The allocation of another R.7 billion to the police budget and the increase of R1.1 billion to the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Development was welcomed as a positive step in the fight against crime and corruption. Also Read: Godongwana’s Budget Speech Marred by a Balloon of Debt The justice cluster faces the mammoth task of prosecuting those involved in coup d’état, corruption of personal protective equipment (PPE) and fighting crime and lawlessness. Now Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has given the police another R1 billion to implement personnel reforms, and there may be another R800 million available…
The allocation of another R.7 billion to the police budget and the increase of R1.1 billion to the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Development was welcomed as a positive step in the fight against crime and corruption.
Also read: Godongwana’s budget speech marred by a balloon of debt
The Justice Cluster faces the mammoth task of prosecuting those involved in coup d’état, personal protective equipment (PPE) corruption, and countering crime and lawlessness.
Now Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has given the police another R1 billion to implement personnel reforms, and another R800 million could be made available to the police in the next year, subject to satisfactory progress.
The police regretted the fact that they did not respond to the latest july turmoil was mainly the result of a lack of resources and capacity.
This against the background of revelations that SA Police Service (SAPS) have spent under their budget with R4 billion, the total annual budget allocated to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
Increased entire budgets of the Justice cluster
In his budget submitted on Wednesday, Godongwana said the additional R1.1 billion allocated to the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Development was intended to strengthen the resources of the justice system and courts.
The budgets of NPA and the Financial Intelligence Center (FIC) will increase by RUB 426 million over the next three years to ensure capacity for investigations and prosecutions, according to the State Capture Commission report.
The Chief Justice’s office will receive an additional R39.9 million.
Godongwana said corruption has been a major scourge for SA, and has “lowered our economic growth potential, made us more fiscally vulnerable and severely weakened state assets. Accounting officers must ensure that their procurement processes are ethical, provide value for money and be free from interference from politically connected individuals and bidders, we also need to be clear about what we are fighting.”
In the State of the Nation address last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa made bold commitments to prosecute thugs for coup and corruption, with plans to create special courts for this purpose.
Need implementation and proper allocation
Independent socioeconomic analyst Solly Masilela said the country’s economy is in dire straits, with a decade in decline and ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic, but he believes the finance minister was able to strike a balance .
He said there are many competing issues, such as poverty, inequality and unemployment, crime and corruption.
“The minister had to keep a close eye on things, but I believe it was a balanced budget. Now it remains to be seen how the justice cluster will use the allocated resources to tackle crime and corruption,” Masilela said.
He said a lack of implementation was SA’s biggest shortfall and it was now up to the responsible departments to use the money.
“If it were not for the fact that he had to allocate 44 billion euros for the extension of the social emergency aid (SRD) of 350 euros, the minister would probably have allocated this to the justice cluster. So we have to understand that he has to find that balance,” Masilela added.