Posts tagged with 'budget'

 

South Africa’s army has run out of money – this is how much trouble it is in

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South Africa’s National Defence Force (SANDF) is in a dire financial state, and with no promise of future funding, things may still get worse.

Answering in a recent parliamentary Q&A session minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, said that current plans to get the SANDF back on track are entirely dependent on its funding.

“The prevention of the SANDF capabilities from declining further is entirely dependent on the budget allocation of the Defence Force, which has been decreasing at an alarming rate over the years with a negative impact of the entire capabilities,” she said.

“The Defence Review 2015 has been developed with a plan to arrest the decline of the SANDF but unfortunately no funding has been received to attend to the declining capabilities of the SANDF.”

Mapisa-Nqakula added that the years-long decline of the SANDF meant that it was becoming increasingly difficult to protect the country.
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SA has a national debt of R3 trillion rand and tax deficit of R53 million

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Following the disappointing mid-term budget speech by Tito Mboweni, the Rand reached its lowest level in weeks. Eskom’s rescue plan has nowhere really figured in either Pravin Gordan’s submission or Mboweni’s budget reason.

The government’s financial situation is rapidly deteriorating with the national debt of R3 trillion and a tax deficit of R53 billion.

Moody’s is therefore expected to downgrade the country to negative from where it currently stands at stable.

However, there are fears that Moody’s will downgrade the country directly to junk status which will affect Government bonds as the Citigroup’s World Government Bond Index contains only investment-grade securities.

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SAPS R20 billion budget cuts could lead to a loss of 23 000 personnel over next 3 years

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On Wednesday, in the Portfolio Committee of Police, the South African Police Service (SAPS) announced that National Treasury has instructed SAPS to cut their budget through a 5%, 6% and 7% baseline reduction over the next three years, which may ultimately result in a loss of 23 000 personnel. This shocking announcement comes at a time when the majority of South Africans feel increasingly unsafe in their communities, due to escalating levels of violence and crime.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has proposed an alternative, yet constructive, budget proposal, which considers cutting VIP protection costs instead of other police programmes. The VIP protection budget allocation amounts to approximately R10 million per individual, per year, with an approximate Cabinet cost to taxpayers amounting to R631 million yearly.

It is unconscionable that National Treasury would request SAPS budget cuts, when our police service is already severely under-capacitated and un
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