INJECTION of budget needed to safe teachers.
This follows the 2024 Medium Term Budget by the minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana, on Wednesday.
According to South African Teachers Union, the budget is an anomaly and more teachers are needed to different conditions, and this does not speak to us, says Sadtu’s spokesperson, Nomusa Cibi.
This will also dampen the spirits of graduates who will be entering the teaching profession, says Cibi, since there’s no additional funding for Basic Education.
Overcrowding in both rural and townships schools is another headache.
Godongwana says Government has doubled down on fiscal consolidation efforts by reducing spending from 28.6% of GDP in the 2023-24 financial year to 27.6% in 2024-25.
This largely reflects measures implemented in recent years and slower growth projected in non-interest expenditure relative to GDP, the treasury said.
Treasury said the budget deficit was projected to narrow from 4.7% of GDP in 2024-25 to 3.4% in 2027-28. It said it aimed to stabilise government debt by maintaining sufficiently large primary surpluses over the rest of the decade and that a debt-stabilising primary surplus would anchor fiscal policy over the next three years.
The Minister said treasury would ensure higher levels of capital investment by stabilising and reducing borrowing costs and directing a growing share of public spending towards capital projects.
On Social Relief of Distress Grant, the minister did say much on whether it will be extended but indicated the amount it had provisioned for social protection.
There have been a push back from civic organisations to have it extended and payments to be made to those who deserve it, and should be prioritised.
Between 2015 and 2020, spending on social protection averaged 4.6% of GDP, compared with 1.6% in South Africa’s developing country peers, the treasury said.
Over the next three years, 30.6% of the population will receive some form of social grant, excluding the Covid-19-related relief grant.
“This temporary grant has been extended several times. A sustainable fiscal approach requires that any permanent addition to spending must be funded through permanent revenue sources or reprioritisation from within the existing fiscal envelope,” the treasury said.
Treasury said the cabinet would have to decide whether to extend the social relief of distress grant, adding that this would be discussed in February 2025.
Treasury chief director of health and social development Mark Blecher was quoted: “It was provisioned on an ad hoc basis since that time during the pandemic and now the cabinet has to look at labour market considerations.”
Image (No smiling matter. Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, having a chat with Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen, post his Mid Budget address at Parliament, on Wednesday).
