Nkonyeni’s budget speech ‘likely to leave many dejected’ — IFP

KwaZulu-Natal Treasury, MEC Peggy Nkonyeni, has the mammoth task of delivering a provincial budget able to inspire confidence in the midst of a gloomy economic outlook.

Nkonyeni, who will table the province’s budget in the KZN Legislature on Friday, will have to find money to finance existing government programmes and new initiatives, particularly around power generation.

With most of the provincial government departments broke, Nkonyeni will find it difficult to raise more money through budget cuts, which have already hampered the delivery of services in the province.

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Unlike in the previous years when the provincial government’s reserves where above R300 million, KZN currently has a negative balance.

The budget is supposed to instill confidence in ordinary citizens and business, but IFP provincial finance spokesperson Lourens de Klerk predicted that Friday’s budget is likely to leave many dejected and demotivated.

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At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, allocations to provincial departments were slashed to fund government’s Covid-19 response programme.

The budget cuts saw some departments unable to fill key vacancies and finance key programmes.

Other political parties weigh in
De Klerk said the IFP was not expecting major budget cuts in today’s budget. “There is simply nothing to cut,” he said.

DA provincial finance spokesperson Francois Rodgers said any cuts on critical programme such as infrastructure maintenance would plunge the province into a crisis.

We must fix what we have. We have been cutting on the maintenance budget, and now we have reached a point where any further cuts would collapse the province.
“Unfortunately, the province won’t be able to fund any new programmes. So, our advice as the DA is that the finance MEC should be pragmatic, a wish-list will not assist the people of this province ,” he said.

Nkonyeni will table the provincial budget from 9 am on Friday.