Cape Town - The Good party and the ANC have repelled advances from the DA in the Western Cape to oppose the Second Division of Revenue Amendment Bill, with the Good party dismissing the approach by the DA as “kindergarten politics”.
The DA’s provincial spokesperson on Premier and Constitutional Affairs, Ricardo Mackenzie, said the province was looking at financial cuts to the tune of R3.5 billion, if calculated since the first Covid-19 budget adjustment.
Mackenzie said: “If provincial leaders of the two parties in the legislature are serious about service delivery and recovery in the province, then we urge them to lobby their national counterparts for the revision of these broad-sweeping, dangerous financial proposals that are being made.
"We call on them to put the people of the Western Cape first in a strong show of unity.”
In response, Good party MPL Brett Herron said: “The adjustment of budgets is unavoidable as revenues have plummeted and it would do us all good if the DA were able to comprehend the complexity of the financial circumstances we are navigating.
"Making adjustments to our budgets is inescapable. The DA has itself cut crucial provincial budgets for things like education and drug treatment programmes in order to fund lavish salaries at Wesgro.
"In fact, DA governments continuously show how their budgeting is perverted by their own ideological priorities, and these priorities seldom include the poor.
“The DA’s attempt to concoct a Good-ANC alliance is childish. The DA must at some point graduate from kindergarten politics.”
ANC provincial spokesperson on Finance, Nomi Nkondlo, said: “The desperation of the DA to portray the Western Cape as being targeted by the national government knows no bounds.
"At first it was the premier claiming in his special address that the transfers to the Western Cape would be reduced by R10bn.
"The latest move is by Ricardo Mackenzie, who has claimed that the equitable share of the Western Cape will be cut by R3.5bn this year.
“Mackenzie does not mention extra money from conditional grants. National Treasury explained that a total of R1.5bn is added to direct conditional grants for provinces for job-creation purposes.”
Cape Argus