Equal Education: Mboweni must reverse infrastructure budget cuts
Advocacy group Equal Education says Finance Minister Tito Mboweni should reverse infrastructure budget cuts when he tabled the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement on Wednesday.
The organisation’s Hopolang Selebalo says Mboweni should also allocate more money for education.
“Today we are at Parliament and National Treasury to demand that Minister Mboweni allocate more money for education, that infrastructure budget cuts be reversed, and that education be declared a frontline service. This is what we hope to see at today’s MTBPS.”
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In June during the supplementary budget, Minister Mboweni was compelled to make a few budget cuts in the Basic EducationDepartment as a result of spending needed for Covid-19.
This resulted in cuts being made to the infrastructure grants.
Selebalo says that she hopes that this will be reversed on Wednesday.
“These cuts have dire consequences on the realities that learners face day-to-day. When infrastructure budgets are cut, this delays projects to eradicate the backlogs that exist in predominantly poor and rural schools. Learners cannot and should not be learning in unsafe and undignified structures, use dilapidated toilets and have no access to basic services such as water.”
