BUDGET: SAFTU says budget failed to reverse the deep austerity cuts [SOUND]

# The South African Federation of Trade Unions says while the budget offered a modest real increase of 0.8-percent in non-interest government expenditure, it failed to reverse the deep austerity cuts imposed over the past decade. Finance minister Enoch Godongwana tabled the national budget in Parliament on Wednesday. Saftu’s spokesperson, Newton Masuku, says expenditure trends from 2008 to 2025 show that this year’s increase, although positive, follows more than ten-years of real cuts or stagnation: