MBOMBELA – A tightening of belts and cutting of costs wherever possible is the forecast for the year ahead in the Mpumalanga Provincial Government.
Infrastructure is to be a priority in the 2016/17 financial year, finance MEC Mr Sikhumbuzo Eric Kholwane announced in his budget speech on Tuesday.
“We don’t have the luxury of money,” he told the press afterwards. “These are tough times. Whatever money there is, it is never sufficient.”
The announcement of the distribution of the R41,2 billion budget comes mere weeks after service-delivery protests across the province calmed somewhat. Protesters had taken to throwing stones and burning tyres and trucks to blockade roads to voice their grievances over a lack of service delivery.
- Read more: Unrest rocks Mpumalanga
Ahead of Kholwane’s speech, the ANC-led Mpumalanga Legislature defeated two motions from opposition parties, requesting intervention in water provision in the province.
The Bushbuckridge Residents Association (BRA) requested that the premier intervene in the water shortages in Somerset near Belfast where a man was recently attacked by a crocodile while fetching water.
The DA requested the Department of Cooperative Governance to provide a timeline for when residents of Thaba Chweu Municipality may expect their tap water to be deemed potable again.
In the official budget, Kholwane tabled an amount of R261 million to be set aside for the Department of Human Settlements to provide water and sanitation in eMalahleni, Bushbuckridge and Dr Pixley Ka Isaka Seme municipalities, and site development in Dipaleseng.
“Each municipality deals with its own water and receives grants. As provincial government we only intervene and assist. The grants are not always sufficient. We are just plugging gaps. The main function lies with the Department of Water and Sanitation and municipalities.”
Three per cent has been reduced from each department’s proposed budget for the financial year beginning on April 1 and reallocated by treasury for special infrastructure projects. The public works, roads and transport department was also allocated R4,6 billion for the year.
As the premier Mr David Mabuza said after his State of the Province Address last week, “It is my responsibility to build the road, who else can build that road?”
Other spending priorities are early childhood development, youth and substance-abuse centres, teacher training, tertiary study funding, sanitation facilities at schools, and an electronic patient record- management system for health centres.
A total of R75 million will be added to the Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency’s (MEGA) loan book in 2016/17 to support small and medium enterprises (SMMEs).
“If it was up to me in my capacity as MEC for economic development, I would have given them even more money to support SMMEs and cooperatives,” Kholwane said. “For consistent economic growth you need more SMMEs and cooperatives. When big companies modernise, you lose jobs. That is not the way to create jobs.”
But operational costs at both MEGA and the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA) are being reduced by R3 million each.
Opposition parties object
Mr Bosman Grobler, DA spokesman for finance, slammed this decision.
“Tourism has the potential to be one of the top industries in the province. It has the potential to create jobs, thereby increase provincial revenue.”
He added that no game-changing announcements which could put the province on the road to creating new economic opportunities for the people of Mpumalanga were made.
Other opposition parties agreed. BRA MPL Mr Cleopas Maunye said it was more of the same, and he didn’t expect anything to change for citizens this year.
“We had money for roads and water this financial year, and still people don’t have water or roads.”
Mr Collen Sedibe, provincial party leader of the EFF agreed that nothing would change.
“Year in, year out we have this budget but there are no changes in the lives of the people. Hospitals remain in dire straits. Come 2017/18, the situation in the Department of Health will still be the same. Come next year there will be nothing to show for the infrastructure investment.”
Grobler added that there existed a number of discrepancies between the budget presented by the MEC and the briefing documents presented to MPLs by the head of department.
