The name of the virus that has infected and left the South African economy terminally ill is the ANC, and not Covid-19. The symptoms include persistent mismanagement and looting of the fiscus. It left the country powerless and without any reserves to survive the unforeseen crisis that eventually did hit the economy.
To make matters worse, the critical funds that were earmarked for dealing with the pandemic and helping people in this time of need are also being looted.
The current budget and the fiscal framework on which it is based were ill-advised and impracticable right from the start, even before Covid-19 came into the picture. The budget is so poorly conceptualized that it simply cannot be taken seriously at any stage.
It did not take into account that an unforeseen crisis could affect the economy. It did not make provision for the possible effect of Covid-19 even when it had already started to impact the rest of the world’s economy. It also did not make provision for a fiscal downgrade, which did in fact realise.
And now that crisis management needs to be done, there is a scramble to equip schools that do not have infrastructure, like water and toilets. Money is also still wasted on public enterprises that have become no more than a method of looting.
For the ANC, no lives matter – except those of cadres. Not black nor white. This became glaringly obvious with the absolutely irrational Covid-19 lockdown regulations that were implemented.
Once again, the ANC has shown that it is unable to manage anything properly. Not the country, nor its provinces, municipalities, departments, the economy or the pandemic. Everything is being mismanaged.
To the ANC’s mind, a flawed ideology, like its national democratic revolution, is more important than the country and its people. It has consistently failed South Africa and its people for 26 years now.
The ANC government has failed the youth in particular. It can no longer boast about 1976. Unemployment proves that.
The real tragedy of the current economic and fiscal situation in South Africa is that no budget will save the country as long as a virus named the ANC is still infecting everything.
• The FF Plus voted against all the budget votes on 12 June 2020, seeing as the entire budget is unfeasible.
Read the original article in Afrikaans by Wouter Wessels on FF Plus
South Africa Today – South Africa News
