Budget 2015

With additional pressures on the poor, judgment day could be approaching faster.

The minister proposes a temporary increase in the electricity levy but few believe it will end.

The department of science and technology saw its budget increase steadily since its formation in 2002.

The construction of an R19-billion new railway link to Swaziland is in the concept stage.

Any hope for better economic growth in the short term would have to be in industries less affected by the energy crisis, said the minister.

The true amount being spent on water usage is obscured by the fractured nature of its provision.

The minister’s intentions to contain expenditure may be undermined by strikes in the civil service.

Mining and manufacturing will be worst affected because of their high-intensity electricity usage.

Unemployed people are slipping through the cracks because most of the country’s money is locked up in the financial sector.

Although the individual increases are not large, they add up to a real squeeze.

While some such as the RAF and Tisa have welcomed Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene’s new budget plans, others are not so happy.

In dire financial times for South Africa, the President’s Russian nuclear deal is not even mentioned in the national budget.

The financial health of the country’s parastatals is so important that the budget review document has a new chapter dedicated to it.

The finance minister has delivered a tough budget to counter the effects of ongoing maladministration.

Nhlanhla Nene has little good luck and plenty of tough luck for the country’s millions of children, young people and universities as well.