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Durban - KwaZulu-Natal Finance MEC Belinda Scott on Friday said the province needed to take hard decisions during tough economic times.
"We are concerned about our growing debt. We are spending more than we have and the salary bill is getting bigger and bigger," she said during a post-budget breakfast meeting with KwaZulu-Natal's business sector in Durban.
She emphasised the importance of partnerships with business to help cut expenditure and grow the province’s economy.
Scott tabled her R109bn budget last Thursday. It included R200m in drought relief and spending cuts of R2.9bn over the next three financial years. Education got 41% of the budget ,and health 33%.
Growth Coalition’s Andrzej Kiepiela said partnerships would help improve the state of the economy and that they had worked in China.
Businessman Don Govender said more discussions on the province’s budget were needed before it was finalised, so the private sector could influence KwaZulu-Natal’s growth.
Absa spokesperson Dante Mashile said the budget set the foundation for a social pact between government, labour and the private sector, to ensure the province met its development goals.
It was a prudent budget in a difficult economic context globally and nationally, he said.
