Civil society groups and members of the public took the opportunity to voice their concerns on Wednesday during a parliamentary budget hearing.
The focus of the submissions made centred on how the budgetary allocations will affect provinces and departments, with some contributors tackling revenue proposals despite the earlier adoption of the fiscal framework by parliamentary finance committees.
The appropriations select committee of the National Council of Provinces played host to this public hearing, addressing the Division of Revenue Bill, Appropriations Bill, and the Eskom Debt Relief Amendment Bill.
A broad spectrum of voices echoed throughout the session, reflecting the urgency for reform in how governmental funds are allocated and utilised.
Cosatu’s parliamentary counselor Matthew Parks said there were many socio-economic crises and a large sense of despondence in the democratic society.
“Our position is that the budget really needs to speak to those dire socio-economic challenges to really try to rebuild some of the damage that's done to the public service due to budget cuts, especially around municipalities and how to turn them around,” Parks said.
Parks said there was still a space to assist with alternatives to the VAT and Personal Income Tax hikes.
“Number one is to engage the Development Bank, the Industrial Development Corporation, the Public Investment Corporation. There are at least R25 billion to R50 billion worth of economic infrastructure projects they could take over from the state balance sheet and run them as their own economic investment opportunities where they can collect a return on investment," said Parks.
He noted that there were many allocations in the appropriation of the Division of Revenue Bill, especially to some of the critical front-line public services and R19 billion allocated to Passenger Rail of South Africa (Prasa) for signaling that will help trains transport 10 million commuters by helping improve passenger numbers.
Parks raised concern that NSFAS allocation hasn't been adjusted for the threshold for family income since it was introduced.
“We don't think it's justifiable to spend R4.3 billion on bodyguards for politicians, when we have a shortage of detectives, community policing, etcetera.”
Lobby group Amandla Mobi’s Tlou Seopa said Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana continued to protect the big business and the super-rich by refusing to increase corporate income tax and implement the wealth tax.
Seopa said the National Treasury did not increase the R370 social relief of distress grant.
“It is also concerning that the National Treasury did not allocate funding for the grant for the year 2026 and that there is no allocation to include the other 10 million who qualify for the grant but are not getting it,” Seopa added.
“We continue to demand that National Treasury start making decisive plans to increase and extend the grant into Basic Income Grant,” she said.
Budget Justice Coalition researcher Lisa Higginson said they were encouraged to see the shift away from harmful spending cuts, but remained concerned that the revised budget retained a regressive VAT increase and failed to engage alternatives.
“If the VAT increase is approved by Parliament, this will have an impact on social spending, which has not been adequately addressed in the budget,” Higginson said.
She also said while the budget demonstrated a shift toward better resourcing of social sectors, allocations still fell short of needs.
“There are high vacancy rates for funded posts across departments, undermining ability to provide oversight and technical support, contributing to underspending, service delivery failure and poor outcomes.”
Higginson said there should be reviews of the conditional grants, Equitable Share formulae and that the local government fiscal framework must be transparent and efficient to ensure effectiveness given failure of past interventions.
Lobby group Section 27's Matshidiso Lencoasa said the budget reflected a shift away from defunding of public services such as basic education and health with real investment to both sectors.
Lencoasa said the reliance on VAT placed disproportionate burden on lower-income households.
“Rising costs due to VAT increase may also erode impact of increased allocations to schools and health facilities,” she said.
Committee chairperson Tidimalo Legwase said they noted all the submission made before the committee.
However, Legwase observed that the consideration of fiscal framework and revenue proposals were assigned responsibilities of the finance committees.
“Our work as appropriations committee is to focus on Division of Revenue among others and the Appropriations Bill,” she said.
Legwase said the submissions would direct and inform the committee when it makes its recommendations to the House.