Cape Town – The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has reportedly expressed concern over Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s maiden budget speech, saying that he made old promises and had no plan to address the country’s crippling economy.
Godongwana delivered his first national Budget Speech on Wednesday.
In his speech, he addressed the country’s deep poverty, unemployment, and inequality.
Although largely praised for taking a balanced approach that provides much-needed relief to hard-pressed consumers, his speech has not been without criticism from political parties and labour unions such as Cosatu.
National Assebly Plenary Budget Speech 23rd February 2022 https://t.co/SqWZM3tILQ
— Parliament of RSA (@ParliamentofRSA) February 23, 2022
“Overall, this was an extremely disappointing budget that repeated old promises, continued its austerity trajectory and was devoid of any new policy interventions to solve the problem of economic stagnation. There is no plan to fix the economy or create jobs, no plan to fight corruption and no plan to stop the leakages that have led to 10% of the budget being lost to corruption,” Times Live quoted Cosatu’s spokesperson Sizwe Pamla as saying.
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The union also criticised Godongwana’s decision not to raise the salaries of public servants.
“It’s a big risk not to give the public workers a wage increase. These are nurses and teachers, police officers and wardens. If you do not give them a wage increase then at least protect their salaries from inflation from being this risk provoking of skilled public servants who will go the private sector who are paid better, who will go overseas.
“Cut the exorbitant package we pay politicians and management. Have a single regime and a collective bargaining regime for the entire state. We can find a way to save costs but you cannot do it at the expense of throwing public workers under the bus, let’s tackle the real issue in the fiscus which is corruption and wasteful expenditure,” Cosatu’s deputy parliamentary co-ordinator said, according to eNCA.
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Godongwana announced that the National Treasury had resolved not to hike the general fuel levy or the Road Accident Fund levy for the first time in 31 years to cushion hard-pressed consumers from soaring petrol prices.
“To provide some relief to households, no increases will be made to the general fuel levy on petrol and diesel for 2022/23. This will provide tax relief of R3.5 billion to South Africans,” said Godongwana.
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Compiled by Sinothando Siyolo
