The Budget Justice Coalition

This submission is informed by a range of civil society organisations (CSOs) who are part of the Budget Justice Coalition, including the Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC), the Children’s Institute at UCT, the Dullah Omar Institute (DOI), Equal Education (EE), Equal Education Law Centre (EELC), the Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ), the National Shelter Movement, OxfamSA, Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity (PMEJD), the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM),the Rural Health Advocacy Project (RHAP), SECTION27 and the Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute (SPII). The purpose of the Budget Justice Coalition is to collaboratively build people’s understanding of and participation Read More

What is the Adjusted Budget? Six months after the beginning of the financial year, an Adjusted Budget is tabled which shows how government is planning to change its spending plans to deal with any unexpected circumstances. Unused funds, including the money from its rainy day fund and money which departments do not think that they are going to spend, are moved or removed through the Adjusted Budget. Why the Adjusted Budget matters? The Adjusted Budget changes the National Budget passed by Parliament earlier in the financial year. It changes the amounts of money allocated to each department and programme. Some Read More

This submission is informed by a range of civil society organisations (CSOs) who are part of the Budget Justice Coalition (BJC), including the Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC), the Children’s Institute at UCT, the Dullah Omar Institute (DOI) at UWC, Equal Education (EE), Equal Education Law Centre (EELC), the Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ), Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity (PMEJD), the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM), the Rural Health Advocacy Project (RHAP), SECTION 27, and the Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute (SPII). In this submission, we focus on the in-year adjustments to expenditure.

The primary purpose of this submission is to highlight areas within the selected programmes that are in need of concerted interventions in relation to budgeting and planning, following the tabling of the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), the Adjustments Estimates and Adjustment Appropriations Bill by the Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni on 24 October 2018. Each of the organisations that contributed to this submission hope to engage further with the Committee, National Treasury, and relevant line function departments in due course. Rather than taking bold steps to stimulate the economy and embark on a more inclusive growth path, the Read More

This submission is made in response to the call by National Treasury for public comment on the report by the Panel for the review of the current list of zero-rated VAT items. As raised in our submissions to Parliament on the 2018 Budget and the draft Rates and Monetary Amounts Amendment Bill, we are concerned about the negative effects the increase to the VAT rate is having on poor and low-income households. We are also concerned by the simultaneous increases in the fuel levy as this has resulted in higher transport costs – impacting negatively on food and public transport Read More

As civil society organisations (CSOs) we are concerned by the tax proposals made by the 2018 National Budget (‘the Budget’) and contained within the Rates and Monetary Amounts and Amendment of Revenue Laws Bill 2018 (‘the Bill’), in particular its regressive tax measures, most notably the increase to VAT, and the harsh spending cuts that will result from the proposed revenue levels. As raised in our two submissions to Parliament on the Budget, we are concerned about the negative effects these measures will have on poor and low-income households. Such choices were not inevitable and, as previously demonstrated, alternative progressive Read More

Press Statement: CIVIL SOCIETY PROPOSES ALTERNATIVE, PEOPLE-CENTERED BUDGET 20 FEBRUARY 2018 PRESS RELEASE CIVIL SOCIETY PROPOSES ALTERNATIVE, PEOPLE-CENTERED BUDGET Broad collective of socio-economic rights organisations offer example of a budget which takes ordinary South Africans seriously. Minister Gigaba will be asked to make hard, but essential budget choices in his first budget speech in Parliament tomorrow. But the Minister’s task will be to allocate funds in such a way as to ensure that South Africa’s chronic poverty and inequality are alleviated, and that effect is given to the rights of the most vulnerable. A broad cross-section of South African civil Read More