After the Bell: The Budget Battle is over. Long live the Budget Battle!
I've often noticed that in my working life, after a big project, or tussle or fight, as soon as it's over, another one begins.
It's in the nature of the beast I suppose; capitalism won't allow you to stand still and you have to move from one thing to another. And often the companies and people that are able to do this in the quickest and best ways are the most successful.
I don't know if I can use the word 'successful' in connection with our coalition government…
But now that it's finally over — the fight around the Budget — a new fight is about to begin. And I think, and fear, it will be a lot more intense than the old fight we have just seen.
The government has to provide many more people with a lot more, with a lot less money. And that's never easy. This means that a process of budget reform is now starting … and it will not be easy.
I'm sure you've been in a position, at a meeting around a table, or just sitting in your work chair while your boss or the manager or the CEO's boss or some idiot from head office has given the most non-rousing speech you've ever heard, and then had the nerve to mention the R-word. (No, not Recession. Worse than that. Resilient.)
I hate that word. I didn't know one could hate a word, I mean seriously. But I do. I hate it with a passion.
It always means someone is demanding I do more with less. Basically, I'm being screwed over.
Now, in a company, there are all sorts of ways to save money — you can often cut back on some of the goodies. No serious person needs a cappuccino machine; everyone can get by on proper coffee.
And often there are ways to make more money.
Governments can't do that. They have to make do with what they have. And reforming them is much, much slower.
Our current Budget is all about trade-offs.
Now I'm not a big fan of people in uniform carrying weapons; the whole idea can scare me. I'm from a generation of South Africans where the phrase 'Law and Order' reminds me of Adriaan Vlok and the worst of the 1980s.
But even I can't deny that the SANDF needs more money. And it needs it now.
No one can seriously argue that health and education budgets can be cut.
But there is plenty that can and must be done.
So much of the wastage happens long after the departmental budget process.
I mean, can anyone seriously believe that stacking Gauteng hospital boards with leaders from the ANC Youth League is a good idea?
Some other cuts are obvious.
The Ministry of Small Business Development gives me the impression it has done nothing for anybody.
I don't know what the Ministry of Women, Youth and People Living with Disabilities does? (And I worry that creating a special ministry for some people can ghetto-ise them anyway.)
There are some other obvious examples around salaries.
If you look at our roads, would you seriously suggest the CEO of the Road Traffic Management Corporation should get more than R10-million a year?
And a big chunk of this is a performance bonus? How the…
Then there is the Road Accident Fund. Its currently suspended CEO Collins Letsoalo was getting about the same. And had the gall to spend a lot more money on bodyguards.
I also think that making cuts is politically hard. There will be so many bad actors that will just get in the way.
We are living in an environment where many people have made a strong case to allow Starlink to operate in our massive and largely rural country. And yet the EFF has decided it will die on the hill of opposing the changes to the law that would allow it to come here.
Much of this opposition will be performative and idiotic. Just yesterday, the MK party managed to vote against every department budget and then cast its ballots in favour of the actual Appropriations Bill.
Colleen Makhubele was an incredibly disruptive and incompetent Speaker in Johannesburg. It looks like she might have the same impact on MK as its Chief Whip.
Instead, I think what is going to have to happen is that a group of National Treasury bureaucrats will have to get together, work out what needs to be cut and just present that to the politicians.
And if they do it properly, basically putting the politicians in a position where they just have to accept it, then this fight might be a little easier.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
IOL News
24 minutes ago
- IOL News
Come on poepols, let's get SA working
Letters to the Editor. Image: Supplied Mandela foundation hijacked by radicals I am deeply troubled by the Nelson Mandela Foundation's (NMF) recent launch of the 'Solidarity in Action Awards,' which explicitly invites proposals to challenge Christian Zionism – a move that many South African faith communities are viewing as an attack on religious freedom. Christian Zionism, supported by nearly 50% of South Africa's Christian population, is rooted in biblical belief and a peaceful vision for Israel and Palestine coexisting. Yet this new initiative by the NMF seeks to delegitimise that belief, vilifying a theology that millions of South Africans hold dear. The NMF has clearly been hijacked by radicals with political agendas and it is no coincidence that it has been steered in this horrific ideological direction following the recent appointment of Naledi Pandor as its chairperson. Pandor has demonstrated profound hostility towards Israel and is notoriously known to have friendly relations with Hamas, a designated terrorist group that has been actively pursuing genocide against the LGBTQ+ community, Christians, Israelis and Jews since its cannot ignore the role she is playing in the growing trend of the silencing of Christian voices, especially those who support Israel. At a time when Christians across Africa face violent persecution, it is disheartening to see South African institutions promote narratives that distort biblical truth and undermine is not colonialism. Support for Israel is not extremism. It is time for the Foundation to return to Mandela's principles of inclusion and dialogue. | Daniel Jacobi Executive Director of the South African Friends of Israel Come on poepols, let's get SA working Let's take a step back and see where we are. The GNU is a year old; it is time for its gender reveal party. The nappies must come off now. It can stop crawling and take its first strides into finding real-life plans to get the country working again. What should we do? If there is to be a national dialogue, what should we be talking about? How should it be said? Who should be having it? Let's start with what we all agree on. Turns out South Africans concur on the important issues: Employment should be our first priority, followed by safety. Race should not be a policy priority. Most South Africans don't want BEE to continue being enforced.(Sources: IRR, SRF, and Ipsos polls and research). By all accounts and surveys, the indications are that while we are a country of many cultures and colours, we share a largely conservative and family-oriented approach to life. We are concerned about the same things – jobs and safety, bread and butter issues remain at the top of our minds. These are potent sentiments our political leaders, elite, and thought instigators should take note of. It means we don't have to harp on and on about race, no matter how much fun it is and how the righteous indignation feels so good. We don't have to take the people in the red berets, nor the bearded groups in deep khaki, or the suited government officials seriously when they start banging their fists on about race. These are foolish actions by foolish people, and we can tell them that. We can go: 'Oi, mampara! Move it along. How are you going to create more jobs for more people and more economic growth for the country?' (Did you know, other words for 'fool' in South Arica are mampara, isiphukuphuku, moegoe, poepol, or leoatla.) Don't be afraid to use these words when addressing the government or the elite. Shake your head, feel the word softly, but say it out loud. Allow yourself to think the thought, then say the word then do a deed that shows your feelings. As ordinary South Africans, we need our voices to be heard, not only at the voting stations but all the time. It is not an expression of hate or revolution; it is a course correction. It is an 'aikona' spoken politely but firmly. We must learn how to be more persuasive with our top classes. Remember what we did with e-tolls? We just refused to pay. OUTA (Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse) showed us the facts and how to say: 'No.' There was no violence, and there were no riots, but our voices shouted so loudly it broke the system. We did it again with the recent VAT increase. Absolutely, some opposition parties objected to the increase, and there was much political posturing, but that was a hasty reaction to a mighty rumbling in the population. That energy of collective discontent amongst all groups gathered speed and became a wind of change, invisible, but powerful. We did that by twittering and tweeting and complaining and cautioning. The results were politicians scurrying in the whirlwind and doing their jobs for once. We did that. We know how to do did loadshedding stop so suddenly, after years of our torment? The political will brought about by tear of political consequence on the part of the ANC played a big part. The nation's shared outrage at having their families disrupted during basic tasks like preparing your children for school or their businesses damaged because of the government's lack of maintenance became the most pressure you can put on a government. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad Loading We called their bluff because they knew what would happen at the voting booths if they didn't fix it. No revolt, just small ripples of voices becoming a tsunami of resolute anger: 'Fix this or lose at the polls.' I did interviews across various spheres of our society at the time and while people used different words, they all said the same thing. A businessman in Sandton would say of the electricity crisis: 'The rampant corruption and mismanagement at Eskom is exacerbating the situation. We might also be over-reliant on coal. We need our government to step in, or it will be a disaster for the ANC the next time people vote.' I spoke to a security guard in the checkout queue of a supermarket in Bloubergstrand. He phrased it thus, while rubbing his stomach: 'It is not because the coal is wet, it is because they (the government) are eating that money. They will eat and eat until we say: 'Aikona!' We will open their eyes. You will see that coal will suddenly be dry before the elections.' These are the narratives our media outlets should be publishing. Our nation has a collective intelligence that is smart and calculated and often homogenous. Governments listen when the people figure out how to talk to them. We need think tanks, lobby groups, and media companies that publish the stories of our sameness and our aspirations more clearly. The government should hear that South Africans are more united than we are being led to believe. We are united enough. What we need now is economic growth. We need a Government of National Economic Growth. A GNEG. This is how the nappies come off. The populace in turn must learn how to demand more course corrections. We must stamp our feet for fewer restrictions on trade, whether that comes in the form of BEE or registration of spaza shops. We can tell the government that their plan for BEE was a valid idea, but it had unintended consequences. The people won't tolerate it anymore: like e-tolls, the VAT increase, and load-shedding. Bad laws can simply 'now. The R290 billion a year it costs us to enforce BEE policy can be applied where it matters – fixing infrastructure and creating a stable economy. We must focus on publishing stories of our sameness and our common goals. The real national dialogue is already happening on the street level, amongst real people who understand its real-life consequences. Put that online, in print and on radio. The race-baiting has gone on long enough. Stop it! Aikona! Come on poepols, let's get this country working. | Vivienne Vermaak Free Market Foundation Donald Trump holds the world hostage While Hamas, hangs on for dear life to the 20+ hostages they still hold, fully realising that the treacherous Tel Aviv terrorists would immediately push the total annihilation button and send what's left of the two million citizens into instant martyrdom as soon as these hostages are released, the world conveniently forgets about another living organism that is being held as a giant hostage. This huge hostage is all the countries of the world except the US. And, of course, the one that has captured the major part of the planet as perpetual hostage is the madman, US President Donald Trump. Demanding extraordinary hefty payments in hectically high ransom figures as trade tariffs is but one of his one-sided bargaining weapons. He has a whole Pandora's Box of others in his golf kit bag: Sanctions placed if any country wishes to join BRICS for instance: Amputate diplomatic ties; jump off helping to fund UNESCO and other UN humanitarian organisations; demolish the UN building in New York; deport and excommunicate naturalised US citizens that originate from 'erring' countries; restrict visas to 'enemy' governments; refuse loans and subsidies to African countries. And another few thousand openly and clearly-worded ransom notes that seem to be conjured every weekend in the heartless head of this mammoth megalomaniac. Meantime , the other cheek of the same bum – Netanyahu – continues to use the most flimsy excuse of heavily clichéd single-track monologues that go ad-nauseam: 'Remember October 7; dismembered babies; the Holocaust; remember Hamas?And so Israel continues with it's mission statement; of demolishing each and every trace of what Gaza once was; to grind and bury the bones of every Palestinian, man woman, child and foetus into the rubble, the very minute after the last hostage living or dead is released. Then they can themselves and their like-minded allies in Washington and Tel Aviv can help themselves to the wealth of gas buried off Gaza in the Mediterranean. | Ebrahim Essa Durban DAILY NEWS
The Citizen
an hour ago
- The Citizen
ActionSA opens corruption case against Polokwane mayor
POLOKWANE – The Limpopo police confirmed that a case of alleged tender irregularities has been registered against the Polokwane Mayor, John Mpe and other senior officials at the Polokwane Municipality by ActionSA. The provincial police commissioner, Lieutenant General Thembi Hadebe said a case was opened on Monday at the Polokwane Police Station and that it relates to alleged violations of the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act and the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act for contracts awarded between January, 10, 2023 and July, 28, 2025. The case was opened by ActionSA's provincial chair Victor Mothemela, alongside fellow party members. 'We will not stand by while politically connected individuals squander the economic future of South Africans for the benefit of foreign interests,' an ActionSA statement read. 'Where there is smoke, there is fire. As the leadership of ActionSA, we have decided to open a criminal case of corruption against John Mpe and his entourage,' Mothemela told party members. Mpe is expected to provide a comprehensive report to the Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (Coghsta), today, regarding allegations of tender kickbacks, political patronage and financial maladministration in the city's municipality. He has labelled these claims as politically motivated smear tactics, denying wrongdoing and emphasised that foreign-owned companies lawfully participate in procurement processes if compliant with tax and legal requirements. The Coghsta MEC, Basikopo Makamu, told Polokwane Observer on Friday (July 25) that he wrote to Mpe inquiring about the validity of municipal financial statements being circulated on social media. Read more: Polokwane mayor faces deadline over tender kickback claims Meanwhile, Hadebe confirmed that due to the gravity of the allegations, the case opened by ActionSA has been referred to the Hawks for further action. On Friday, the EFF called for a full investigation, including possible intervention by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and called for the Limpopo Premier Dr Phophi Ramathuba to place the Polokwane Municipality under administration.
The Citizen
an hour ago
- The Citizen
Hardware app with real-time stock, in-app checkout, a first for SA
Hardware app with real-time stock, in-app checkout, a first for SA Leroy Merlin South Africa, part of the global Adeo Group, last Thursday announced the launch of its mobile app, set to transform how South Africans shop for home improvement and DIY. Available for free download from 1 August 2025, the app delivers a seamless, mobile-first experience tailored to the South African market – including low-connectivity support and an in-app self-checkout to help customers skip queues. Further enhancing usability for local customers, the app is currently searchable in five of South Africa's widely spoken languages – English, isiZulu, Afrikaans, Sesotho, and Setswana – with planned upgrades to further refine and expand this functionality in the near future. Unlike traditional retail applications that adapt websites to smaller screens, the Leroy Merlin SA App has been developed specifically for mobile. It offers a clean, logical, user-friendly interface with real-time stock visibility, expanded marketplace access, and smarter filtering to simplify every stage of the customer journey. 'This isn't just another app – it's a complete reimagining of how DIY retail can support real lives,' says Dmitriy Anderson, Chief Information Officer and Head of E-commerce and Marketplace Strategy at Leroy Merlin South Africa. 'We've designed every feature to reduce friction and give our customers more control –whether you're a contractor checking availability before a job on-site or a first-time homeowner planning your dream space from your couch.' The app enhances the entire customer experience. Users can build project-based shopping lists, scan product barcodes in-store for instant information, track orders in real time, and manage their accounts effortlessly. Integrated features such as loyalty rewards, a WhatsApp-style in-app chat, and Leroy Merlin's award-winning self-service refund portal streamline everything from support queries to returns – no phone calls or emails required. Push notifications provide instant alerts for order updates, promotions, and wish list activity – offering faster, more personalised engagement than a website. Another important innovation is the ability to select your preferred Leroy Merlin store. The app suggests the store closest to you, but switching between stores is quick and easy – ideal for checking product availability elsewhere. Store-specific trading hours are clearly displayed, helping users plan more efficiently. Beyond its functional capabilities, the app has already inspired creative use cases abroad. In France, customers are using the wish list feature as a practical gift registry – curating home renovation wish lists for weddings, housewarmings, or milestone events. This innovation enables friends and family to contribute meaningfully to a project by gifting exact items – from drill bit sets and patio furniture to tile adhesives and paint colours – turning good intentions into tangible upgrades. 'Our customers aren't one-size-fits-all,' Anderson adds. 'Some want inspiration, others want speed and simplicity. Our job is to deliver all of it in a way that feels effortless.' This commitment is reflected in their wide and carefully curated range, which spans construction, hardware, kitchens, bathrooms, décor, and garden essentials – designed for all budgets and project sizes. Leroy Merlin South Africa currently serves Gauteng through five physical stores located in Fourways, Little Falls, Boksburg, Greenstone, and Centurion. The Leroy Merlin South Africa App will be available for download on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store from 1 August 2025.
