The Western Cape’s budget is geared towards a “DA constituency”, with too little focus on big issues.
|||The Western Cape’s budget is geared towards a “DA constituency”, with too little focus on big issues such as housing.
These were among the comments by opposition parties in the province on Thursday after Finance, Economic Development and Tourism MEC Alan Winde’s 2012 budget speech.
But business welcomed the budget, with the Cape Chamber of Commerce saying it was impressed.
The bulk of the R39 billion budget goes to health, education, transport and social development.
Lynne Brown, ANC MPL and leader of the opposition in the legislature, said she was pleased that departments such as health and education were “well-funded”, but was concerned about the budget for community safety, at just over R300 million.
She said R559m for agriculture was also too little. There were about 300 000 farmworkers in the province, while very few projects had been planned for rural areas. Most of the plans were targeted for Cape Town.
According to a pamphlet on the budget, the province aims to “improve communities” by “promoting social inclusion”.
It plans to do this by focusing on school sport and social development projects for children and older people, among other methods.
Brown said the projects for poorer people all centred on social services, and that ultimately the biggest benefits in the budget were for wealthy residents. “The orientation of this budget is towards the DA constituency.”
bronwynne.jooste@inl.co.za - Cape Argus
