The newly-appointed Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan presented the 2010/11 National Budget to Parliament on 17 February 2010 in Cape Town.

As in the past few years, SANGONeT is pleased to present you with the comments and perspectives of various NGOs in response to the budget.

Issues covered by the NGO comments range from general observations about the budget to key development priorities such as education, social services, gender, urbanisation, children and health.

Most NGOs acknowledge, as with last year’s budget, the unique challenges that the Minister of Finance faced in preparing the 2010/11 budget, mainly as a result of the global financial crisis and its impact on the South African economy.

However, over and above specific comments about budget priorities and the allocation of resources, NGOs are again raising concerns about the ability and capacity of government departments to deliver services in line with their mandate and address the significant social challenges facing the country.

Questions are also raised again about the lack of recognition for the role that NGOs play in responding to the needs of the poor, especially in the absence of sufficient capacity and service delivery by government departments.

In the name of “doing things differently” and “partnership between government and all other stakeholders”, as articulated by the Minister in his Budget speech, there will hopefully be increased engagement between government and NGOs about how we can work together more effectively in future.

The following NGOs have commented on the budget (click on the name of organisation):

• Afesis-corplan 
• Black Sash
• Centre for Early Childhood Development
• Centre for Policy Studies
• Common Purpose South Africa
• Development Action Group
• Gauteng Welfare Forum
• Helen Suzman Foundation
• Institute for Democracy in South Africa
• Institute for Global Dialogue
• Johannesburg Child Welfare
• Junior Achievement South Africa
• Khumbulani Craft / The Siyazisiza Trust
• loveLife
• Media Monitoring Africa
• National Council Against Smoking
• National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union
• National Welfare Forum
• Pietermaritzburg Agency for Christian Social Awareness
• People Opposing Women Abuse
• People’s Budget Coalition
• Planact
• Project Literacy
• Sikhula Sonke
• Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa
• South Africa Democratic Teachers Union
• South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union
• South African Institute for Race Relations
• South African National Council for the Blind
• Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference
• Trust for Community Outreach and Education
• Umcebo Trust

We welcome any other NGO comments, opinions and recommendations in response to the budget and will highlight them on the NGO Pulse portal.

NGO Pulse Team, editor@sangonet.org.za