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THE MERCURY<\/p>\n
KwaZulu-Natals MEC for Finance, Ina Cronje had a tough job cutting costs in government departments.<\/p>\n
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Durban – KwaZulu-Natal has had to cope with a R1.1 billion cut in its budget allocation from the National Treasury as a result of a decline in its population, which was outstripped by Gauteng in Census 2011. <\/p>\n
Gauteng now has a population of 12 million, with KZN coming second at 10 million. <\/p>\n
The size of the population is a key factor in determining the equitable allocations to the provinces by the National Treasury. <\/p>\n
For the 2013\/14 financial year, the KZN equitable allocation from the National Treasury is R88bn. <\/p>\n
However, with R2bn extra, from the province\u2019s own coffers, the money available is R90bn. Of this, the province has allocated R89bn and kept R1bn in reserve for unforeseen circumstances. <\/p>\n
The latest allocations tabled by KZN Finance MEC Ina Cronje indicated that the provincial bank account would undergo a massive drop over the next three years. <\/p>\n
For the 2013\/14 financial year, the KZN budget will decline by R1.1bn, in 2014\/15 this will be R2.3bn and in 2015\/16 it will be R3.2bn. <\/p>\n
Smiso Magagula, head of the provincial Treasury, said that the National Treasury also imposed a 1 percent reduction of allocation to all government agencies. This reduction, brought about by the decline in national revenue collection, would add further pressure to provincial finances. <\/p>\n
The impact of the reduction in allocation would be felt most acutely by the critical service departments of education, health and transport. <\/p>\n
For the current financial year, the Education Department would undergo a R456m decline, increasing to R946m in 2014\/15 and into a whopping R1.1bn in 2015\/16. <\/p>\n
However, the National Treasury had made provisions to enable KZN to adjust to its smaller budget. <\/p>\n
For the 2013\/14 financial year, KZN had been allocated an extra R289m, in 2014\/15 this would be R656m and in 2015\/16 it would be R1.2bn. <\/p>\n
This extra allocation would stop after three years and was only to help the province manage the swelling budget cuts. <\/p>\n
Cronje put on a brave face yesterday, saying that despite the reduction, the province was not in crisis. <\/p>\n
\u201cTimes are tough, yes. But we are tough enough to come through. We have managed to put money in areas of service delivery despite these massive reductions,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
The budget was welcomed by political parties and organised business. <\/p>\n
The IFP, the official opposition in KZN, said it was \u201ca delicate balancing act\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe new and existing cost-saving measures must be implemented consistently, monitored vigorously and communicated adequately so buy-in from every civil servant in KZN is secured,\u201d said IFP spokesman Roman Liptak. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The DA\u2019s Johann Krog said it was a \u201cno-nonsense budget\u201d. The actual implementation would be the acid test, he said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Krog said that one of the DA\u2019s main concerns – which the MEC had failed to deal with – was fraud, which needed to be addressed at the time of tender. <\/p>\n
Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive officer Andrew Layman said that some of the cost-cutting measures should have been in force already. <\/p>\n
He welcomed the \u201drescuing\u201d of the provincial bank account from a deficit in 2010 to a positive balance. <\/p>\n
Melanie Veness, head of the Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business, said: \u201cMEC Cronje has served this province well, taking us out of the red and placing us firmly in the black. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it is a sensible budget against the backdrop of tough economic times.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Mercury<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE MERCURY KwaZulu-Natals MEC for Finance, Ina Cronje had a tough job cutting costs in government departments. Durban – KwaZulu-Natal has had to cope with a R1.1 billion cut in its budget allocation from the National Treasury as a result of a decline in its population, which was outstripped by Gauteng in Census 2011. Gauteng […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-18722","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18722\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}