ALSO READ: Brown highlights failures, successes during budget speech

Political parties, including the DA and EFF, all expressed similar sentiments that the budget speech by MEC Brown failed to address key and fundamental issues dealing with economic growth, corruption, and wasteful expenditure across government institutions, including municipalities and departments. The EFF’s provincial secretary, Malefane Msimang, said the provincial government are failing to institute consequence management where malfeasances or discrepancies have been uncovered. The budget was tabled at a Provincial Legislature sitting held in Gariepdam on Thursday. 

“Wherever those abusing the public purse are, they are celebrating that there is an increment as far as the budget is concerned because they are going to (steal) properly. There are no systems to monitor them. It’s very difficult to believe the government of the Free State because they excel in terms of underspending, so you are not assured as to whether the whole budget will be spent properly.

“There are going to be rollovers, money will be taken back, like what has happened with the former MEC for Cooperative Governance and Human Settlements, Mxolisi Dukwana, who is the current premier of the Free State. He failed to spend Human Settlements' budget. So, when a person who failed to spend on human settlements becomes (premier), the reality is that we might find ourselves in a situation where they are unable to spend the budget,” Msimang added.

The DA member of the Provincial Legislature (MPL), David van Vuuren, told OFM News that the province has failed to build a capable and strong government, given the recent Auditor-General (AG) Tsakani Maluleke’s adverse findings against municipalities and departments.

Van Vuuren said MEC Brown failed to address issues of fraud and corruption in various departments and municipalities during her budget speech.

“The budget should be the driving force behind programmes and plans for the government and no plans and programmes have been put in place. The crisis we are currently experiencing is roads, electricity and water. In a lock-up session just before the budget speech, the MEC confirmed that there is currently R5 million being made available for infrastructure and that it will go to roads and human settlements. However, last year's (2022) budget was R4.9 billion and nothing happened there. It will never be enough to actually catch up with the backlog that we are experiencing at the moment,” Van Vuuren said.

In 2022, the Freedom Front Plus' (FF Plus) Armand Cloete lambasted the former Human Settlements MEC Dukwana for the underspending of R20 million of conditional grants which were then transferred to the neighbouring province of the Northern Cape by the National Treasury. Cloete said it was outrageous that the department lost an unspent R20 million of a conditional grant meant for service delivery, which was re-allocated to the neighbouring province of the Northern Cape.

ALSO READ: Free State department forfeited unspent R20m to Northern Cape

“Our department should be working for our people, not against them. So yes, the National Department of Human Settlements and the National Treasury stopped an amount of R20 million and the funds were reallocated to the Northern Cape. That’s the demon or dragon this department will need to slay. This department is not working for the province but against it. That speaks to the capacity, speaker, if you continue to employ people who cannot do the job, the Free State will continue to suffer. While the debate regarding land, property and the need for decent housing is a hot topic, politicians regularly make populist statements but we have a department which is unable to fulfil its mandate,” Cloete added.

OFM News previously reported that AG Maluleke announced that only two Free State Provincial Departments and two entities – of which one falls under Police, Roads and Transport – have received clean audits in the Public Finance Management Act's (PFMA) audit outcomes.

ALSO READ: Only two Free State departments received clean audits – VIDEO

During the high-level meeting in October 2022 with ousted Premier Sisi Ntombela and her team of MECs, including Cooperative Governance (Cogta), Treasury, Transport, Health and Public Works, AG Maluleke announced that departments and entities – including the Provincial Treasury, Cogta, Fleet Management and the Housing Fund – all received clean audits whilst Social Development and the Free State Gambling, Tourism and Liquor Authority both improved their audit outcomes from qualified to unqualified with findings.

OFM News