The South African Municipal Workers' Union (SAMWU) notes the Minister of Finance's maiden Budget Speech as delivered on the 21st February 2018. This Budget has not met our expectation, we in fact do not believe that this is a pro poor budget as we had hoped for.
We however welcome the budget's prioritisation of social spending in the form of social grants, health and education. We welcome the additional funding to the Deparyment of Health to focus on the National Health Insurance scheme. We also welcome the R57 billion funding for fee free higher education in the next 3 years. We believe that fee free higher education is the single latest salary increase for the working class.
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