Keeping the Union Buildings running will cost the taxpayer twice as much this year as last year. This is because of the increase in personnel in the presidency, the newly established National Youth Development Agency and the near-doubling of the budget of the spousal office from R8-million to R15-million.
“The allocation [for] the presidency grows by 121% compared with the estimates of the national expenditure for 2009-2010,” Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane told Parliament during the presidency’s budget vote.
Presented on Wednesday last week in Parliament, the budget vote shows that President Jacob Zuma will employ 175 more staff members in his department during the next financial year, bringing the total to 675 employees.
This is as a result of a major restructuring of the presidency that led to the dismantling of the policy unit previously headed by Joel Netshitenzhe, who now serves as a commissioner in the National Planning Commission (NPC).
The presidency will, in the next financial year, spend more than R727-million, of which R327-million will be allocated to the administration of the highest office in the land. The newly established performance, monitoring and evaluation unit will receive R30-million and the planning commission will get R20-million.
Zuma has beefed up the team around him, employing more staff than originally envisioned to deal with communications-related issues. He also created a new position for his ANC spokesperson, Zizi Kodwa, as a special communications adviser.
The largest allocation of funds to Zuma’s office is the R38-million earmarked for consultants and “business services”, announced in the annual budget presented by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in February.
The largest chunk of the presidency’s budget will go to the National Youth Development Agency, which is due to get more than R369-million, although Chabane admitted this will not be enough for the agency to fulfil its mandate. The agency replaces the former Usombuvu Youth Fund and National Youth Commission.
More than R15-million will be spent in 2009-2010 financial year on Zuma’s wives and children through the spousal office of the presidency, up from R8-million.
On Wednesday Chabane, who is in charge of the presidency, could not give reporters a head count of how many people the office currently serves, but a parliamentary question revealed that the wives receive the services of secretaries and researchers, plus cellphones, domestic air travel and computers to help them do their jobs.
The answer to a written question confirmed that the baby Zuma fathered with Sonono Khoza, daughter of football boss Irvin Khoza, will also be entitled to the same benefits as the children born in wedlock.
Chabane admitted that the establishment of the planning commission and the Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation Department will “put further strain on the budget” because these entities will need capacity to run properly, such as human resource services and corporate services.
The performance department was originally envisaged to be a unit but was recently upgraded to a full department within the presidency.