Despite ongoing provincial budget cuts and austerity measures, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) remains in the grip of an ever-tightening fiscal noose as the provincial budget continues to shrink.
KZN’s financial crisis is not new, it has been steadily creeping up on us like a thief in the night, as cuts to the province’s equitable share have become the new norm.
Our province’s financial woes are compounded by runaway unauthorised expenditure. During the 2016/17 financial year, KZN’s Legislature approved unauthorised expenditure of R105 million. In 2018/19 the figure rose to more than R500 million as a direct result of the budget cuts.
In 2019/20, unauthorized expenditure within KZN’s Department of Education (DoE) amounted to R235.729 million – a figure that increased by R719.217 million in 2021/22. Meanwhile, unauthorized expenditure within KZN’s Department of Health (DoH) amounted to R91.617 million in 2019/20.
More than R1billion in unauthorised expenditure during the past two years has resulted in a first charge to Health and Education. Ordinarily, this expenditure would have been cut from the base line budgets over five years.
However, KZN’s ANC executive has suddenly realised that there is a major crisis and that both departments will not be able to fulfil their mandates if this takes place. So, they have gone to Treasury – cap in hand – to ask that the R1billion plus be cut from base line budgets over seven years.
The reality is that if there is further unauthorised expenditure within these two departments during the next seven years – a very real likelihood – unauthorised expenditure may well become another budget line item.
The question is: Why did the ANC take so long to realize the dire situation? Were they asleep at the wheel or do they simply lack financial foresight?
The stark reality is that within the ANC, fiscal consolidation is simply corridor talk while it has no solutions to KZN’s fiscal challenges.
It will get worse before it gets better because the ANC does not learn from its mistakes. Instead, it has continued on its path of fiscal destruction, spending at will, building a bloated bureaucracy and increasing posts instead of freezing vacancies.
KZN is in a mess – an ANC mess that will be inherited by a new government on 30 May 2024. Only the DA has solutions to the challenges. Through capable and effective governance, we will not only rectify the problem, we will also rescue KZN’s people.