The 2020 Budget must be passed by Parliament before the end of June, in line with statutory requirements. If that doesn’t happen, no one gets a cent from the national coffers.

Yet South Africa’s Covid-19 hard lockdown amid the global pandemic has just about blown the Budget Finance Minister Tito Mboweni presented in February out of the water. Rapid number-crunching found R130-billion of reallocatable money, which alongside deferred tax payments, a loan guarantee scheme and some R95-billion in international loans meant a R500-billion recovery package could be presented by President Cyril Ramaphosa on 21 April.

All this means the new numbers must be presented, and be adopted. That’s where Parliament comes in, seemingly set on first passing the February Budget before turning its attention to the new Covid-19 emergency Budget.

Right now all committees are ploughing through strategic and annual performance plans. This section of the parliamentary calendar began a little later than usual given the Covid-19 hard lockdown, but is now in full swing.

The National Assembly programming committee on 7 May was briefed on how the Budget could be passed either in the week of 15 June or 22 June.

That’s after two weeks of mini-plenary Budget vote debates – potentially up to nine a day, with three running simultaneously – after the National Council of Provinces passes the Division of Revenue Bill. It’s then on to the traditional House sitting to formally adopt each Budget vote and then the complete Appropriation Bill, aka the Budget.

The programming committee meeting heard the finance minister had written to the presiding officers to ask for the Budget to be passed earlier than had been scheduled, preferably before 31 May. But that was just not going to happen.

The president’s parliamentary counsellor Gerhard Koornhof then upped the ante. Using what’s now become normal government-speak about how the normal is no longer the norm – “We are in unusual times. 2020 is turning out not to be a normal year” – he proposed a speeded up Budget process.

The committees would complete the strategic and annual performance plan oversight while the NCOP would look at passing Dora earlier than the currently scheduled 2 June date.

Koornhof then ventured a politically risky suggestion: drop the mini-plenary Budget vote debates in these unusual times. Quickly he added that if this was not possible, then at least “drastically reduce” the length of these debates – and also disallow declarations when the Budget votes and overall Appropriation Bill is dealt with in the House.

“The adjustment Appropriation Bill, that’s where the main focus of Parliament will come in regarding oversight,” said Koornhof, in reference to the Covid-19 rejigged Budget that Mboweni wants to table.

The president’s parliamentary counsellor’s proposal was politely listened to – and Koornhof was then asked to put the proposals in writing for consideration. It was one of those not-too-frequent moments of agreement across the political divides – from the ANC, DA, IFP and EFF to the Freedom Front Plus.

ANC programming whip Chana Pilane-Majake responded to the proposal, saying “mini-plenaries are very important. That’s where the real debates can take place”.

Earlier ANC Deputy Chief Whip Doris Dlakude cautioned:

“There should be no short cuts in passing the Budget because it may come back to bite us”. 

DA Chief Whip Natasha Mazzone said:

“We take the country with us when we debate (in mini-plenaries). In our haste… we would be doing a disservice to the people who have elected us.”

And EFF MP Elsabe Ntlangwini didn’t mince her words:

“We cannot agree to no mini-plenaries”.

The programming committee agreed Koornhof’s written proposals would be taken to the political parties’ caucuses, and the matter would be discussed in the Chief Whips’ Forum before Thursday’s programming committee has a final say.

The mini-plenary Budget vote debates are important across the party political divides as these are opportunities for politicians to have a say on the public parliamentary platform. Parliament is getting back into the swing of virtual oversight and proceedings; the first cyberspace question time is scheduled for 27 May.

Speedy action on the rejigged Budget, therefore, remains unlikely even though Mboweni has been talking publicly since mid-April of the need to table a revised, supplementary – never emergency – Budget.

National Treasury has taken a long view. In its 30 April presentation to Parliament’s finance committees, National Treasury showed it was not expecting to table any adjusted Budget before July.

Its planning framework allows until the end of June for Parliament to pass the Budget, and for the president to sign both the Appropriation Bill and Division of Revenue Bill into law by the end of June 2020. Only after that will a new conditional grant framework be published, alongside the adjusted Appropriations Bill and the Division of Revenue Adjustment Bill. National Treasury expects that process to last until August and beyond. 

Some of what will change is known: R446-million will go from the national disaster fund to provinces for personal protective equipment (PPEs), R306-million is earmarked for water tanks and R2-billion for the upgrading of informal settlements. Other known changes as announced in the recovery plan include R20-billion for Health and R20-billion for councils.

What has now emerged before parliamentary committees briefed on Covid-19, but also in departmental and entities strategic and annual performance plans, is a mixed bag, but one that signals where and how the R130-billion budgetary reallocations were found

On 4 May Tourism Minister Mmamaloko Kubayi-Ngubane told parliamentarians that because of the global lockdown, monies usually spent on market access events has been redirected to the R200-million tourism SMME Covid-19 relief fund.

In FF Plus MP Wynand Boshoff’s objection, it emerged Basic Education took monies from its infrastructure fund to purchase supplies needed for combating Covid-19.

That the reallocations had remained a work in progress since the presidential economic recovery plan announcement became clear on 30 April when National Treasury Director-General Dondo Mogajane told parliamentarians of a series of discussions, also with finance MECs. Of the R130-billion reprioritised from within the Budget, R30-billion will be cut from provinces.

A week later, on 5 May, Mboweni told Parliament’s finance committees:

“None of the departments are going to appreciate the deep, deep deductions we are going to have to make.”

By then the numbers were gelling, at least as far as being ready to be put before the Ministers’ Committee on the Budget last Thursday, 7 May.

That meeting was postponed, Mboweni put on public record, because his and fellow ministers’ attendance was required at a special ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting.

At that meeting, according to News24, Mboweni was again slated for talking out of turn. Not least of which was publicly stating how he lost the debate against the cigarette and alcohol ban, which Mboweni, on at least two occasions, told Parliament was costing him billions in revenue at a time pressure on spending was up.

But, according to Friday’s statement following the special ANC NEC on 8 May, it’s now been okayed to approach the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, among other international financial institutions. That’s in contrast to six weeks ago, when a joint alliance statement by the ANC, Cosatu and South African Communist Party (SACP) had dismissed approaching the IMF and World Bank as a “threat to South Africa’s sovereignty”.

Regardless of political noise and detractors, Mboweni ploughs on, adamant that “the vocabulary of emergency Budget is not in our system; instead we are talking about a supplementary Budget”.

The numbers on the Covid-19 impact on new Budget are coming together:

“We are proceeding with the arrangements,” the finance minister told lawmakers on 5 May, adding later: “We are working on that to present to Parliament.”

The finance minister should know later this week when Parliament is ready for his revised Covid-19 Budget. DM