YCLSA STATEMENT ON THE BUDGET SPEECH

YCLSA STATEMENT ON THE BUDGET SPEECH

23 FRIDAY 2011

The Young Communist League of South Africa (UFasimba) notes the budget speech delivered by the Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan. This in our view, is a youth oriented budget which has taken into consideration the millions of young South Africans despondent as a result of the socio-economic disparities, still characterising the South African Economy. As the Minister said in his own words “there are millions of young people who cannot see a realistic prospect for a decent life”.

We firstly welcome the Minister’s proposed measures, which will be put in place to accelerate Job creation and Skills development. An amount of almost R150 billion has been allocated specifically for Job Creation and skills development. This affirms the commitment of our government on employment and training of young people. We welcome specifically the R14 Billion allocated to further education and Training colleges which were normally neglected in the past, to assist thousand of students in need of financial assistance. The money will go a long way in realising our call as the YCLSA for the training of 100000 artisans and training of young people in various technical driven skills-jobs which will enable them to be absorbed in the market.

The R6 Billion allocated to NSFAS in our view should be able to flow directly to the thousand of students in institutions of higher learning; this will also bring the realisation of free education sooner than anticipated. We call for the capacitating of the NSFAS Office and more importantly local offices which are expected to deliver to students in Institutions of higher learning, promptly.

The YCLSA is pleased that measures have now been put in place for the implementation of the NHI; the quality of the Public Health sector remains a key driver for the success of the NHI. We believe that the budget allocation will ensure the swift roll out of the NHI programme.

The Minister has also committed government in lowering bank charges and holding financial institutions accountable; this will assist in getting money back into the pockets of the poor who have been exploited and defrauded by banks through inflated pricing.

We express our concern that the entire economic budget falls within the macro economic paradigm where the major objective is inflation targeting and the lowering of interest rates. We hope that the Alliance summit which is scheduled to start tomorrow, will look into policy issues which remain neo-liberal and market driven.

We are very concerned with the high levels of Social Security expenditure which has taken 20% of the budget. This 20% could be used to stimulate active participation of millions of South Africans in the mainstream of the economy. The Minister should review this in the next MTBP and see what alternatives can be put in place to curb dependency on the state by millions of South Africans.

The affirmation of rooting out corruption remains vital to the success of government and ensuring efficient service delivery. We welcome the proposed review of the procurement system of government and believe that it will assist in routing out unbecoming civil servants who see the government as a cash cow. This will further restrict government officials in doing business with government or at the expense of government

As part of the process of consultation on the Proposed Youth Subsidy, we will continue to oppose it. We will look into the various ways in which the money set to be allocated for it ,can be used or directed towards youth initiatives .

Issued by the YCLSA Head Office

Contact

Gugu Ndima

National Spokesperson

076 783 1516