Statement from Brett Herron, Secretary-General for GOOD and member of the Western Cape Legislature
23 February 2021
BUDGET 2021/22:
1. DO NOT DEVIATE FROM 2020 PLANS TARGETING FISCAL STABILITY
2. ENSURE MONEY’S IN THE BANK FOR COVID VACCINATIONS
3. FIND FUNDS TO IMPLEMENT BASIC INCOME GRANT
The number one priority for this year’s budget is to ensure that we have the estimated R24 billion required to vaccinate 67% of the adult population in this calendar year secured and allocated in the budget.
Economists have recently spoken of some unexpected fourth quarter tailwinds. Things are not quite as dire as they were expected to be, despite the number of unemployed South African continuing to climb. We must not waste this glimmer of hope. It will help grease our path through what the Finance Minister last year termed the narrow gate towards financial stability.
If we maintain this course, while successfully rolling out our vaccination programme and emerging from the shadow of the pandemic, we can succeed.
Never before has our behaviour been so indelibly linked to the performance of the economy. If we maintain our Covid disciplines we can rebuild strong foundations for a full economic recovery. But if we drop our guard we will continue to see-saw in and out of lockdowns and severely retard our progress.
Last year the Minister of Finance committed government to not merely return the economy to where it was before the coronavirus, but to forge a new economy in a new global reality.
He identified debt as our biggest weakness and promised policy reforms to narrow the deficit and stabilise debt. He committed to eliminating the budget deficit and to achieving a primary surplus by the 2023/24 financial year.
In addition to stabilising debt he committed to reducing the public sector wage bill by pursuing fair and fiscally sustainable public sector compensation.
These are commitments worth striving for.
We must also maintain our commitment to eliminating financial losses through wastage, leakage, incompetence and corruption.
The TERS grant introduced during the pandemic to assist families with no access to income has been a critical intervention. But the reality is that, pandemic or no pandemic, millions of South Africans of working age have no income and live in a country that cannot produce enough jobs.
This temporary grant cannot end next month, as planned. It must be extended.
We would like to hear the Finance Minister including a commitment to a permanent Basic Income Grant in this year’s budget. If Treasury is implementing a zero based budgeting process then it has the opportunity to choose to provide some basic income to those who have none.
Ends…
Note to Editors: Please find attached soundbites for your perusal.