#Fixthebudget Protest Outside Parliament

Singing, chanting slogans and waving #Fixthebudget placards,civil society advocacy groups and NGOS such as the Treatment Action (TAC) Campaign, Section 27, the Budget and Expenditure Monitoring Forum (BEMF), the Progressive Youth Movement and others, gathered outside the gates of Parliament on Tuesday, 25 February, to voice their concerns around tomorrow's budget speech and to present "The People's Alternative Budget".

The alternative budget speech was written by these organisations as a way to honour their duties "to realise human rights and social justice" - it is a reflection of what these organisations would say to the people if they were the Minister of Finance. The speech incorporated views collected from economists, activists, social scientists and researchers. But, more importantly, it incorporates the views of citizens all over the country.

Sporting BEMF, TAC and Section 27’s logos, a poster on display at the protest titled “Know Your Rights: The Budget Cycle – When and How to Intervene”, covered in bright infographics, carefully breaks down the four most important stages of the budget process:

1) The drafting stage 2) The legislative stage 3) the implementation stage 4) The review stage.

Text on the poster explains that at the legislative stage people can analyse and comment on budgets and that “we can campaign for Parliament and/or provincial legislatures to make changes if any budget does not give enough priority to the most critical issues”.

The poster adds that in the implementation stage people should be encouraged to use tools such as the Citizen Report Cards and social audits to monitor spending at the point of service delivery.

Anelisa Koti from the TAC (in red) on the left.

Anelisa Koti from TAC told People’s Assembly: "We are protesting the government's budget…. We are saying they must not go back on their word if they say they are going to put money towards something. We want houses, schools, libraries and enough police stations."

Elroy Paulus, advocacy manager for Black Sash, goes on to explain that the protest was spearheaded by 14 organisations, led by the BEMF, a member-based organisation.

Paulus also told People’s Assembly that the campaign, led by BEMF, is based on having a budget that is focused on macro-economics, taxation, policy assumptions, and expenditure priorities and principles. The campaign makes the budget both accessible and relevant to non-technical jargon savvy members of the public.

Paulus said the campaign has been built up over months and is an inclusive process that included consultations with communities throughout the country. The organisations involved were primarily concerned with finding ways to link ordinary people’s priorities with the budget.

When asked what the community members main demands were, Paulus said that there wasn't necessarily one issue that took priority over another, but that service delivery protests over the provision of water, sanitation services and social grants as well as the impact of outsourcing state services to the private sector emerged as common grievances.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan will deliver the budget speech in the National Assembly on Wednesday, 26 December, at 2pm.