By Ayanda Ngila
On Wednesday, we, Abahlali, a shack dwellers’ movement in South Africa, joined comrades in pickets to be held across South Africa in rejection of the budget cuts by the Treasury.
Austerity is not the solution. Across the world, we have seen that austerity, which is structural adjustment, has had a devastating impact on the poor and the working class.
We need massive investment in our people and our society – investment in schools, libraries, hospitals, housing, community halls, safe houses for women facing abuse, grass-roots urban agriculture and much, much more.
We have seen the signs of cuts in public expenditure amid the Covid-19 pandemic and economic crises. We fear that the Budget will be another step on the road to austerity.
People are out of work. People are hungry. The conditions in many schools and hospitals are a disgrace. Millions are without land and housing. Austerity will make all this worse. We reject cuts to social expenditure, and budgets that promote inequality, impoverishment and mass unemployment. We will be demanding the creation of decent jobs for all, land to build decent housing and to plough food to feed our families, and a guaranteed income for all. All this is possible if the government taxes the rich and big corporates that dodge their responsibility to pay taxes, and put an end to the looting of the state.
The ANC’s kleptocratic faction looted public funds and repressed popular opposition, with violence and murder. The ANC’s neo-liberal faction aims to cut social spending, which will be devastating for the poor.
We are opposed to both factions of the ruling party. We are for society. We are for justice. We are for an end to oppression. Land, wealth and power must be shared.
The Star