EC budget gives cause for optimism

WITH the priorities of provincial government more or less speaking for themselves, there were no real surprises in Enoch Godongwana’s budget. The money has been allocated to the right destinations. But now its potential for optimum return rests with the dubious skills of the various departments.

As all know, Bisho’s management system is presently under close scrutiny from a presidential task force which is in the process of upgrading expertise and restoring order to systems which have become dysfunctional.

That this is finally under way is reassuring and it augurs well for improvements in delivery and the more efficient use of the R28-billion that Godongwana has dispensed.

Schools, health and welfare quite rightly absorb the bulk of it. The fact that 338 new schools will be built in the next financial year is good news indeed – this coming on top of the 221 built in the last year. But as we said last week, those extra classrooms alone, nor additional teachers, will make the required difference while drunkenness and ill- discipline exist among teachers and pupils, while headmasters lack management skills and while there are administrative bungles in the delivery of teaching materials. It is crucial these basic flaws are corrected urgently.

In health, too, the money must be carefully used. Having rats in our mortuaries, demoralised policemen and run-down, understaffed hospitals calls for urgent responses.

Godongwana bears good news about the Bisho staff reduction programme and will be helped this year by an end to the supernumerary burden.

There are enough positive elements in this budget to give cause for optimism, so after all is said and done, expect a turn-around in Bisho’s fortunes.

---

Maduna does the right thing

IT is seldom that senior ANC politicians disagree publicly, but rightly Justice Minister Penuell Maduna has backed the prerogative of judges to voice concern over the arrest of Zimbabwean Judge Benjamin Paradza.

What makes Maduna’s principled support even more commendable is that the ANC is careful not to be seen to criticise Zimbabwe in any way.

The issue arose when KwaZulu Natal ANC MPL Dumisani Makhaye accused the judiciary of hiding behind their independence when they got into trouble. His comments followed an expression of concern by SA Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson and eight of his southern African counterparts over the action taken against Paradza.

Paradza, who spent a night in jail, faces charges of corruption and attempting to obstruct justice.

He is the second judge to be arrested in Zimbabwe after retired High Court Judge Fergus Blackie was arrested in September last year, also on allegations of obstructing the ends of justice. Blackie is still awaiting trial.

Makhaye said elements of the SA judiciary believed they were not accountable to anyone and had instinctively leapt to the defence of Zimbabwean counterparts who believed they were above the law.

It is almost a shame to have to grace such valueless braying with a response, but Maduna needed to make it clear that the independence of this country’s judiciary is not in question and that Makhaye’s view has no support.