Western Cape MEC says province abandoned by government in coronavirus fight

Western Cape Premier Alan Winde along with Finance and Economic Opportunities MEC David Maynier. Picture: Western Cape Government

Western Cape Premier Alan Winde along with Finance and Economic Opportunities MEC David Maynier. Picture: Western Cape Government

Published Jul 26, 2020

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Cape Town - The national government has been accused of abandoning the province, which had to make its own plans to weather the Covid-19 storm, according to Finance and Economic Opportunities MEC, David Maynier.

Delivering his R3.05-billion Special Adjustment Budget to support the fight against Covid-19 in the Western Cape Maynier said: “When Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni tabled his Special Adjustments Budget, the provincial budget was effectively cut by R113.1million.”

“What this means, in the end, is that we are effectively on our own when it comes to the fight against Covid-19,” said Maynier.

Of the R3.05bn in the budget, Maynier said: “R1.8bn is going to the Department of Health for personal protective equipment (PPE), temporary field hospitals, testing and screening, and additional bed capacity. A further R400m will go to the Department of Transport and Public Works for the hiring of venues and the purchase of services for quarantine and isolation facilities.

“A total of R310m goes to the Department of Education for PPE, and the sanitisation of schools. For the first time we will begin making public regular, standardised and automated reports on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis on the procurement of PPE.”

DA MPL Deidré Baartman said: “The budget involves a prudent three-phase process, reliant on savings and cost containment as well as invocation of Section 25 of the Public Finance Management Act.

“This permits expenditure from the Provincial Revenue Fund for the exceptional circumstances we face today. We are facing a challenge of a probable loss of 167000 jobs and R720m worth of revenue in the province, so every possible measure must be taken to limit these impacts,” said Baartman.

Good party MPL Brett Herron said: “The massive cuts in equitable share and conditional grants to the province calls for it to go back to the drawing board and implement zero-based budgeting.

“Government must allocate budget to priority expenses - those that really save lives. PPE for teachers, social workers, nurses and doctors is much more important than multimillion-rand salaries and increases for DA cadres that the MEC approved just months ago,” said Herron.

ANC finance spokesperson Nomi Nkondlo said: “The ANC is of the firm view that you cannot beat Covid-19 unless you have addressed the persistent challenges of abject poverty and inequality that have been exposed by the outbreak, including factors that fanned the spread in the hot-spot areas. The community transmissions of Covid-19 were perpetuated by living conditions of the poor in densely populated areas, mainly in the informal settlements.

“The plans to decongest these settlements have not taken place due to failures of provincial government departments,” said Nkondlo.

Cape Argus

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