Pravin Gordhan - SA's Finance Minister1. The levy on non-renewable (including nuclear) electricity, will be used to... fix potholes!
Well, partly. A portion of the levy applied to electricity generated from non-renewable and nuclear energy sources, which increases from 0.5c/kWh to 2.5c/kWh from April 1st, will be used to fix the roads that have been damaged by coal hauling trucks.

Huh?! So the money intended for renewable energy projects will be used to fix the potholes created by coal fired energy! The irony is going to kill me...

Another example of full cost accounting not being factored in to the price of dirty coal electricity - the cost doesn't include the cost of dirty air, the cost of treating lung diseases, or... the cost of repairing potholed roads. For that, thank you Eskom and your complicit big business users, the tax payer will foot the bill!!

2. A carbon tax is now firmly on the table
Not quite a fait accompli, but the government is considering a carbon tax. A discussion paper entitled Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions: The Carbon Tax Option was published for public comment in December 2010. Comments are due by the end of February 2011 and the features of this proposed tax and a schedule for its introduction will be announced in next years budget.

3. An energy-efficiency institute will be established using money from the world cup
This is good news! Many people have been arguing how Eskom (in whose interest it is to sell electricity) cannot also be expected to come up with ways to save it (and reduce their profit). So it looks like R 66.5 million is going to be used to establish the South African Energy Development Institute which will be conducting R&D to support energy efficiency objectives. It will fall under the department of energy and be partly funded by "outstanding payments to the 2010 Word Cup Local Organising Committee for generators and electrical connections."

We'll just hold thumbs that the LOC still has the money and hasn't dropped the ball...

4. The department that receives the least amount of fiscal moolah is... the Department of Environmental Affairs
Okay so maybe you did know this one, still you were hoping that it wasn't true. Unfortunately it's true. The department that has "custody" of nature, which provides innumerable valuable services that don't have a rand value on a traditional balance sheet, gets a half a percent of the annual budget.

The amount allocated directly to environmental protection is a paltry R4.7 billion, even recreation and culture get more (R6.3 billion) and the mining, manufacturing and construction sector (sub sector of economic affairs) gets R5.5 billion.

5. The Department of Environmental Affairs gets a R391 million shot in the arm.
Which will allow it to set up efforts to prevent wildlife trafficking and improve it's "capacity to implement legislation dealing with air quality, waste and coastline management; and increase SA's ability to respond to oil spills"

All good news, but the department will need an additional shot in the arm at a later stage if the govt allows mining of natural gas to go ahead in the Karoo....

6. Environmental jobs to be created as part of public works.
"Expanded public works projects related to the environment, which will create an estimated 41 131 jobs, are supported with a total allocation
of R2.2 billion over the medium term. This allocation also covers the costs of organising the United Nations Conference on Climate Change."

7. Acid mine drainage gets first hand-out
Although the budget speech refered to "acid water drainage", this is not backwashing your pool we're talking about! R225 million is being allocated for addressing acid mine drainage and its consequences in Gauteng. Would, what amounts to bailing out the mines, be required if the government had acted earlier - the effects of AMD were first brought to light nearly ten years ago, but government never acted and never held the mining companies accountable. Instead you and I - the taxpayers - are starting to fork out. Acid mine drainage is a major environmental disaster and is likely to cost a lot more to fix (if you can "fix" the wholesale destruction of river systems, and the adverse affects on human and other lifeforms!)

8. Government has given cities greater autonomy in land use management
Government is placing more responsibility on cities to "grow the economy by building and maintaining infrastructure, and funding improved social services." Public transport functions (metrorail, dealing with the taxi associations) has devolved to the large metro's through the National Land Transport Act. An urban settlements development grant will be introduced to upgrade informal settlements and accelerate land release. Measures to stilmulate rental housing will be introduced and subsidies for commuter bus and rail services will be given to the muncipalities.

9. The World Bank will be collaborating in a city near you
I kid you not: "In collaboration with the World Bank, government will embark on a large-scale programme to strengthen urban management. The initiative will seek to foster improvements across a wide range of areas, including infrastructure investment, asset management, land use management, service delivery capacity, public transport management, anti-corruption strategies and financial management."

The skeptic in me sees my rates and taxes going up in the short term, local govt being saddled with debt and increased outsourced and privatised services. Worth it in the name of "service delivery"? More money leaving for foreign shores? And perhaps time to relook affirmative action policies? What's worse - outsourcing the running of the local water company to a foreign multinational - or asking water treatment specialist to come out of retirement and build local capacity? Local capacity is more sustainable in the long term.

10. Bank charges to come under closer scrutiny
One I am particularly happy about (although I've slashed charges by moving to Capitec), but not widely reported and I'm sure not enthusiastically embraced by the financial sector.

"Among the issues to be addressed are the findings of Judge Jali’s Enquiry into Competition in Banking – findings that are echoed by many people’s
complaints that bank charges are high and opaque."

"...and I believe it is time to put in place measures that will ensure that banking charges are fairly set, are transparent and do not create undue hardship."

Hmm, regulating the freemarket economy then. This will be interesting to watch...

Rhetoric and green lip service does not a budget make.
The budget contained some stirring and poetic speech. Who would not agree with the sentiments "...now is the time to do extraordinary things...", that we are stirred to "ignite the flame of higher inclusive growth, and sustain it" an that we need to "shrink the equality that continues to blight us".

Yet to do extraordinary things would require an extraordinary budget, and whilst this one was a pretty good juggling act (just keep all the skittles in the air and try not to offend, especially those foreign investors i.e. don't mention the plans to start a government owned mine, less socialist rhetoric), the government fails to seriously recognise the challenge that confronts us. Yes job creation, social upliftment and business are important, but these are all underpinned by a stable climate and environment that is able to provide life supporting services.

Allocating R800 million for "green economy" initiatives and only R 2.2 billion to environmental employment programmes (and COP17) over three years is not nearly enough. In fact we're being duped. The green economy buzzword has been bandied about and is getting lots of attention (probably because of our American aspirations and it being popularised by Obama), but is not given the financial support required to implement it.