The medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) on 30 October will lay out spending intentions for the next three years. This is the first chance the government of national unity has to meaningfully display its position on fiscal policy.

Despite the government’s denial that we have an austerity budget, the continuous slashes to expenditure (after adjusting for inflation and even further when population growth is accounted for), coupled with the prioritisation of debt payments, has meant the state is often unable to fulfil its mandate in ensuring the realisation of socio-economic rights. This is summed up by advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, who, in a speech at the annual lecture of the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection, stated that South Africa has a pro-poor Constitution while producing anti-poor outcomes.

For example, the under-resourced 10111 call centres are a distressing symptom of austerity’s far-reaching consequences. Only 8% of positions are filled in Queenstown, Eastern Cape, and 86% in Maitland, Cape Town, according to a parliamentary reply by the minister of police.

Up to a million emergency calls are abandoned annually in cities across South Africa. It is unclear whether abandoned calls mean the service is no longer needed or whether an untimely response has left many people without help in critical situations. By prioritising fiscal restraint over community safety, we jeopardise the livelihoods of those most in need.

Historically, the Democratic Alliance-run Western Cape has got away with under-delivering on housing and pro-poor services by using national funding allocations as a scapegoat. There is now the difficulty of self-inflicted fiscal conservatism standing in the way of fulfilling its mandate. This can be seen during the recent decision by the Western Cape’s education department not to renew 2 407 teaching posts.

Fiscal austerity is defined as spending cuts, regressive taxes or a combination of spending cuts in critical sectors such as health, education and social protection. In 2023 and 2024, there were cuts of R8 billion and R9.8 billion in health and learning and culture, respectively. Not only are the most vulnerable hurt by a shrinking of state capacity, but women are more affected by austerity measures because they are disproportionately represented in the public sector and among informal workers. When there are cuts to the public sector wage bill, it is mostly women who risk losing their jobs. Austerity transfers the burden of care from the state to households.

The “Austerity is a Feminist Issue” report examines how austerity is not just an economic policy but is deeply connected to the patriarchal structures that shape our societies.

Austerity deepens the crisis of social reproduction under capitalism by squeezing the state of its constitutional responsibilities, predominantly leaving the responsibility to women and girls to close the gap. Social reproduction can be used to refer to the biological reproduction of humans, the reproduction of the labour force, including subsistence, education and training, and the reproduction and provision of care work.

For example, when the state fails to deliver accessible, safe drinking water, it is mostly women and girls who spend hours fetching water. As public services shrink, women provide unpaid labour at home. Care work — whether looking after children, older family members or sick relatives — has been historically undervalued and has gone unrecognised in mainstream economic debates.

The Alternative Information and Development Centre’s recently published report, Austerity is a Feminist Issue, shows that economic policies such as austerity do not produce gender-neutral outcomes, and while the state retracts from its role in sustaining, promoting and enhancing socio-economic rights, it is through coerced resilience of communities, particularly women, that people survive.

It is also argued in the report that there are a number of ways in which capitalism and patriarchy work simultaneously to enforce gender hierarchies by devaluing women’s work and thriving on the exploitation of labour and resources. This can be seen in key sectors and areas such as health, education and social protection. 

Health

The yearly cuts to the national and provincial health budgets have had disastrous consequences on the well-being of the recipients and the providers of healthcare. Funding pressures are felt across the health system. At the beginning of 2024, Professor Lydia Cairncross wrote an open letter addressing the surgical backlogs and unfilled posts driven by budget cuts. This means additional care is needed for patients who are being turned away from critical surgeries — care that is often provided by women in the family.

Central to the functioning of the primary healthcare system is the role of community healthcare workers (CHWs), who ensure that there is adherence and compliance to medication and that patients too ill to travel to clinics and hospitals are monitored regularly, among a list of many other preventative, cost-saving interventions.

Despite the value that CHWs provide, many remain on precarious and low-paid contracts. These workers are an example of how the life-saving and care-providing work predominantly done by women is often under-compensated.

Education

Despite universal access to high-quality early childhood education is identified as a priority area for the 2030 National Development Plan, spending on early childhood development (ECD) subsidies is only sufficient to cover 15% of children eligible. ECD centres are important for the child, create employment and allow primary caregivers flexibility to participate in the labour market.

According to the South African Early Childhood Review, each child receives R17 a day from the ECD subsidy, meaning most families have to fund early learning and care. This often means that primary caregivers (mothers, grandmothers, neighbours, older siblings) forgo paid labour and schooling to take care of children. The reluctance of the state to sufficiently fund universal ECD points to the assumption that women and girls will always be available to fill the gap in providing necessary services.

Unpaid care work 

South Africa has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, with women, particularly black women, bearing the brunt. This does not mean that 44% of the population who are not in employment, education or training are not working. Most of these people perform work in the homes and communities that are central to the functioning of the household and the broader economy.

Social protection

One potential way to compensate people for the care work that they provide is through a basic income grant. Such a grant provides people with dignity and an income floor to meet their immediate needs.

The reluctance of the government to transform the current social relief of distress grant into a permanent basic income grant stems from an orientation to fiscal consolidation and austerity measures.

The social relief of distress grant plays an important role in addressing hunger, unemployment, and, to a lesser extent, inequality. But the high errors of exclusion stemming from digital barriers and stringent qualifying criteria prevent the grant from sufficiently addressing the growing hunger crisis. A basic income grant is a chance to rectify, enhance and improve the economic effect of the social relief of distress grant.

Low-income levels, whether from the long-term erosion of social grants because of high food inflation or as a result of underpaid formal, informal or household work, have exacerbated the hunger crisis. During Covid-19, it was often adults, especially women, who would shield children from hunger by forgoing meals.

According to a recent study by the Human Sciences Research Council, 18% of households are food insecure, frequently facing reductions in meal sizes, skipping meals or going hungry. This is not only avoidable but it also results in costlier healthcare interventions.

Austerity is often self-defeating as it does not achieve its desired effect and can result in costlier outcomes such as increases in inequality, unemployment and poverty.

Although austerity is presented as a way to avert economic crises through fiscal consolidation, it can also be understood as a way of shifting the norms of social reproduction and perceptions of the state. Feminist alternatives to austerity are necessary to combat the burden that budget cuts place on women.

As the unity government forms its position on the upcoming MTBPS, a coalition of trade unions, social movements, and civil society organisations will protest against the state’s budget cuts. The state’s reluctance and lack of capacity to realise pro-poor outcomes are at risk of further calcification in the context of deepening austerity.

Austerity is not just a short-term inconvenience; it has lasting consequences for gender equality. Policymakers must recognise that austerity is not just about balancing budgets, it’s about making choices that will either perpetuate or challenge existing inequalities. It’s time for governments to put women, particularly the most vulnerable, at the centre of economic policy.

Aliya Chikte and Chloé van Biljon are project officers at the Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC), where Soraya Mentoor is the coordinator. The AIDC is a member of the Budget Justice Coalition.

*This article is co-published with the Mail & Guardian.