GNU’s first mid-term budget brings nothing new for poor and unemployed South Africans
30 October 2024
Build One South Africa (BOSA) joins millions of South Africans in disappointment at today’s Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) delivered by the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana. It marked the first real test for the Government of National Unity (GNU) on whether it will pursue a meaningful shift from administrations before it.
It is now clear that government has decided to stay on the same low growth, high debt trajectory, demonstrating its inability to tackle our country’s stagnant, unequal economy and stubbornly-high unemployment rate.
Debt remains the biggest threat to our nation's future. This year we are spending R388.9 billion in interest on our national debt. This is unsustainable. Added to this, tax collection will be R22 billion lower than estimated in February’s national budget. Money is going out faster than it is coming in, and creating a surplus is not sufficient. What is required is funding for growth, with infrastructure at the centre.
The Minister made many commitments with delivery dates only months or years in the future. It appears that in order to keep peace within the GNU, completion dates for many projects have been pushed out.
While funding the education shortfall should have been first priority, the Minister chose to use the Special Appropriations Bill to allocate additional funds not to education, but to the Presidency, Justice, Transport and International Relations. South Africans must know that the GNU has now chosen larger class sizes, overworked teachers, and diminished quality of education by not adequately funding the Department of Basic Education.