Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana on Thursday said the National Treasury would wait for Health Minister Joe Phaahla to indicate whether the department’s 2024 budget allocation covered the recruitment of unemployed doctors.
Briefing the finance and appropriation committees of Parliament, Godongwana said Phaahla had seemed convinced about the allocation made to his department.
“In the allocation we have given to health for personnel, Phaahla was convinced that it will also alleviate that problem.
“We will await the Health Department to come back to us on that issue. That is where things stand at the moment,” Godongwana said.
He made the statement when he was briefing the finance and appropriation committees of both Houses of Parliament on the Budget he delivered on Wednesday.
MPs quizzed him on the non-allocation for the unemployed doctors after Phaahla stated recently that he would make a big announcement on the matter.
In his Budget speech, Godongwana said R848 billion was allocated to the department over the next three years.
On Thursday, the minister pointed out that the discourse on calls to employ more doctors and social workers did not take into account policy trade-offs.
This, he said, also applied to calls made to the National Treasury to expand the zero-rated VAT items.
“If you zero-rate, you lose revenue, and where should we get it?”
In the case of social workers, Godongwana said: “If you are committed to gender-based violence, surely, we should have a social worker in every police station, but something must go. What is it that must go? The problem is the envelope remains the same.” He defended the allocation of R1.4bn for the National Health Insurance (NHI) for the next three years.
DA MP Willie Aucamp maintained that the NHI would require more than the allocated amount and it was clear the country did have money for the NHI.
Aucamp suggested that President Cyril Ramaphosa sign the NHI Bill once there was money and preparations for the NHI were finalised.
In response, Godongwana said the bill was still to be assented to by Ramaphosa.
“Once that is done a whole range of legislative arrangements will kick in, including funding models that are proposed in the NHI.
“At the moment, what we are trying to say to Health is that we will focus on doing those preliminary things, including upgrading the infrastructure in preparation for that roll-out.
“Otherwise the actual costing, taxation and so on will come later,” he said.
On e-tolls in Gauteng, Godongwana said they had an agreement with Premier Panyaza Lesufi that provided for a 70-30 split settlement.
“We have made our own commitment and the province has got to give us money,” he said. Godongwana also said Gauteng had to answer who will do the maintenance of the e-tolls.
“This is a discussion they are having with the Department of Transport. Unless the agreement is tied down, I can’t make a commitment when the gantries will go...
“I am saying unless conditions precedent are met, there is no way we can talk about dealing with that issue.”
In his State of the Province Address, Lesufi said e-tolls had been scrapped permanently in Gauteng and that together with Godongwana and Transport, they would make a joint announcement.
Godongwana also told the MPs that he had agreed with South African Reserve Bank (SARB) Governor Lesetja Kganyago regarding drawing down R150bn from the Gold and Foreign Exchange Contingency Reserve Account in order to reduce government borrowing and improve the central bank’s equity position.
“What we have not agreed on are the modalities on things which are things we are working on.”
He also said their teams were working on the modalities and formulation of who would be responsible for what.
“That is going to be contained in the memorandum of agreement.
Once the memorandum of agreement is finalised, the governor and I will sign it,” Godongwana said.
Head of asset and liability management Mmakgoshi Lekhethe said they were almost done with the settlement agreement with the SARB.
“We are almost there. We have finalised the details. We have announced that it will be released publicly, so as soon as the minister and governor have signed the settlement agreement,” Lekhethe said.
Cape Times