GOOD speech by Shaun August,
GOOD: National Organiser and Member of Western Cape Provincial Parliament
25 March 2022
Note to editors: This speech was delivered by GOOD National Organiser, Shaun August, during the debate today in the Western Cape Provincial Parliament on the proposed budget for the 2022/2023 financial year.
Honourable Speaker,
It is no secret that the Western Cape is an extremely wealthy province, both in resources, human capital and its fiscus. As rich as this province is, the people of the Western Cape still go without the basics. Daily we see a grave deal of poverty, inequality, institutionalised discrimination and the status quo that this very government keeps re-enforcing- either wilfully or as a consequence of negligence.
The budget MEC Maynier delivered was a rehash of all the budget speeches that came before. If one were to investigate the annual budget addresses since this administrations inception, you’d find that little changes were made to the provinces budgetary priorities, despite circumstances having drastically changed since 2009.
Considering the rollercoaster ride that the people of this province have been on for the past two years, how lives and livelihoods were impacted, poor economic development, joblessness and increasing cost of living; how all these harsh conditions affected citizens, but it was this governments prerogative to return R891 million back to provincial treasury from the department of education, and underspend R46 million in its 2019/2020 human settlements budget.
This government is calling for urgent action to stimulate economic growth, but the economy will not grow if departments decide to sit on much-needed cash reserves and starving the people of this province their basic needs in the process
Just earlier this month the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) trends analysis report shows that the DA-run Western Cape has the highest number of active cases in the country – a total of 1592 complaints in the Western Cape which is nearly 3 times as high as the next province and accounts for 26% of the total number of complaints being managed by the SAHRC in the country.
This is reflected in its callous budgeting.
Nevertheless the budget did get some things right, like the increase in social development and a repeated focus on infrastructure investment, arguably one our most important avenues in which to genenrate mass job creation.
This is welcomed as I have been calling for a change to how we address crime; as a former warden, I know that our current response to crime just simply isn’t cutting it despite cities, like Cape Town’s protestations to the contrary.
We simply cannot just arrest everyone. So increasing social development’s budget gives this department room to diversify programs that can address the systemic challenges that lead to crime and, in so doing, stop crime before it happens.
This budget should have reflected the hopes and aspirations of our people. Instead, it bears testament to the fact that this administration has no concrete plan for all the citizens of the Western Cape.
Media enquiries:
Shaun August, GOOD: National Organiser & Member of Western Cape Provincial Parliament
Cell: 074 746 7378
Email: shauna@forgood.org.za
Samkelo Mgobozi, GOOD: Media Manager
Cell: 0792315977 (whatsapp)/0829684021 (calls)
Email: samm@forgood.org.za