Gordhan must prioritise education in budget
Firm commitment to provide resources a step in right direction
THIS year’s medium term budget policy statement comes at a time when South Africa is once again overshadowed by growing uncertainty and concerns over the future, with the country facing challenges of chronic high unemployment and poverty.
Concerns abound over diminishing prospects to realise the five key pillars of the country’s development path due to the looming threat of downgrading of the country’s credit status by international rating agencies, as well as a lack of leadership in the government and key stateowned enterprises which are key to the global competitiveness of our country’s industries.
How well will the speech respond to the education crisis in the face of the fact universities are threatened with the loss of the 2016 academic year following the weeks-long shutdown caused by the student protests?
Will Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan commit additional funding to higher education, or will the speech confirm what we have known all along from various sources, that South Africa’s spending priorities lie elsewhere?
Over the past 20 years, South Africans have measured government spending largely against five pillars set out in the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP): meeting basic needs; developing human resources; building the economy; democratising the state; and implementing the RDP.
Unfortunately, despite progressive government spending over the past years, developing human resources at the higher education level has lagged behind.
The RDP’s pledges, presented in various government policies adopted since 1994, have fresh relevance this year following the outcome of the August 3 local government elections which provided an opportunity for elected representatives to renew their mandate.
The local sphere of government has an important function realising the country’s development path through the implementation of various government policies adopted since 1994.
This function has special importance this year as the governing political party returned with a reduced majority and key municipalities are now governed by coalitions.
Another unique factor that informs high expectations is the unusually high number of by-elections scheduled for next month, which may shift further the balance of power in favour of opposition political parties and independent candidates in several municipal councils.
The combination of these and other factors under the prevailing political climate tends to promote political expediency in the form of pet projects to win political support at the expense of prudent expenditure frameworks that best meet the realisation of the promise.
Under these circumstances, the finance minister’s speech must mediate between short-term and long-term policy priorities, taking into account the recent election promises made in the various political parties’ election manifestos, as well as the results of Statistics South Africa’s 2016 Community Survey released on June 30.
A decisive political mediation through this year’s medium term budget policy statement remains the number one challenge, given the fact that, while different departments in the three spheres of government tend to operate in silos in the execution of their mandate, citizens expect to enjoy basic services holistically, irrespective of the government line-function responsible for delivery.
It is often governmental failure to co-ordinate delivery of services by different departments that leads to a drop in the confidence levels of citizens towards governments and violent public protests.
It is also these unresolved shortcomings that prevent successful graduated expenditure to other priority areas such as human resource development.
The mediation is also important at this time, because the election manifestos of various political parties and the 2016 Community Survey reflect a shift in what political parties and communities see as priorities for the country in comparison with previous years.
For example, the 2016 Community Survey found the top three priorities of citizenswere, first, access to water; second, employment creation; and third, lower electricity costs.
Education or building human resources featured as the 15th priority on the list.
What makes this even more significant is the extent to which the election manifestos launched early in the year and the corresponding election campaigns conducted in the run-up to August 3 resonate with the ordering of these priorities, even though the campaign environment has been affected by the student struggles for free tertiary education and the decolonisation of the institutions of higher learning.
Given the changing order of the priorities, South Africa urgently needs decisive leadership from a collective of members of the executive in cabinet to ensure limited resources are spent optimally in a balanced manner for the overall benefit of the country.
This leadership must be demonstrated in this year’s Medium Term Budget Policy Statement and must endure, irrespective of how the predicted cabinet reshuffle unfolds.
Given the present uncertainty, this year’s Medium Term Budget Policy Statement should seek to mediate the policy and fiscal space to ensure advocacy for access to higher education becomes a matter for society as a whole, and is not confined to students, just as the education issue was for the high school pupils in the 1976 Soweto uprising 40 years ago.
A firm commitment to provide resources to ensure access to good quality higher education would be a step in the right direction as an extension of the country’s commitment to primary education which has resulted in the improvement of the quality of life for citizens.
The urgency to act boldly on the commitment to develop human resources is also underpinned by South Africa’s current window of opportunity to invest in schooling youth in order to leverage the demographic dividend of having a high percentage of young people in the population.
Failing to act boldly at this stage will make South Africa’s development challenge a lot more precarious.
The country cannot afford to miss out on this second wave of youthful population because, according to Statistics South Africa, fewer citizens are having fewer children compared with the previous generation.
It is not too late to take action.
THE PREVAILING POLITICAL CLIMATE TENDS TO PROMOTE EXPEDIENCY AT THE EXPENSE OF PRUDENT EXPENDITURE