The ANC's economic transformation head, Mmamoloko Kubayi, on Tuesday accused the treasury of attempting to usurp President Cyril Ramaphosa’s powers. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)
The ANC has hit out at the treasury after a proposal by the finance department to cut spending and reconfigure state departments was leaked.
The ruling party’s economic transformation head, Mmamoloko Kubayi, on Tuesday accused the treasury of attempting to usurp President Cyril Ramaphosa’s powers.
She said the party was concerned about the leak, which was first published by the Sunday Times, and the processing of the proposals without proper consultation with the government and the ANC.
“On something like this the mandate of government is that of the ANC. We account to our constituencies,” she said.
“We were shocked when we saw the letter; we just believe that consultation would have helped the matter. Looking broadly at the issues, we just felt that the first letter was like a tick-box exercise without much thinking.”
Kubayi, who also serves in Ramaphosa’s cabinet as the minister of human settlements, said Treasury’s proposals resembled a used template without “proper modelling of what that template they had would give”.
“From where I was sitting, it wouldn’t even plug any holes. It was a popularity letter,” she said.
This comes after the treasury outlined various measures to Ramaphosa that may need to be taken to make room for big expenditure line items such as a larger-than-budgeted-for public sector wage bill and extending the Covid-19 social relief of distress grant.
Key among these proposed measures was to cut down the size of the cabinet. Other less palatable measures include increasing VAT by 2% and closing various government programmes to raise the more than R40 billion needed to fund the social grant.
The treasury was sent back to the drawing board with its tail between its legs last week when the cabinet rejected the proposed budget cuts. This week it released a toned-down set of guidelines and stipulated that executive authorities must consult the minister of public service and administration on all changes to the organisational structure affecting all units or posts.
The treasury stated that before creating a post for any newly defined job, or filling any vacancy, an executive authority must confirm the need for the post to meet the department’s objectives, in line with specific criteria as advised by the public service and administration department. The executive must also submit a motivation for creating or filling a post.
With the country’s public finances in a far worse position than they were when Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana delivered his budget speech in February, the treasury had already instructed government departments to pare back their budgets in the lead-up to the tabling of the medium-term budget policy statement later this year.
Kubayi said the ANC was satisfied with the revised set of guidelines, adding that she would convene a meeting with the unions on their concerns about the treasury.
“You can never take away the power of the government to account to its citizens. That is a constitutionally enshrined power and obligation. If you look at the Constitution, it prescribes that any government activity, policy and laws that you want to pass, there must be consult[ations] with constituencies and communities,” she said.
“That letter was misguided, it took away that power. It took away that responsibility. If you look at the official letter, it took away the constitutional power of the president and took it into the national treasury, which was unfortunate and illegal.
“We are happy that now they have issued a guideline that confirms and conforms to the legal framework of this country,” Kubayi added.