The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape views the re-tabling of the provincial budget for the 2025/26 financial year as a series of missed opportunities, fumbling the chance to implement real solutions for serial shortcomings at local and provincial level.
The fiscal framework remains largely unchanged from March, as does the provincial government’s inability to turn public funds into tangible services that benefit the public.
We must accept that it is highly unlikely that either equitable share or conditional grant allocations from national will grow significantly, especially when National Treasury has to withhold equitable share allocations from defaulting municipalities in the Northern Cape. It is therefore essential for the Northern Cape Provincial Treasury to enforce a better standard of contract, project, and consequence management so that every cent of the public purse is spent to the public benefit and so that misappropriated funds can be recouped from the guilty parties. Recouping losses suffered through misconduct or the needless incurring of unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure can go a long way in securing greater financial freedom for the province.
We welcome the commitment given by the Member of the Executive Council for Finance, Economic Development & Tourism, Venus Blennies-Magage, that she will provide quarterly reports to the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature on the province’s financial health. We are particularly interested in efforts to assist local governments, where unreliable water, unaffordable electricity, and general decline makes it difficult for SMMEs to grow and to create the economic opportunities needed to boost own revenue generation and collection.
We will continue to monitor the implementation of the budget speech tabled today to ensure that contract, project, and consequence management is prioritised in the provincial government.