The ANC says the adoption of the appropriation bill by the National Assembly will see expenditure reprioritisation decrease by more than R50bn over the next three years.
In a statement on Tuesday, the party's chief whip, Pemmy Majodina, said she was pleased with the bill and the decrease showed a realignment of funding toward essential services.
"Keeping in line with government's commitment to decrease public spending, expenditure reprioritisation will result in minimum reductions of R50.3bn over the next three years," added Majodina.
"This is confirmation of our strong, resilient and creative endeavours to manage South Africa's economic challenges; intensify job creation and radically reduce the levels of poverty, unemployment and inequality."
The bill is legislation that provides for the appropriation of money by Parliament from the National Revenue Fund in terms of Section 213 of the Constitution and Section 26 of the Public Finance Management Act for the allocation of money to government departments.
Education, health and transport were singled out as key focus areas that received the most attention.
Key take outs:
- The education infrastructure grant will be allocated R34.3bn over the medium-term expenditure framework period to build new schools and maintain infrastructure at existing schools;
- An additional R2.8bn will be allocated to the school infrastructure backlogs grant to replace pit latrines at more than 2 400 schools;
- R19bn will be provided for pupil and teacher support material and R3.9bn will be allocated to fund 38 000 Funza Lushaka bursaries for prospective teachers in priority subject areas such as mathematics, science and technology;
- The South African National Roads Agency Limited will be allocated R21.3bn to improve and maintain the country's roads;
- The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa will be allocated R16.5bn.
The bill will be sent to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence.
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