MTBPS ‘tepid and uninspiring’, says Cosatu

Against a background of South Africa’s socio-economic crisis – high levels of unemployment, poverty and being ravaged by the Covid pandemic – Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana on Wednesday tabled his maiden medium term budget policy statement (MTBPS) – drawing more disapproval than nod from the trade union federation Cosatu, which described the MTBPS as “tepid and uninspiring”.

In igniting growth, Godongwana said government would introduce reforms, which would focus on improving competitiveness, productivity, investment and employment.

While it welcomed a few aspects of Godongwana’s MTBPS, Cosatu lambasted government for a tepid speech content.

Cosatu national spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said the federation supported the R11 billion allocated to the Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme, which has helped create more than 550 000 jobs.

“We welcome the proposed allocation of R74 billion to it, over the next three years – but this should be further increased,” said Pamla.

“We look forward to more details from Treasury and the banks on their commitment to develop new measures to support SMMEs (small medium and micro enter- prises), which should be expedited.

“We are disappointed that there are no new measures or interventions to ramp up local procurement to support local industries and jobs were presented.”

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Progress made by government to dispense over R32.9 billion through various relief measures – provided for to victims of the July violence in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng – was another key deliverable.

“But the delays by the UIF [Unemployment Insurance Fund] in paying workers who lost their wages is shameful,” he said.

Cosatu welcomed Treasury’s commitment to release a policy paper this month and then table an Amendment Bill in the 2022 February budget – providing for distressed workers, limited access to their pension funds.

“This needs to be expedited because it will provide relief to indebted workers,” he said. “This should also include both public and private sector workers.”

Cosatu has called on government to extend the R350 special relief dispensation grant, which has provided relied for more than nine million unemployed people.

“We need a commitment that it will be extended and enhanced in the 2022 budget,” said Pamla.

“Sassa and the Post Office should move its recipients to electronic payments, to deal with the endless queues.”

Cosatu, said Pamla, was disappointed by “the tepid medium-term budget policy statement tabled by government in parliament”, saying the MTBPS provided “few new ideas or interventions to grow an economy that is in its deepest recession and an unemployment rate of 44%”.

Cosatu had hoped government would have placed “the revival of the economy and providing relief for distressed workers, the unemployed and businesses, at the centre of the MTBPS”.

“We expected mass stimulus package in line with what other countries like the United States, European nations and China have done to turn their economies around,” he said.

“Cosatu is worried about the impact of cuts to key public service delivery functions, in particular the cuts over the next three years to the department of health by 0.6%, social security by 16.9% and police by 0.5%.

“No new allocations were provided to stimulate a stagnant economy, with no new measures provided to increase needed state revenue or to deal with the ballooning levels of corruption and wasteful expenditure.”

Political analyst Roland Henwood said the MTBPS represented “an interesting acknowledgement that government failed by only focusing on fixing Eskom, rather than new generation capacity”.

“He highlighted key problem areas – energy, crime, corruption, unemployment, poor governance, SOEs, tourism, economic growth, infrastructure, trade and regulatory reform to ensure better outcomes,” he said.

“However, there was little detail and not enough on control of government spending.”

– brians@citizen.co.za