{"id":92704,"date":"2024-10-30T12:38:24","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T10:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/?p=92704"},"modified":"2024-10-30T12:38:24","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T10:38:24","slug":"cosatu-warns-against-austerity-in-medium-term-budget-policy-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/cosatu-warns-against-austerity-in-medium-term-budget-policy-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"Cosatu warns against austerity in medium-term budget policy statement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sameera Casmod | sameerac@radioislam.co.za<\/a>
\n30 October 2024 | 12:39 CAT
\n1-minute read<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s Finance Minister prepares to deliver the highly anticipated Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), commonly known as the mini-budget, unions are issuing stern warnings against austerity measures. Matthew Parks, Parliamentary Coordinator for the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), emphasised the risk of budget cuts to critical public services, state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and municipal functions, which, he argued, are essential for driving economic growth and delivering public services.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic services, municipal services, state-owned enterprises have a valuable role to play in the economy, in creating jobs, building economic growth, providing public services to the poor,\u201d Park said. \u201cAnd if you cut the budget too far, it can end up damaging the capacity to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

This budget is a midpoint review, with the major budget announcement scheduled for February. Parks expressed that now, from within government, many former critics of the public sector are beginning to recognise the crucial need to fund departments adequately to ensure service delivery. For instance, COSATU has long highlighted the need to fill vacancies at Home Affairs, and the current administration has finally acknowledged this pressing issue.<\/p>\n

COSATU\u2019s concerns also extend to the country\u2019s economic outlook. Parks stressed that South Africa faces not only a debt crisis but a deeper revenue and unemployment crisis, calling for measures to stimulate economic growth and generate jobs to boost revenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to deal with the debt, if you want to have the resources to provide public services that the economy depends upon, then you\u2019ve got to grow the economy,\u201d he said, urging the government to support job creation initiatives.<\/p>\n

Parks also highlighted the importance of enhancing the South African Revenue Service\u2019s (SARS) capacity to improve tax compliance, which he argued is vital for securing the funds necessary to fulfil the state\u2019s constitutional obligations.<\/p>\n

As the mid-term budget policy statement is revealed, unions like COSATU are pushing for an economic strategy that prioritises growth and job creation over austerity, warning that severe budget cuts could hinder the country\u2019s ability to provide essential services and support economic recovery.<\/p>\n

Listen <\/strong>to the full interview<\/a> on Sabaahul Muslim with Moulana Sulaimaan Ravat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sameera Casmod | sameerac@radioislam.co.za 30 October 2024 | 12:39 CAT 1-minute read South Africa\u2019s Finance Minister prepares to deliver the highly anticipated Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), commonly known as the mini-budget, unions are issuing stern warnings against austerity measures. Matthew Parks, Parliamentary Coordinator for the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), emphasised the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":92705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28,4995],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-south-africa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Medium-term-budget.jpg?fit=255%2C180&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-o7e","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-16 00:33:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}