Idasa’s Response to the 2011 Budget - - Prepared by Idasa’s Political Information and Monitoring Service

The upgrading of hospitals with specific focus on infant and maternal health will help to attain the Millennium Development Goal target, and expanding training of doctors and nurses together with management reform within hospitals could go a long way towards improving the efficiency and access of health care throughout the country and eliminating the inequality of the current two-tiered system. [...] The Department of Human Settlements is one of the key departments in South Africa and receives a large share of the national budget after education and social development. [...] While the increase is welcomed, the department will need to continue to look at the quality of housing delivery, capacity of municipalities and local government to deliver and to ensure that there is value for money in housing delivery. [...] However, it is also clear that the idea should not only be about increasing the share allocations but rather to assess the capacity of the department, the provinces and municipalities to provide services and spend the allocated resources. [...] Given the incentives to foster small businesses, the additional spending on FET colleges should be able to contribute directly to the production of medium- level skills and the tantalising possibility of establishing a stronger base of small businesses in the manufacturing and service industries.