Education, health, service delivery and the fight against crime all to get a shot in the arm with increased funding
Surviving the recession may have topped the agenda, but Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan also tipped his hat to the left in his mini-budget by earmarking billions for socioeconomic redress.
Social spending sees some of the largest increases in the next three years, although in some cases this is off a relatively low base.
Key priorities remain job creation, improving education, health reform, rural development and the fight against crime and corruption.
Housing and community amenities sees the largest injection of funds between now and the 2012-2013 fiscal year. Average expenditure will rise by 12,3%, from R69,4-billion to R98,5-billion.
Education still gets the largest chunk of social spending, however, sitting at R144-billion this year, rising to R184-billion in 2012-2013.
The average growth in expenditure is 8,6%.
Similarly social protection or welfare receives a hefty R121,1-billion this year rising to R156,6-billion in the next three years, an average growth rate of 8,9%.
The budget provided for the extension of the child support grant to 18-year-olds and, once this is phased in, it is likely to cost about R7-billion.
A further 86 000 people will receive the older persons’ grant.
The number of people on social grants has risen to 13-million.
Health spending rises from R89,8-billion to R115,2-billion in the next three years at an average rate of 8,6%.
The budget highlights the fact that environmental concerns remain a secondary concern for government.
Although environmental protection gets a 10,4% average increase in the three-year term, it is off a very low base, rising from R5,5-billion to a mere R7,4-billion in 2012-2013. — Lynley Donnelly
Education
Schools and the further education and training colleges are the major beneficiaries of Gordhan’s upwardly revised education budget, which has moved from R140-billion to R144-billion for the 2009-2010 financial year and will increase to R184-billion in 2012-2013.
The adjusted budget allocates an additional R524-million for workbooks for literacy and numeracy for grade one to seven learners, attending the poorest 60% of schools for 2010-2011.
The workbooks aim to address poor performance in national and international literacy and numeracy benchmark tests.
Education expert Rolf Stumpf said the workbooks “are a very positive step if it is going to eventually be extended to grades seven to nine and the higher grades, as it will improve literacy and numeracy and the flow of learners to universities”.
But he warned that the workbooks would not resolve the problems of poorly equipped teachers overnight.
Martin Prew, director of the Centre for Education Policy Development, warned that the workbooks might be seen as sidelining teachers.
“The way to regenerate education is not through workbooks but rather by improving teacher capacity. Skills development of teachers and improving their subject knowledge is imperative.”
Meanwhile, funding has also been allocated for the proposed national literacy and numeracy assessments in grades three, six and nine. These assessments will measure the success of literacy and numeracy interventions.
The government will also expand the national school nutrition programme to reach learners in the poorest 60% of secondary schools and aims to improve the quality of meals provided.
Prew said that in previous years the ANC government’s focus was on access to schools, with funds being diverted to cater for no-fee institutions. But this week’s mini-budget focused on quality of education and was coloured by the 2007 Polokwane conference, which viewed education as a driver of development.
The technical college sector is to receive an additional R2,8-billion for staff pay and training of lecturers.
There is also funding for the creation of 350000 industrial and related apprenticeships and learnerships. — Primarashni Gower and Monako Dibetle
Health
“I feel we have a 100% new government in power. They’re engaging us honestly regarding policy and now we’re seeing a budgetary commitment to HIV,” said Francois Venter, South African HIV Clinicians’ Society president, reacting to the health vote in this week’s mini-budget.
Earlier this month Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi responded to activists’ complaints by saying that his department needed an additional R1,2-billion to prevent a shortfall in antiretroviral treatment.
Activists said the health department has informed them that the R300-million shortfall between the R900-million treasury allocation and the required R1,2-billion will be provided by the United States government’s President’s Emergency Fund for Aids Relief (Pepfar).
The Treatment Action Campaign’s Nathan Geffen cautioned: “The department has no idea how many people are on ART [antiretroviral treatment] and so doesn’t know how much medication to buy.”
Economist Alex van den Heever, of the Council for Medical Schemes, warned that the R25,4-billion increase in health expenditure up to 2012-13 “could be absorbed by increased salaries that were incorrectly budgeted for through the recent Occupation Service Dispensation, because of a lack of employment figures”.
Health activists pointed out that Motsoaledi has made it clear a national health insurance system will be almost impossible to implement, given the dire state of the public health system.
Motsoaledi said that massive and time-consuming improvements would first have to take place before the NHI budget process could start. — Jane Baldwell
Crime and corruption: Spending to double
At least President Jacob Zuma’s government is making the right gestures on crime and corruption – government spending on the fight against these two rampant ills will double in the next three years.
Highlighting the need to purge the public service of graft, Gordhan announced that a further R30-billion would be allocated for this purpose, with the total allocation for the security cluster – police, justice and prisons – “growing to more than R100-billion in the next three years”.
Part of this will be used to hire an additional 22400 police personnel to strengthen detective services and crime intelligence.
Police numbers now stand at about 170 000 and are expected to reach more than 200 000 by 2012.
Government estimates show about R46-billion was allocated to policing this year, but this figure has risen by more than R1-billion because of what the department says are unforeseen pay increases.
The police department also inherits more than R150-million from the justice department as a result of the closure of the Scorpions.
Police salaries now constitute about 70% of the total allocation. With the national police commissioner, Bheki Cele, pushing for more specialised police personnel, including detectives and paralegals at police stations, the bulk of the R30-billion will go towards pay. The allocation brings the total spending on the security cluster to R78-billion for the next year. It trails only education and health in the spending stakes.
Zuma and the ANC have identified the fight against crime as one of five priorities of government focus and the announcement will be seen as backing their talk.
Minister of Police Nathi Mthethwa said the police will use an intelligence-driven approach to crime-fighting and identified the Hawks as a key pillar of this.
He said the police would relaunch specialised units to tackle crimes against women and children. — Sello Alcock