GOOD Speech by Brett Herron, GOOD Secretary-General & Member of the Western Cape Parliament:
The GOOD Party is here (Cape Town SAPS) to lay criminal charges against Western Cape MECs and senior officials who committed fraud by knowingly tabling falsely balanced provincial budgets in order to present a rosy picture of the province’s finances ahead of last year’s general election.
After the election, the MECs somersaulted, declaring a budget shortfall of R3.8-Billion in its Medium Term Expenditure Framework, and culling thousands of teacher posts. They blamed the shortfall on “developments” at national government level, singling out the public service wage agreement. But there were no major fiscal developments in the five months between their tabling their budgets and declaring the shortfall – and the province was fully aware of the public service wage agreement long before presenting its “balanced” books.
A dossier of evidence is being submitted to police along with a detailed affidavit.
The complaint follows an exhaustive investigation that included submitting parliamentary questions, asking questions in the province’s Standing Committee on Education, prompting a debate in the Legislature the matter in the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, and close scrutiny of speeches by the MECs, and minutes of meetings, to identify contradictions.
As far as the GOOD Party can establish, this is the first time in South Africa’s history that a government has been caught out tabling a false or fake budget.
The administration knowingly misled the legislature, the public, and employees, which constitutes criminal conduct under:
- Common Law Fraud
- PFMA Section 86 (Criminal Financial Misconduct)
- Forgery & Uttering
- Contempt of the Legislature – Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act
Charges will be laid against then-Finance MEC Mireille Wenger (now Health MEC); Education MEC David Maynier, Provincial Accounting Officer Julinda Gantana (Provincial Treasury); and Brent Walters, Head of the Department of Education in the Western Cape.
GOOD believes the “balanced” budget was tabled just two months before the May 2024 election. The timing raises concerns of budget misrepresentation being used to manufacture public confidence and influence electoral outcomes.
The provincial budget tabled on 7 March 2024 included allocations for Cost of Employment in the Department of Education that were insufficient to fund all approved educator posts. A budget presented as sustainable and balanced was in fact unsustainable and deliberately skewed. Both the Finance and the Education MECs were aware of the shortfall but tabled a false and misleading budget, nonetheless.
GOOD Vision for the Future: GOOD envisions a South Africa where all citizens can thrive and live in harmony.
What is Fraud? “Fraud” is any activity that relies on deception in order to achieve a gain. Fraud becomes a crime when it is a “knowing misrepresentation of the truth or concealment of a material fact to induce another to act to his or her detriment” (Black’s Law Dictionary). In other words, if you lie in order to deprive a person or organization of their money or property, you’re committing fraud.