13 JANUARY 2026, CAPE TOWN

PRESENTING THE ADJUSTMENTS APPROPRIATION BILL AS A LEVER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE RECOVERY AND ECONOMIC REFORM

HONOURABLE MEMBERS 

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN 

FELLOW SOUTH AFRICANS WATCHING AT HOME

GREETINGS TO YOU ALL!

HOUSE CHAIRPERSON,

The Adjustments Appropriation Bill is not about abstract adjustments to the budget. It is about jobs, livelihoods, and dignity for our vulnerable people, especially young people who wake up everyday without work, without income, and without certainty about the future.

HONOURABLE MEMBERS,

Public infrastructure is the backbone of any economy. When roads collapse, when water systems fail, and when schools and clinics are damaged by climate change related floods, it is not elites who suffer first, but the working-class, the rural poor and township communities. That is why the ANC stands behind this Bill.

This Bill allocates billions of rands to the Municipal Disaster Recovery Grant in Budget Vote 3 of the Department of Cooperative Governance, the Education Infrastructure Grant in Budget Vote 16 of the Department of Basic Education, the Health Facility Revitalisation Grant in Budget Vote 18 of the Department of Health, and the Provincial Roads Maintenance Grant in Budget Vote 40 of the Department of Transport for repairing, rebuilding, and maintaining public infrastructure, particularly after climate-related disasters. This is not wasteful spending. This is economic protection and job creation.

Every public road repaired creates work.

Every public school and clinic rebuilt creates income.

Every water project restored creates opportunity.

For young people in rural and township areas who carry the weight of unemployment, these government-funded labour-intensive economic infrastructure projects are often the only entry point into the world of work. These projects may not make news headlines, but they put food on the table and provide young people with immediate income, work experience, and skills that open doors to further greener pastures.

Going further, disaster recovery allocations in this Bill running into several billions of rands across national and provincial budgets are not only critical for youth employment, but also for community empowerment and enterprise development. For the sake clarity and brevity, when climate-related shocks strike, rebuilding and repairing of public infrastructure must happen quickly to prevent disruptions in service delivery. This Bill therefore ensures that disaster recovery allocations circulate in affected communities and support small enterprises that face barriers to entry into the mainstream economy. This is how this Bill rebuilds not just public infrastructure, but local economies.

The ANC is clear that maintenance of public infrastructure matters. In short, it is much cheaper to maintain public infrastructure than to rebuild it after collapse. And more importantly, maintenance creates stable, ongoing jobs, not once-off work. By allocating R2 billion to the Urban Development Financing Grant in Budget Vote 8 of National Treasury to assist metropolitan municipalities to expand and maintain bulk municipal distribution infrastructure for three trading services, this Bill supports sustainable employment, especially for young people with limited access to formal jobs.

FELLOW SOUTH AFRICANS,

The ANC wants to be honest with you. The ANC admits that infrastructure spending has not always delivered what it should, and poor households and vulnerable communities depended on public infrastructure are right to be frustrated. Delays, underspending, and weak project management have cost communities services and young people jobs. Put differently, in many key economic infrastructure projects, delays in planning, procurement challenges, contractor failures, and climate-related disruptions have resulted in rollovers of funds worth R5.2 billion from the 2024/25 to the 2025/26 financial year and declared unspent funds worth R8.7 billion, largely due to lower than projected spending on social assistance grants and other transfer in Budget Vote 19 of the Department of Social Development, reduction in accumulated unspent grant funds for the South African National Road Agency Limited (SANRAL) non-toll road network in Budget Vote 40 of the Department of Transport, and delays in the raw water component of the uMkhomazi water project in Budget Vote 41 of the Department of Water and Sanitation.

However, I must clarify this: a rollover does not mean money has disappeared.
It means projects were not completed on time, and spending had to be shifted to the next financial year so that work can continue rather than be abandoned. Similarly, declared unspent funds do not automatically mean waste, theft, or indifference. They arise due to project delays, timing mismatches, disaster disruptions, and capacity constraints. Nevertheless, every delayed project means jobs postponed, unemployed youth waiting longer for work, and communities waiting longer for the delivery of basic services. Added to this, every rand that remains unspent represents a job delayed, a basic service postponed, and a community left waiting.

That is why this Bill is important as it allows the ANC-led government to either roll over funding for projects that must be completed, or redirect declared unspent funds to urgent needs where communities cannot wait any longer.

At the same time, the ANC is clear that rolloverscannot become a habit – they must be accompanied by better planning, faster procurement, stronger project management, and real accountability. Further, the solution to declared unspent funds is not to cut investment or shrink the government, Honourable Minister of Finance. Rather, the solution is to fix capacity and accelerate delivery, especially on labour-intensive economic infrastructure projects that create work for young people.

HONOURABLE CHAIRPERSON,

In conclusion, the ANC supports this Bill because it intervenes, builds, employs, and corrects service delivery weaknesses instead of walking away from them. This Bill is also aligned with the ANC Manifesto commitment to creating jobs through infrastructure, the National Development Plan’s (NDP) call for labour-absorbing growth, and the Medium-Term Development Plan’s (MTDP) priority of youth employment and economic inclusion.

Although, of course, this Bill is not the final answer to unemployment, it is a necessary intervention to keep projects alive, workers employed, and communities hopeful. The ANC will not abandon poor households and vulnerable communities. It will use the government it leads to fix what is broken, complete what was delayed, and turn public investment into work and dignity.

I thank you.