A few thoughts on #Budget2020: (1) Rises in public sector wages also have unintended (& often unacknowledged) consequences. In Basic Education wages have increased 45% faster than inflation for the last 10yrs. This has led to rises in class sizes and hiring freezes...(1/n)
There is a trade-off between head-counts (# of teachers) and salaries (what they're paid). For a given budget higher salaries means fewer teachers. We see that in that there have been rising enrolments & declining #'s of teachers employed --> rising class sizes #Budget2020 2/n 
The other major way provinces cope is by imposing hiring freezes on school management posts. Principals / Deputies & HODs are expensive posts. Need to cut costs? Just don't advertise or hire when they leave 🤷 13% decline in #'s of school leaders 2012-->2016 #Budget2020 3/n
...double digit declines in the # of principals employed in the NW(-12%), LP (-13%), & the FS (-14%). In Limpopo alone there were 2,996 principals employed on payroll, yet there are 3,867 schools in the province. i.e. 23% of schools have no employed principal. #Budget2020 4/n
Lastly @tito_mboweni showed the courage to call a spade a spade & wake us up from the political twilight zone we've been in for too long. Now the Q is whether the President has the leadership & backing to broker the compromises & new social compacts we really need #Budget2020 n/n
