Dr Sheetal Bhoola is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Zululand, and director at StellarMaths (Sunningdale)
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The annual budget speech is awaited today by us South Africans and the perceptions of people have been relatively bleak based on the criticism that emerged from the 2025 budget speech.
South Africans utilised multiple mass media platforms to critically analyse and question the purpose and long term objectives of the speech delivered in 2025.
Many felt that last year’s speech was which was delivered a bit later than usual in March was an opportunity government could have utilised to address and strategically develop platforms and practices to speed the much urgently required economic growth South Africa needs.
Instead the speech focused on burdening households with tax pressures and tax increases which is in no synchronization to salary earnings, the lack of substantial increases to combat national inflation and the additional burden of personal costs South Africans have to fork out for electricity and water which should be solely municipal responsibilities.
The lack of service deliveries of these basics has further burdened South Africans as many of them have had to resort to purchasing solar panels for residential and industry use because of the unreliability and expense inbeing contracted solely to government’s supply of energy via Eskom.
Ultimately the budget in 2025, did not positively enhance the quality of lives of South Africans and tax brackets did not consider the additional financial costs of inflation either.
The focus on early development childhood teaching and learning was mandatory, but will take a number of years before our society can actually experience the benefits of this financial priority.
The processes of implementation are ongoing and key challenges have been identified and with many of them still unresolved. It is intrinsically linked to inadequate infrastructure, and access to basic resources such as water and electricity particularly in rural impoverished areas.
Last year’s national Treasury focused on amending energy and logistic challenges with an aim to increase investor confidence and, in turn, economic performance in South Africa.
However, South Africa experienced persistent energy shortages, with renewed load shedding in early 2025 which hindered international investor confidence.
This was also supported by Property rights concerns following the Expropriation Act of 2024, including provisions for “nil compensation.”
In addition the speech did not adequately address a much needed detailed and specific strategy to minimise government and municipal inefficiencies which has been severely tainted with various forms of corruption and embezzlement.
The budget of 2025 should have allocated designated funds for additional investigative units and supporting practitioners that have expertise in monitoring and evaluation processes. The healthcare and social grant services for low income households was prioritised last year along with an increased number of food items that were declared zero-VAT rated.
This decision aided some relief to the impoverished in South Africa. The majority of the budget was directed towards public services, but we are yet to reap the benefits of this decision and implementation process.
As it stands, there are still communities and residential areas that have intermittent access to water and electricity. In Johannesburg during last year suburbs suffered prolonged and intermittent water outages because of aging infrastructure, low reservoir levels, pump failures and reduced bulk supply.
These areas include Coronationville, Westbury, Claremont, Steyn City, Diepsloot, Carlswald and Kaalfontein. Alexandra had extended periods of time with no access to electricity. In Durban (city-wide), the reasons are similar but the water outages persisted because of floods which have put the city’s infrastructure in strain.
In Gqeberha, The Eastern Cape, residents in Malabar complained of no access to water and electricity simultaneously. These challenges are no longer isolated to a few provinces, but instead have become national urgent concerns.
The budget speech for 2026 should entail a plan which focuses on a better economic outlook for South Africans, so that they can adequately prepare and manage lifestyle costs with the exclusion of becoming self-reliant for basic services such as water and electricity.
We hope that the economic outlook in 2026 is positive with increased growth projections. Last year’s growth projections remained low for 2025 and was Inadequate for developmental needs.
The budget last year was expected and lacked the capacity to effectively manage financial constraints and strategies for economic and social expansion.
We anticipate what to expect in 2026 and government needs to balance the budget between urgent needs of our people and long term development strategies.
*The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper.*
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