CT's Hill-Lewis calls on Godongwana not to cut grant funding to municipalities, provinces

CAPE TOWN - Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis called on the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, not to cut grant funding to municipalities and provinces as part of budget austerity measures. 
 
All roads lead to the Cape Town City Hall on Wednesday afternoon for Godongwana's Budget Speech.

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The minister will provide a detailed plan for 2024’s spending, including proposals for revenue collection to help fund government’s planned interventions and commitments.
 
Hill-Lewis said more than R107 million had already been cut from housing and informal settlements grants to Cape Town in the current 2023/24 financial year alone. 

The move was part of nationwide cuts confirmed in the October 2023 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS). 
 
He suggested that rather than cutting spending that actually delivered to the poor, cuts should be made to government departments that served no meaningful purpose, while there's also billions in unnecessary funding going towards Ministerial VIP security, estimated to be in excess of R3 billion.

"I understand that South Africa's fiscal footing is increasingly precarious and that the minister has a very difficult budget to present and that cuts have to be made somewhere, but those cuts absolutely cannot come from basic services, and the upgrading of informal settlements, and public housing, and other essential services for poor residents in municipalities and provinces across the country."