Hundreds march to Parliament against budget cuts

Hundreds of activists, social movements, and trade union members marched to parliament to hand over a memorandum against austerity measures ahead of the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), which was delivered by Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana.

Leaders of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) and the South African Communist Party marched side by side and led the protest, and joined by Cry of the Xcluded, Housing Assembly and other social movements.

In a joint statement, the marchers said they are deeply concerned about the escalating cost of living, high unemployment rates, underdevelopment, abject poverty and homelessness. “A well-resourced budget is critical given the perpetuation of deep socio-economic inequalities in the country. The commitment by the National Treasury to cut government spending in real terms (once accounting for inflation) in order to reduce government debt levels will only serve to exacerbate the social crisis in the country,” it reads.

Kashiefa Achmat from Housing Assembly lambasted the government’s austerity measures. “Austerity is affecting all of us very badly. I am speaking on behalf of our people, who are still subjected to living in indecent houses and in poverty. With these austerity budget cuts, we don’t think our people will have houses built for them.

“The City of Cape Town is always talking about plans to build affordable social housing, but what is affordable housing if people are unemployed. People cannot afford even the basics, like food. We are calling for an end to austerity because it worsens poverty,” said Achmat.

Saftu general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi addressed the marchers: “They are going to be boasting that there is a surplus in the budget. They are going to celebrate their cutting of the health, police and education budgets. They will celebrate that they will not be employing community healthcare workers on a full-time basis. Voetsek! with austerity measures!”

Budget cuts mean service delivery remains impossible

Vavi warned that any budget cuts spell disaster. In education for example, the Western Cape provincial government is retrenching 2,400 teachers, while 11,092 in KwaZulu-Natal face the same fate; and in Gauteng, school transport and school nutrition programmes face the chop, said Vavi.

The health budget has also been slashed, even during the Covid-19 pandemic. As evidence, Vavi cited a 40% vacancy rate in hospitals and staff shortages and the eight hours people have to stand in queues to get medical attention. “There are not enough resources to ensure, that when the NHI finally takes shape, it does so in a space where there is enough staff and sufficient resources.”

Cry of the Xcluded supported the march to demand an end to budget cuts by the national treasury.

Phumza Booi, from Cry of the Xcluded, said unemployment is their biggest problem. She is over forty years old and unemployed for “a long time”. Her last job in the Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP) gave her no security. “People only work in the programme for three months, and get terminated after that. Afterwards they are put on the waiting list and never get called again,” she said.

Cosatu general secretary, Solly Phetoe said, “We want a people’s budget. We want a budget that will implement the NHI. We need a budget that will talk about the issue of land reform in South Africa. We demand a response after 14 days. There must be a stage where we force this government of national unity to deliver on their promises.”

Decent and permanent jobs was one of the demands of the protesters.

In their memorandum of demands, the organisations demand that the government take immediate steps to control and reduce prices of food, fuel and electricity, and to combat crime. “Amplify crime prevention programs; provide more resources for safety and rehabilitation, including emergency response, policing and efficient prosecutions,” their memorandum reads.

The SACP Western Cape secretary, Benson Ngqentsu said that the campaign against neoliberalism and budget cuts was gaining momentum. “As communists we are calling on this government to stop with neoliberalism. The current policies are responsible for the challenge of unemployment and cheap labour. We are calling on Godongwana not to cut the education budget, he must also not cut the health budget, Implement the NHI now,” said Ngqentsu.

A deputy director general at the department of finance accepted and signed the memorandum.

The 2024 MTBPS

During his budget speech on Tuesday afternoon, Godongwana announced a lowered growth of 1.1 per cent in 2024. He warned that South Africa’s debt is higher than economic growth. “We are anticipating that government debt will reach more than R6.05 trillion, or 75.5 percent of GDP, in 2025/26. We know that our debt is unsustainable, because debt-service costs have become the largest component of our spending and it is rising faster than economic growth.”

To deal with this problem, Godongwana said they had taken “difficult steps” to cut budgets. “We have restrained spending and maintained stable tax collection,” he said

The former trade union leader said that in order to ensure effective infrastructure investment, to boost economic activity and enable higher growth over the medium term, the government would implement reforms that will create conditions to attract greater private sector participation.

“The reforms include mobilising significant private sector financing and technical expertise to augment the limited public sector capacity and capability. We are amending the PPP regulations to simplify requirements for undertaking these projects,” Godongwana said.