EFF rejects ‘austerity-driven’ Basic Education budget [SOUND]

# The EFF has rejected the 2025/2026 Basic Education budget, saying it is an austerity-driven, anti-poor allocation that fails to address the systemic collapse of public education. The department has received a total budget of more than 35-billion-rand, an increase of more than eight-percent from 2025. The Early Childhood Development conditional grant increased to more than 1.7-billion-rand. The EFF’s Mandla Shikwambana says it is unacceptable that rural and township schools remain plagued by infrastructure backlogs and lack of digital access: