A R50 million advertising budget could have better spent building 400 homes for people or upgraded 5‚000 classes in poorer schools‚ the Congress of Trade Unions in the Western Cape said on Monday.

“Every time a new advert is heard or seen‚ it’s a waste of precious funding that could have changed a child’s life‚ with better education opportunities‚” Cosatu Western Cape secretary Tony Ehrenreich said in a statement.

Cosatu said the money could‚ for example‚ have funded 50‚000 iPads for learners in poorer schools or assisted 10‚000 drug addicts with rehab facilities.

“The advertising budget of R50 million between the Provincial Government and the City of Cape Town‚ that sees advertising by their advertising agency‚ that is the equivalent of wasteful expenditure in these tough economic times” (sic).

 “This money is wasted on the ‘Mayor and Premier radio show’‚ which talks of holes in five roads and nine lights that are not working‚ where that R100‚000 could have been used for a house to be built. The ads in the newspapers talk about MyCiti bus schedules‚ when the money of the advert could have been used to buy another bus for the Cape Flats — with no MyCiti routes yet‚” Ehrenreich said.

“We are calling on the Treasury to compel the City of Cape Town and the Provincial Government to spend the money on the urgent needs of our people and to stop this wastage of funds on advertising.”

 Politician‚ ex-unionist and former Gateng premier Mbhazima Shilowa ?@Enghumbhini commented: “I agree with Cosatu but not just for the Western Cape but for all provinces if it’s based on principle”.

The Gauteng government was in the news last year with an advertising campaign showing Premier David Makhura‚ flanked by his team of MECs‚ walking down a Johannesburg main street in a copy of a scene from the movie Ocean’s Eleven. The campaign was perceived as the province’s leadership portraying themselves as being the most efficient region in the country‚ distancing itself from the crises facing the government elsewhere.