South Africa's 2012 Budget Speech and the Environment

Letter to Editor:

"Unfortunately I missed most of the budget speech so decided to look up a copy of the speech on the net. I was eager to find out what would be said about SA's plans to channel funds to more environmentally sound practices that would see our nation excel in spearheading green technologies and transporting our current unsustainable dirty economy into a thriving green one.

Because the speech was so long, I first tried to search by using the keyword 'environment' but found that out of the 8 times it was used (excluding subheadings), it was only used once in the context of environmental protection... the rest was in the context of the 'economic' environment!

There was one short paragraph covering 'environmental protection' which was grouped with 'economic services'. 15.8 billion allocated to this group, the bulk of which will go to "the manufacturing competitiveness enhancement programme" and "for industrial development and special economic zones".

Strangely, when I checked a Budget Speech 'highlights' graph published by National Treasury, they show 'environmental protection' getting 9.5 billion. I tried to figure out how this figure was derived at based on what was said in the speech. If out of 15.8 billion, 5.8 is going to 'the manufacturing competitive enhancement programme' and 'for industrial development and special economic zones', that leaves us with 10 billion (not 9.5 as per the graph). If this is the same R10 billion referred to in the speech as R9.5 Billion, it is to be spent on the following (per the speech):

'• Sanparks for tourism infrastructure;
• National Metrology Institute for equipment;
• Dept Agriculture, forestry and Fisheries to improve agricultural support services
• land bank to 'conclude its recapitalisation'
• provincial and municipal agricultural colleges
• Dept Rural Dev and Land reform for settlement of restitution claims.'

Of the above, I fail to recognize which part of it should be classified as 'environmental protection'? (You may be interested in looking at this graph to see what other areas (such as defence and prisons) are receiving in comparison here [2.28MB]).

Okay, so moving along, I did a search on the word 'renewable energy' to see what would pop up. The word appeared once when the Minister reflected on the first round of renewable energy projects that were successfully tendered to independent power producers. However, not a word was mentioned about government's plans for spending on this promising sector.

So what has been allocated to the energy sector in general? R300 billion. Of this, the Minister mentioned how R6 billion of it will be spent but was silent on the rest. Media reports however have long ago enlightened me to the missing piece of the puzzle: our government plans for rolling out Eskom's nuclear fleet build programme has an estimated price tag of R300 billion. So there it is. :(

Looking at other decisions which may (or may not - depending on how things actually unfold) have a positive impact on our natural environment: Carbon tax to be finalised; an increase in the electricity levy on electricity generated from non-renewable sources (to be used in place of 'current funding mechanisms for energy-efficiency initiatives such as the solar water geyser programme'). Even though the power producers are responsible for paying this levy, we all know that you and I pay for it in the long run, yet we are not given the choice whether to consume non or renewable power. Fuel levies will also go up and 4.7 billion is allocated to 'complete the installation of one million solar water geyers'. There will also be R600 million going to municipalities to install low-energy lighting and equipment (we can only hope that this includes an allocation to educate the public regarding how to handle the proper disposal of the millions of flourescent lamps they are dumping on doorsteps). An additional R1.1 billion is to go to Working for Water and Working on Fire.

To quote the Minister (speaking of our short-term energy plans): "In energy, the focus is on demand-side management to address the impact of limited supply until new generation comes online."

I was hoping to be inspired by this year's budget speech, but instead I was left feeling sad and defeated. The many hidden messages laced throughout the speech which lead to a vision of ‘business as usual’, a vision where our leaders have completely ignored the need to shift to sustainable solutions and reducing environmental degradation, but instead one shortsighted vision of improving the short-term 'bottom' line. It is just disturbing to think that they don't realise that their plans might look good on paper for now, but this will be short lived.

I will now leave you with some quotes from the speech that will shed some light on the path our leaders have decided to take (if you are able to read between the lines). It was disheartening to see how the skill used in choosing words outweighed the skill used in deciding our country's future!

I've included some of my own comments and highlighting regarding the irony of some statements.

"We will not turn away from our challenges. We must confront them boldly, and with hope. [then why are we not shifting away from non-renewables?, I ask] In harnessing all the resources at our disposal, we have to do more, with less; we have to work smarter and harder. South Africans must focus on our strenghts and opportunities, to identify and activate the levers of economic and social change at our disposal." [what about the wind and solar at our disposal??, I ask]
"To succeed in this environment, we have to seize the opportunities presented by this changing world." [why aren't we then?!, I ask]... and then in the very next breath:

"As a major mining economy, we should be benefiting more from the continued buoyancy in commodity markerts internationally. We also need to take advantage of rising demand for agricultural and manufacturing goods. Some 85 million manufacturing jobs in China will shift to other countries over the years ahead. Do we have the right policies, conditions and boldness to enable South African business to gain from these immense shifts in the patterns of production and trade?" [am I right that the Minister is saying that we should grab at the "opportunity" of having foreign countries come in to use our labour and resources to strengthen their own economies for the sake of 'job creation'? What about creating our own jobs and strengthening our own economy from the inside out?]

Interestingly, under the subheading 'Vision for the economy in 2030, one of the key objectives is 'raising mining output'.

A copy of the full budget speech can be downloaded here: http://www.treasury.gov.za/documents/national%20budget/2012/speech/speech.pdf

N.B.: This is a letter based on opinion and a single person’s interpretation. Please verify facts/figures before quoting anything from this post.