I can only say; “Colour me impressed with the speed that the Eastern Cape 2011/12 Budget speech has been made available to the general public – Well bloody done guys.”
And this after my bitching and moaning that the State of the Province address earlier this year was one of the most difficult things to find on the East Cape Government web site even three days after the speech.
But the Honourable MEC Phumulo Masualle has whipped his department into shape allowing you to download the full 2011 Budget Speech right now if you want (165 kilobyte PDF document).
First off the mark (and rightly so) with comments on the Eastern Province Budget was the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber, who said;
“Overall, the Chamber believe this is a positive budget, focused on improving financial management and on spending to support service delivery and socio-economic growth, while reducing non-core spending and swinging the balance away from over-spending on personnel and under-spending on services.
This is a very ‘corporate’ budget, with its focus on tightening financial controls, trimming the fat, managing over and under spending, dealing with inefficient managers, reducing the waste of state resources and a focus on spending on delivery.
It is disappointing that the budget was short on detail regarding implementation and delivery. We trust that this will be outlined in the policy speeches of his provincial cabinet colleagues. Hustler continues: “We would have liked to have seen clearer support for the Coega IDZ and particularly the Project Mthombo refinery which is a project of huge benefit to the province as a whole through both job creation and downstream opportunities”.
The Chamber commends the budget for:
- The MEC’s focus on service delivery and recognition that effective operational management in spending of the budget and implementation of projects is critical. Business should come out in strong support of the sanctioning of under-performing managers in order to correct weaknesses in delivery and inefficient use of state resources.
- A focus on tight financial management to address past over-spending – the key is to focus on spending on appropriate initiatives and improve spending on initiatives that make a meaningful difference to service delivery and socio-economic development, rather than the bulk of government spending being on personnel costs.
- The MEC’s statement that the government does not need to move into external borrowing as the overspending experienced in 2009-10 has not been repeated in 2010-11, and that funds are thus not being diverted from service delivery into debt servicing.
- The MEC’s focus on ‘trimming the fat’ in terms of spending on non-core items is also to be welcomed, and we would hope that these savings are re-directed towards priority areas
The Chamber expresses concern over:
- The fact that although there was under-spending in total, this was mainly focused on non-personnel budgets, while personnel-related spending remained in the red.
- The areas of focus for job creation are broadly in line with the economic and industrial development strategies of the province and Nelson Mandela Bay – enhanced skills development will be critical to the growth of these sectors in order to support their ability to create employment, and we would have liked to see some discussion of how this will be achieved.
The Chamber would have liked to have seen:
- Some discussion of how the growth of job creation through enhanced skills development would be achieved.
The Chamber sees potential in:
- A public-private sector collaboration in the MEC’s announcement of a provincial Investment Fund and a job creation stimulus initiative. It is clear that the job creation puzzle cannot be solved solely by filling vacant government posts, but that the focus needs to be on sustainable job creation that supports ecomomic growth, and we believe these two initiatives have the potential to address this. It makes sense that these are linked both to provincial and local economic development priority sectors, as well as to national initiatives, as this will contribute to leveraging funding most effectively.
- We have a good working relationship with provincial government, particularly the Dept of Economic Development & Environmental Affairs, and we look forward to working with them on rolling these and other initiatives out.”
Alan Straton
Latest posts by Alan Straton (see all)
- South African Conquers Rats on the World Stage - 30 October 2026
- Old JPG on a Memory Stick? Vectorization Studio in Observatory Redraws Faded and Low-Resolution Logos by Hand - 30 October 2026
- ReAutomated Adds Robot Palletising and Case Packing Cells to Existing South African Packing Lines Without Stripping Out the Conveyors - 30 October 2026
- Rotary or Dual Action? Germiston’s Polisher Lists Its Machines, Buffs and Compounds for Car Paint and Metal Finishing - 30 October 2026
- SmashDown Lists Its Woodstock Rage Room Packages for Cape Town Friends, Couples and Staff Teams - 29 October 2026
