Zille: I’m staying on until end of term
Western Cape premier Helen Zille has quashed speculation that she will resign as leader of the province before her term ends.
|||Cape Town - Western Cape Premier Helen Zille has quashed speculation that she will resign as leader of the province before her term ends.
Zille and senior officials within her department were explaining their budget choices to the legislature’s standing committee on the premier on Tuesday when the ANC asked the question.
ANC MPL Cameron Dugmore asked Zille about ongoing speculation that she might be on her way out.
Dugmore said: “In various circles and in the media there are speculations about whether this particular premier will serve out her term.”
An amused Zille, after a few loud giggles, gave her commitment that she planned to finish her term.
“Let me give my commitment that unless there’s a vote of no confidence in me, which I’m sure the honourable Dugmore would love to have, or an impeachment which both a member of his side and my side tried to engineer, I will be here in terms of my commitment for the rest of my term. That’s my commitment, but you know stuff happens in politics but if it is up to me I will be around,” she said.
With a budget of just over R1.34 billion, the premier’s department conceded that they had to scale back, freezing 132 posts to ease budget pressures.
Zille stressed the budget was marked by austerity and the need to cut spending to fit within the constraints of a reduced budget.
“This year our budget has grown by R9 million more than the previous year, an increase of 0.6 percent,” she said.
To accommodate compulsory savings on the compensation of employees, the department said it had to sacrifice the filling of 132 crucial posts to remain within the 2016/17 personnel expenditure ceiling of R541 852 000.
Committee chairman Ricardo Mackenzie expressed concern about crucial posts being left vacant.
Despite the bleak financial outlook, the premier’s department remained committed to deliver on the province’s game-changers.
The head of the department of the Premier, Advocate Brent Gerber, said they had gone out of their way to ensure they did not cut back on their projects because it was important to deliver on their projects than to have staff.
“Some posts are more strategic than others and the impact is bigger, so make that assessment and it is a continuous dynamic process to decide which post to fill,” he said.
The bulk of the department’s budget will go towards the centre for e-Innovation, for broadband roll-out.
Gerber said 632 schools have been connected with broadband which allows for a e-learning process to be rolled out.
Gerber said they anticipate that 1 800 sites will be connected by the end of 2016/2017 financial year.
The ANC wanted clarity on the premier’s plans to appoint a children’s commissioner and an environmental commission as stipulated in the provincial constitution.
Zille said that if the constitution mandated something, they had to do it.
“We absolutely will do it,” she told the committee.
She said they believed the move would be expensive and may duplicate other institutions, thus they had tried and failed to change the constitution from making the appointment of commissioners mandatory, and not optional.
“There is now no excuse and no alternative but to implement it even if we have got no money. If the constitution says we have to, we simply have to.
“There are no excuses,” she said.
warda.meyer@inl.co.za
Cape Argus