing on themselves, at the expense of the most vulnerable in society. This is evident in this budgetary increase, protection of the Executive instead of the ordinary South African from crime.
Today’s release of the quarterly crime statistics showed that there have been 116 more murders between the first half of 2015/16 and 2016/17, with an alarming 14 113 more drug-related crimes, 1 053 more car jackings and 691 more stock theft cases in the same period.
Today’s budget showed us that the ANC-led government does not care about stopping crime in our communities.
Issued by the DA, 22 February 2017
