GOOD Speech by Brett Herron ,
GOOD Secretary-General & Member of the Western Cape Parliament
14 November 2024
Note to editor: GOOD Member Brett Herron tabled an interpellation debate in the Western Cape Legislature today on how the provincial education budget came to be “under-funded” and whether the Finance MEC has come up with measures to eliminate the need to cut teacher posts.
Over the next three years, the Western Cape Government will not spend R8 Billion of the funds it receives from the national treasury for education on education, leaving it with a R3.79 Billion education shortfall and “forcing” it to fire thousands of teachers.
If the province spent the money it gets for education on education, it would be able to hire thousands of extra teachers.
National government must close this loophole by removing the provinces’ discretion to spend the Provincial Equitable Share (the money it receives from national) as it wishes.
The two largest components in the Provincial Equitable Share, education and health, are calculated on demand. The education demand is calculated by how many children are at school.
On this basis, the education component comprises 48% of the total equitable share that provinces receive.
While a number of provinces spend more than 48% they receive for education, on education, the Western Cape has borrowed two percent of this money to spend on other things, forcing it to get rid of teacher posts.
Over the next three years, the Western Cape will take R8.3 Billion away from education, while claiming to have no option but to get rid of 2,400 teachers because it has a R3.79 Billion shortfall.
Numbers don’t lie, and what they show is recklessness, irresponsibility and deceit.
While the whole of government is cash-strapped in a turgid economy, only in the Western Cape has the government chosen to deprioritise and defund education to the extent it is happy to slash teacher posts.
If national government cannot persuade the Western Cape that it is wrong and that education is a core national priority, it must remove the province’s spending discretion and make the education component of the provincial equitable share a conditional grant that must be spent on education.
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