It became clear that the sun is going down on the ANC’s governance of Gauteng as the MEC for Finance, Jacob Mamabolo, tabled the last lacklustre provincial budget before the 2024 elections.
The FF Plus believes that this will be the last provincial budget tabled by the ANC in Gauteng.
The ANC’s performance in the elections will most probably be just as lacklustre as the budget it wants to impose on the voters of Gauteng.
The budget, once again, proposes squandering funds on misguided policy initiatives, which will only make the province poorer.
In addition, the ANC government cannot even manage to spend its existing departmental budgets, as evidenced by many departments’ underspending over the past year.
Mamabolo himself even highlighted it as an “alarming trend” in his speech.
In the budget, the ANC government is once again relying on the state’s apparent ability to create jobs by appointing numerous unemployed persons in unsustainable provincial public service positions. Government contracts are also channelled to thousands of township enterprises.
The ANC’s biggest mistake is holding fast to its ideological conviction that the state can create jobs, instead of realising that all the state can do is create a favourable environment to facilitate the growth of new enterprises in the private sector.
The ANC government is seriously failing to create a business-friendly environment that will attract new investments to Gauteng.
Instead of using economic growth as leverage for addressing numerous socio-economic problems, such as crime, much of the available funds are earmarked for appointing thousands of poorly trained peace wardens, helicopters, drones, security cameras and emergency buttons – which could transform Gauteng into some kind of police state and undermine personal freedom.
There are serious concerns about the nature of the provincial peace wardens seeing as they are currently being trained by the Defence Force, which does not fulfil any policing functions.
It is, furthermore, alarming that the budget of the Department of Social Services is cut by 3% while the social need among communities is so great due to Gauteng’s high unemployment rate.
The ANC government thinks that it can save money by centralising social services under the Department, but it was this very Department’s incompetence that resulted in the Life Esidimeni tragedy which still haunts many people.
The ANC must realise that professional community organisations play an important role in delivering social services and deserve support, not a cold shoulder.
Apart from the fact that the budget is putting the cart before the horses in many respects, the ANC government in Gauteng has also decided to apply for financing to settle 30% of SANRAL’s e-toll debt.
So, the ANC has decided to incur even more debt at a time when the provincial government is failing to fully spend budgets.
Funds are earmarked for programmes that will not create sustainable jobs; and a provincial defence force is built up to do policing, which is actually the police force’s responsibility.
This budget was clearly opportunistically drawn up to form part of the ANC’s election strategy, but it will not save the ANC because it lacks a coherent economic plan.
This lacklustre budget surely proves that the sun is going down on the ANC in Gauteng and that a coalition government, with the FF Plus as governing partner, will stand up after the elections to save the province.
