Mpumalanga’s second proposed adjustment budget for the 2025/26 financial year leaves a question mark hanging over the ANC government’s financial discipline and planning.
Being a money bill, these budget adjustments must comply with Sections 119 and 120 of the Constitution. Every adjustment must be clearly motivated and linked to concrete, measurable outcomes.
The provincial government plans to mainly allocate large amounts to the Provincial Disaster Response Grants.
The most important adjustments include:
- Health: an additional R1,2 billion, of which R8 million goes to the Disaster Response Grant. Although necessary, the Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) cannot help but wonder whether this is not just a remedy for past maladministration.
- Education: an additional R950 million, of which R12 million goes to the Disaster Response Grant. The party wants to know why these needs were not provided for in the original budget.
- Roads and Transport: an additional R600 million, of which R29 million goes to the Disaster Response Grant. The Freedom Front Plus demands that these funds be linked to specific projects with transparent tender processes.
- Human Settlements and Agriculture: R400 million for Human Settlements and R250 million for Agriculture. The Freedom Front Plus warns that these funds should reach communities and not flow through the cracks to contractors with political ties.
The cutback of R300 million on administrative expenditure is a good start, but oversight and transparency should not be sacrificed as a consequence.
Budget adjustments ought to deliver visible results and contribute to service delivery. They should never be exploited to benefit political favourites.
Taxpayers deserve transparency, accountability and actual improvement in their daily lives.
Freedom Front Plus Foreign Policy: The FF Plus promotes a foreign policy that prioritizes South African interests.
Bug Blitz
So I\’m real good friends with this guy named Juan Ted. Now, Juan is a pretty astonishing guy. He can steal ANYTHING he wants to. Literally anything. It could be the shirt off your back, the wallet in your pocket, or I\’m even sure he\’d find a way to steal your house (And your spouse too). So anyway, one day Juan and I are sitting around watching TV, and they announced that the hope diamond will not be on display anymore and is now getting moved to an undisclosed location. So as we hear this, Juan says \”I\’m gonna steal it\”. Now I know how good Juan is at this kind of stuff, so I just tell him good luck and he goes on his way. Eventually he narrows his search down to a small cave in South Africa. When Juan gets there, he doesn\’t see any guards or anything outside the cave, so he just walks in assuming he was wrong about where the diamond was. He wanders around for a while until he sees a long lit hallway with the hope diamond at the end of it. Confident in his abilities, he strolls over to the diamond and picks it up before realizing its a trap! Suddenly, red lights flashed, armed men came running out, sirens went off. You could hear one of the men say under his breath \”We finally caught Juan Ted.\” But Juan, being the best thief in the world, said \”Not quite. On the count of three, I will disappear.\” As the men looked around confused, Juan began to count. \”Uno. Dos.\” And he disappeared without a tres.
Mum Mary
A lady was picking through the frozen turkeys at Pick \’n Pay, but couldn\’t find one big enough for Christmas dinner.
She asked a packer, \”Do these turkeys get any bigger?\”
He replied, \”No madam, they\’re dead.\”