The Eastern Cape budget was the opportunity to put the meat on the bones of the promises made in premier Oscar Mabuyane’s state of the province address.
Everyone wanted to hear about how the government intended to fund improvements in our tatty hospitals, decrepit schools, collapsed sewage and water infrastructure and potholed roads, and how it would ensure better service delivery, especially from our apparently incapable and uncaring local government sector.
And, of course, how finance MEC Mlungisi Mvoko’s budget would contribute to job creation in a province where more than half the adult population is unemployed.
Mvoko promised a budget that would “expand opportunities, strengthen service delivery and stimulate economic growth, all within the limits of our fiscal realities”.
Make no mistake, it’s a tough juggling act, particularly given the reality of the Middle East now plunged into instability by Israel and the US’s attacks on Iran.
The price of oil, already climbing steadily, will probably go through the roof. And with that everything goes up, particularly in SA where rail infrastructure has collapsed.
If transportation costs go up, so do the costs of goods and services, particularly food. The poor will feel this inflationary pressure the most.
This was not even referenced in Mvoko’s budget which rather optimistically stayed with the prediction of a “gradual domestic recovery, averaging around 1.8% nationally”.
That forecast was referenced in national finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s budget speech.
But Godongwana’s budget was tabled days before US President Donald Trump’s “Operation Epic Fury” was launched at the end of February, whereas Mvoko’s budget was not.
The analysts all agree: the geopolitical events of these past weeks have diminished the chances of domestic recovery and blunted the effect of Godongwana’s consumer-friendly budget.
Mvoko was honest about governance weaknesses that prevented public infrastructure being delivered on time, within budget and to the required standards
Mvoko also chose not to mention two other rather large elephants in the room: scholar transport and the huge contingent liability the provincial government faces with medico-legal negligence claims.
There is essentially not enough budget for either.
The provincial government has admitted it will not be providing scholar transport to 40,000 qualifying children this year, putting it in contempt of a court order in December 2024 that it is constitutionally obliged to do so.
But there were also some positives. The budget placed a strong emphasis on infrastructure investment, with about R9bn allocated for health, housing, road and school infrastructure.
Mvoko was honest about governance weaknesses that prevented public infrastructure being delivered on time, within budget and to the required standards.
And that is the problem. A well-crafted budget is just the beginning.
It takes political will to make it happen and it is this essential element that has been sorely missing over the past three decades.
One can only hope there will be a greater resolve to create capable and honest governance where economic recovery and job creation can happen even in the face of global constraints.
Daily Dispatch
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