Budget vote: how to allocate R1.12 trillion

Horror train crash at Denver station, between two trains. Picture: Antoine de Ras, 27/04/2014

Horror train crash at Denver station, between two trains. Picture: Antoine de Ras, 27/04/2014

Published May 4, 2015

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Cape Town - Budget-vote season starts in Parliament on Tuesday, upping the pressure on the House of Assembly to finalise this year’s financial allocations totalling R1.12 trillion to over 40 departments and entities within a month, as its legislative programme continues.

On average, four budget votes are processed from Tuesdays to Thursdays, with an occasional Friday session, as MPs break up into extended public committees to spread the workload. The budget-vote season will end early next month when the 400 MPs again come together for the vote on Parliament and the vote, and debate, on the Presidency’s budget.

But first a joint sitting of the National Assembly and National Council of Provinces (NCOP) will debate Freedom Day for two-and-a-half hours under the theme “Consolidating our freedom through accelerating radical economic transformation”.

On Tuesday’s budget-vote front, first up is state security, although few, if any, details are expected because the R4.1 billion vote falls under the National Treasury as a transfer to the South African Secret Services account, which, according to Budget documentation, “provides the government with accurate, topical, policy-relevant and timeous foreign intelligence…”

The money is allocated for national security, defence and combating crime, to fund the State Security Agency, but is separate from the overall R171.2bn defence, public order and safety budgetary allocations to the SAPS, defence force, the courts and correctional services.

Also on Tuesday is the health budget vote, and Transport Minister Dipuo Peters will present her R53.3bn budget.

The transport minister might decide to give further details on the controversial Gauteng e-tolls after Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene announced in February that while the system would not be scrapped, there might be adjustments to fees.

February’s Budget announced that R1.1bn would be spent over the next three years to upgrade Moloto Road, the scene of many horrendous crashes, and that the Passenger Rail Agency would receive funding for its renewal programme to deliver the first 528 coaches over the next three years.

The parliamentary budget vote preparation process was not without hiccups. As part of last week’s acrimonious politicking with Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, ANC MPs on the justice committee cast doubt on whether they would approve the Treasury allocations, over and above the R200 million extra the public protector asked for.

Last month, the police committee stopped a budget and strategic plan briefing by SAPS National Commissioner General Riah Phiyega. MPs took exception to her dismissive answers on the lack of a chief financial officer for well over a year, but they resumed the hearings after Phiyega wrote to the committee, promising a finance boss would be appointed by August.

As budget votes are debated, committee work continues. Parliament’s joint ethics committee will set this year’s deadline for MPs and NCOP delegates to declare their financial interests, including gifts, directorships, pensions and properties. The home affairs committee will be briefed by the department, the International Organisation for Migration and the African Centre for Migration and Society.

The troubled South African Post Office will brief MPs on its strategic and performance plans. Preparations are also under way for the public works committee’s public hearings on the Expropriation Bill, scheduled for May 19 and 26, respectively.

Poltical Bureau

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