Minister Godongwana: Treasury has no intention of cutting budgets for social services

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said that the Treasury had no intention of cutting budgets for social services.

He said social services could not suffer the consequences of the R37 billion wage increase for public servants, which has added more pressure on government spending.

Godongwana was answering oral questions in the National Assembly on Wednesday as part of the economics cluster.

MPs quizzed Godongwana on what they called stringent austerity measures proposed by the Treasury.

MPs also questioned him on the slashing of budgets for some departments, like social services.

“There are two aspects to this question if I understand it correctly. The first aspect is the impact on social services. The answer is we’ve got no intention of having a negative impact on social services.”

He said that the public sector wage agreement had managed to achieve stability.

“It has achieved two things for us: the first one is stability.”

Godongwana said specific budget proposals would be presented at this year’s Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement and the 2024 budget.

-EWN

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