The DA has called for a major shift in thinking around South Africa’s budget, calling for a “policy shock” that will boost economic growth and create jobs in the country.<\/p>\n
“No government can tax itself to prosperity,” the party said.<\/p>\n
“In our view, this means there needs to be total change to policy direction and spending patterns in order to grow our economy at a rapid rate that will create jobs and bring in new tax revenue, and introduce big, deep, and lasting spending cuts to all the waste and excess in government.”<\/p>\n
The party put forward a list of changes it says could free up over R110 billion in South Africa’s budget over the short, medium and long term – but would require taking extreme measures like cutting government departments, freezing salaries, and abandoning ‘dead weight’ projects.<\/p>\n
“We need to cut spending and expenditure in the right areas. The cuts ought to focus on superfluous government departments, zombie SOEs, and vanity projects such as the New Development Bank. If the budget does this, we will support it,” the party said.<\/p>\n
“However, if the budget cuts basic services such as health, education, social grants and infrastructure that facilities growth \u2013 we will reject it.”<\/p>\n
Downsizing government<\/strong><\/p>\n The DA said that the first way to cut spending would be to announce a package of structural reforms. This would include:<\/p>\n Salary freezes<\/strong><\/p>\n The DA said that government should also confront the ballooning cost of \u201ccompensation of employees\u201d, which is projected to be R587 billion in 2018\/19, by implementing a \u201cwage freeze\u201d, for the period of one year, across the public service.<\/p>\n This included salary freezes for:<\/p>\n Cutting spending<\/strong><\/p>\n In addition to austerity measures, the DA said that the minister should implement a comprehensive spending review, aimed at identifying sustainable savings, over the medium term, between 2018\/19 and 2020\/21, including:<\/p>\n Selling off state assets<\/strong><\/p>\n A comprehensive spending review would also be geared towards selling off state assets, including:<\/p>\n The savings identified as a result of a comprehensive spending review should be allocated to fund investment in infrastructure and skills development to support economic growth; and to cut the fiscal deficit in order to reduce national debt and debt service costs over the medium term between 2018\/19 and 2020\/21, the DA said.<\/p>\n You can read the full DA statement here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n
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