This, amidst growing concerns over departmental budgets that have not yet been tabled before members of the provincial legislature, nor approved. In an exclusive interview with OFM News, Brown, says each department will table its budget once the lockdown imposed by President Cyril Ramaphosa has been lifted. She highlights that following Ramaphosa's declaration of the National State of Disaster, each department now has a provision to spend approximately 45% of it's budget within the next 4 months to cover it's key projects, including the remuneration of employees.

Brown, however, warns that the 45% that each department will be allowed to spend must be in alignment with their core mandate. 

Her assurance that there shall be no issues with salary payments comes just days after the Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi appealed to all employers both in the public and private sector to refrain from shifting the burden of the lockdown to workers, when provision has been made by the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) to cover costs associated with the coronavirus pandemic.

OFM News