The DA leader in the province, Joe McGluwa, says the proposed R44 billion provincial budget failed to respond to what he termed dire socio-economic needs of the people of the province.

During her budget speech in the legislature, Matsemela announced that the 2019 Medium-term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) budget amounts to R141 billion with R44 billion expected to be spent on the first of the three years of MTEF. The Freedom Front Plus (FF+) provincial leader, Hanne Schutte, says they welcome her budget because it shows that she took notice of comments on the budget of 2018/19 and inputs from committee members while she was the chairperson of that committee. The EFF spokesperson in the North West, Jerry Matebesi, says the budget by the MEC is just a repetition of her predecessors and he feels as if she turned a blind eye on infrastructural issues facing hospitals, clinics, and schools.

On Tuesday, Matsemela said the equitable share constitutes 80% of the provincial fiscal envelope and conditional allocation contributes 17% with a total budget of about R23 million with the provincial own revenue contributing at least 3% to the MTEF. She further said the allocation of her budget seeks to ensure the creation of an opportunity for expansion and sustainability of critical services to communities across the province. But McGluwa says it is ridiculous that a provincial government under administration will receive R44 billion to fund its poor governance track record for another year. “In just one year, the ANC government in North West, at both provincial and local level, incurred R1,575 billion in Unauthorised Expenditure, almost R20 billion in Irregular Expenditure and R255 million in Fruitless and Wasteful Expenditure,” he adds. “This is not considering the R314 million looted from municipalities in the VBS Bank Heist”.

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