The MEC for Finance, Ms Ina Cronjé shared the government priorities for the next financial year, with business people and communities of uMngeni Municipality today, where she listened to their views on what they would like to see in the next year (2010/11) budget allocations and welcomed their tips and input.
Cronjé met uMsunduzi business sector during the breakfast meeting then later met with the general community. This visit marks the first pre-budget road-show out of the few that the Provincial Treasury will embark on prior and post the budget day on Thursday, 4 March 2010.
In both events, she spelt out that the provincial focus on expenditure in the 2010/11 budget will be: Rural development/agrarian reform, creating decent work and economic growth, fighting crime, improving education and health and good governance. “I am taking this interaction seriously and I call for “Tips for Ina from you” said Cronjé.
The concerns raised by the communities ranged from lack of employment, lack of proper housing, poverty, lack of skills on their part, lack of business opportunities.
Both the business and the community felt that if the department uses the soon-to-be announced budget to create more business opportunities and implements skills development programmes, more people will benefit in a number of ways and this will help improve lives of many people.
Cronjé said, “the issues raised by the business community and citizens are genuine and they give a clear indication that even though the country was announced out of recession late last year but citizens continue to feel the pinch and the business have been hit harder by the global economic turmoil and appealed to the public to adhere to the saving culture.
She said the financial situation in the province is serious, hence cabinet approval of 21 cost-cutting measures late last year.
“Despite our pressures, the province will not be cutting back on service delivery and we are not cutting down on infrastructure spending because it has been very useful in creating employment and stimulating the economic growth,” continued Cronjé.
“We appeal to our business people to give government value for money. Inflating prices just because it is government that is buying can never be justified. Do not collude with corrupt officials who steal from the poorest and robbing others of service delivery. We need to change the mindset from “making a killing” to “making a living” if we want all our people to benefit,” she said.
“However it is very encouraging to note that the provincial economy seems to have stood firm. According to our economists, the downturn should therefore only be of a cyclical nature and not of a structural nature. We should recover fairly substantially when the world trade resumes and domestic monetary policy stays expansionary during 2010,” said Cronjé.
She said the signs of a full recovery are there and that the numbers of travellers using South African Airports in December increased for the first time since March last year. And the airport with the best growth was Durban International Airport with an 11 percent increase to 400 000 passengers.
“Manufacturing is picking up strongly according to the latest reports. Of concern to us; especially in KwaZulu-Natal is the performance of agriculture. It showed once again negative growth in the third quarter of 2009.
“The overall picture is certainly an improvement on 2009. However, job creation remains our major task. And we will still have to hold on to our rands and still pinch our cents. But given the fact that so many people are living in poverty, the social responsibility of individuals and businesses remains crucial” said Cronjé.
For more information please contact:
Musa Cebisa
Cell: 071 687 8777
Issued by: Department of Finance, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
4 February 2010
