The Western Cape Government (WCG) has strongly urged Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, to offer South Africans hope through fiscal discipline and stability when he tables the 2024 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) on Wednesday, 30 October 2024.
“At just 0.4% economic growth in the second quarter of 2024, high national unemployment, rapid population growth and severe strain on public services, Minister Godongwana must be honest with the country about the ongoing challenges we are facing and explain what national government is doing to boost investment, growth and job creation,” stated Premier Alan Winde.
He continued, “This, however, will not be easy given that the national budget process has all but completely collapsed due to the unaffordable public sector wage bill. In a severely constrained fiscal environment, our residents are looking to us for certainty and stability. We must and have been brutally honest with our residents and government officials about the state of the country’s finances, compounded by unprecedented in-year budget cuts which were forced on us to fund the pay increase agreement. We now expect prudent fiscal sustainability going forward and a return to a predictable budgeting and planning process. The scale of uncertainty that we have had to operate in does not lay a foundation for driving economic growth and jobs in South Africa.”
The MTBPS is an important component of the overall budgetary process as it sets out the spending priorities and fiscal framework for the next national budget and the upcoming fiscal period.
“The bottom line,” emphasised Premier Winde, “is that we must protect our residents and workers in affected frontline service sectors, like education, health and social services, as far as possible, from the impact of the budget cuts.”
If Minister Gondongwana wants to steady the boat, he must explain how national government will drastically grow the economy through, among other means, infrastructure development and implementing structural reforms to state entities. The Premier added that if there is meaningful growth, then we can keep building momentum on our encouraging job creation efforts in the Western Cape by ensuring:
- our province and residents receive a fair share of national government funding;
- the implementation of programmes and funding priorities that properly equip the provincial government to respond to the increasing complexities of the climate crisis; and
- data and evidence are utilised to help the WCG make the best possible decisions for service delivery capabilities.
Ensuring that the WCG and its residents receive a fair allocation of the national budget also applies to disaster funding. While there have been positive engagements in this respect, we still have an estimated R6,1 billion shortfall. “We need adequate funding to respond to disasters and more importantly plan for them,” stressed Premier Winde.
With load shedding still suspended, the country has the opportunity to recover somewhat and claw back the massive losses caused by the energy crisis. “We dare not let our guard down, though,” warned the Premier, adding, “in fact, while rolling power outages are kept at bay we must double down with the further implementation of the Western Cape Energy Resilience programme, which is equipping municipalities and the private sector with the data and evidence needed to end load shedding for good and exploit the immense potential of renewable energy. The renewable energy sector provides us with major opportunities to boost economic growth and drive job creation.”
