A MOVE to cut the East London Industrial Development Zone budget by 15.2% this financial year is raising a political storm.
The Eastern Cape MEC for economic development, environmental affairs and tourism (Dedeat), Mcebisi Jonas, has come under fire from the D A .
DA member of the provincial legislature, John Cupido, said the ELIDZ was the only Dedeat entity which did not have “Jonas-friendly cohorts on its board”.
Cupido blamed Jonas for the cut in ELIDZ funds although Dedeat’s budget had been increased by R807.5-million for 2013-14 to a total of R1.07-billion .
“The budget for the department increased by 31%, which sees all the public entities’ budgets increase with only the ELIDZ decreasing, and by a significant amount of 15.2% at that.”
A spokesman for Jonas’s office, Sixolile Makaula, said budget cuts affected most provincial departments.
“It’ s been explained that the challenges taking place in the education and health have a impact on the fiscus and how budget is allocated.
“T he public purse is shrinking, certain programmes and projects are bound to be affected. The ELIDZ is not an isolated case,” he said.
Makaula added that t he Coega IDZ had not received funding for “a number of years” but it did not mean these entities were no longer valued in the province.
“The ELIDZ has been praised as the leading IDZ in South Africa.”
Makaula said the province and national government were funding ELIDZ and it would be wrong to conclude it was underfunded based only on an analysis of the provincial allocation.
“The fact that more than R100- million was returned to treasury as unspent funds in the last financial year further distorted the ELIDZ baseline ,” Makaula said.
Cupido said: “ Dysfunctional and questionable boards like the E C Gambling and Betting Board have an unnecessary increase of 48.8%, the only reasoning Jonas can give for the decrease for ELIDZ is budgetary cuts.”
“T he ELIDZ is one of the department’s more successful entities. It averaged an annual investment of about R350-million and created and/or maintained an average of 2000 sustainable jobs . ”
ELIDZ board chairman Zolile Tini said they were in talks with the provincial treasury to resolve budget issues as their operations were affected by budget cuts.
DA blames Jonas for ELIDZ budget cut
The Eastern Cape MEC for economic development, environmental affairs and tourism (Dedeat), Mcebisi Jonas, has come under fire from the D A .
DA member of the provincial legislature, John Cupido, said the ELIDZ was the only Dedeat entity which did not have “Jonas-friendly cohorts on its board”.
Cupido blamed Jonas for the cut in ELIDZ funds although Dedeat’s budget had been increased by R807.5-million for 2013-14 to a total of R1.07-billion .
“The budget for the department increased by 31%, which sees all the public entities’ budgets increase with only the ELIDZ decreasing, and by a significant amount of 15.2% at that.”
A spokesman for Jonas’s office, Sixolile Makaula, said budget cuts affected most provincial departments.
“It’ s been explained that the challenges taking place in the education and health have a impact on the fiscus and how budget is allocated.
“T he public purse is shrinking, certain programmes and projects are bound to be affected. The ELIDZ is not an isolated case,” he said.
Makaula added that t he Coega IDZ had not received funding for “a number of years” but it did not mean these entities were no longer valued in the province.
“The ELIDZ has been praised as the leading IDZ in South Africa.”
Makaula said the province and national government were funding ELIDZ and it would be wrong to conclude it was underfunded based only on an analysis of the provincial allocation.
“The fact that more than R100- million was returned to treasury as unspent funds in the last financial year further distorted the ELIDZ baseline ,” Makaula said.
Cupido said: “ Dysfunctional and questionable boards like the E C Gambling and Betting Board have an unnecessary increase of 48.8%, the only reasoning Jonas can give for the decrease for ELIDZ is budgetary cuts.”
“T he ELIDZ is one of the department’s more successful entities. It averaged an annual investment of about R350-million and created and/or maintained an average of 2000 sustainable jobs . ”
ELIDZ board chairman Zolile Tini said they were in talks with the provincial treasury to resolve budget issues as their operations were affected by budget cuts.
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