Belinda Scott
Photo by: GCIS
The African National Congress (ANC) in KwaZulu-Natal has welcomed Finance MEC Belinda Scott’s R109-billion provincial budget tabled in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature in Pietermaritzburg on Thursday.
"The ANC notes the R200-million drought relief provided for in the budget," said ANC provincial secretary Super Zuma.
"This amount is in addition to R114-million that was re-prioritised during the 2015/16 Adjustments Estimate by the department of agriculture and rural development for drought relief, as well as the R33-million allocated to the department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs in respect of water provision for the Umkhanyakude District Municipality…"
The provincial government was expected to cut at least R1-billion in order to curb expenditure in the first year of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework.
Cost-cutting measures
"We commend the provincial government for sticking to the cost-cutting measures, as these guidelines will assist to cut out the fat in government expenditure, improve financial management, while enhancing service delivery," Zuma said.
"This is in line with the ANC’s call for stringent cost-cutting measures which do not affect service delivery."
The party said it would monitor how government departments effected the expenditure reductions as per the resolution of the national government.
"The ANC is pleased that the department of health and department of education will not be affected by the budget cuts. Government must not, in any way, compromise service delivery when implementing the budget cuts," he said.