"Throughout South Africa nearly a million people have lost their jobs.
Hundreds of thousands of families have been affected by retrenchments.
Businesses and households are struggling to adjust to declining incomes and precarious levels of debt. South Africa is beginning to emerge from its first recession in 17 years, though the levels of recovery are likely to be very slow and uneven, with job creation lagging the return to growth and many households continuing to face hardships. However, healthy public finances and partnership with other sectors in the World have enabled the government to reduce the impact of the crisis".
Money has been appropriated for 2010/11 budget and the responsibility now lies with the various government departments and agencies to spend it effectively, efficiently and economically. The President of the Republic of South Africa, Mr Jacob Zuma, in his State of the Nation Address, outlined clear priority areas where government needs to focus on for the next five years . However, the greatest challenge is to make sure that these priorities are aligned with the budget.
This report focuses on, amongst other things, whether the appropriation for 2010/11 does take these priority areas into consideration. Click here to download the Parliamentary Report on Appropriations Bill.