A new online tool, a first for South Africa, now allows citizens to have their say on the budget speech.
Minister Pravin Gordhan delivered the budget speech on Wednesday afternoon. Most citizens do not know that the budget still has to be debated and go through a voting process before it can be law.
Although the public cannot participate in this debating and voting process the online tool allows parliament to see what people are interested in, in terms of the budget.
The online tool called ‘Vote for the Budget’ was developed by the International Budget Partnership and Code for South Africa, a civic tech organisation that promotes informed decision making for positive social change.
Adi Eyal, Director of Code for South Africa, told SABC News that the tool is to show people that they have the power to communicate with government.
“We may or may not be able to influence the final decision of the Appropriations Committee, but what we can do is show people that they have the power to communicate with government and hopefully next time, they’ll write their own letters with more specifics.”
How it works:
When you visit the website there are 3 main questions, one for the 5 biggest increases, another for the 5 biggest decreases and one for which potential new projects should be on the budget.
Each of the questions is arranged so you can answer by listing the increases/decreases or projects in order of your personal preference.
Once you have finished answering you can choose to send your responses in the form of an email to the Standing Committee of Appropriations, the parliamentary committee that can recommend changes to the budget.
And you don’t even have to draft the email, the email is generated at the click of a button.
Vote here: http://vote4thebudget.org/
Did you know: Citizens can have their say about the budget
A new online tool, a first for South Africa, now allows citizens to have their say on the budget speech.
Minister Pravin Gordhan delivered the budget speech on Wednesday afternoon. Most citizens do not know that the budget still has to be debated and go through a voting process before it can be law.
Although the public cannot participate in this debating and voting process the online tool allows parliament to see what people are interested in, in terms of the budget.
The online tool called ‘Vote for the Budget’ was developed by the International Budget Partnership and Code for South Africa, a civic tech organisation that promotes informed decision making for positive social change.
Adi Eyal, Director of Code for South Africa, told SABC News that the tool is to show people that they have the power to communicate with government.
“We may or may not be able to influence the final decision of the Appropriations Committee, but what we can do is show people that they have the power to communicate with government and hopefully next time, they’ll write their own letters with more specifics.”
How it works:
When you visit the website there are 3 main questions, one for the 5 biggest increases, another for the 5 biggest decreases and one for which potential new projects should be on the budget.
Each of the questions is arranged so you can answer by listing the increases/decreases or projects in order of your personal preference.
Once you have finished answering you can choose to send your responses in the form of an email to the Standing Committee of Appropriations, the parliamentary committee that can recommend changes to the budget.
And you don’t even have to draft the email, the email is generated at the click of a button.
Vote here: http://vote4thebudget.org/
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