South African Finance Minister launches online budget data portal

South African Finance Minister, Malusi Gigaba announced the launch of an online budget data portal on Tuesday, 20 February 2018 in Parliament, Cape Town. Vulekamali, is IsiZulu and can be translated to “opening up the country’s money”, is an online budget data portal developed by IMALI YETHU and the National Treasury.

National Treasury in partnership with IMALI YETHU developed the portal in a bid to make budget information more accessible, user-friendly and empowering. The portal was developed with an aim of making government budget data and processes accessible to all citizens & interested parties.

The online portal will, according to the website, provide budget data in a format that is useful and appealing to the ordinary citizen in how it presents information of how public resources are generated and used.

The National Treasury announced on their Twitter page on Tuesday.
https://twitter.com/TreasuryRSA/status/965602982590115841
https://twitter.com/TreasuryRSA/status/965866584819499008

Gigaba said the platform will increase interest, participation, as well as knowledge of government programmes. He said it is a commitment to improving budget participation.

The portal will publish data in a user-friendly format, to enable more effective information sharing, analyses and research. The portal will support involvement by civil society and the public in the budget process and enable citizens to have informed discussions in different government policy areas.

Gigaba is set to give his budget speech today, Wednesday, 21 February 20018 where he is to present his first full speech.

The platform will allow citizens to submit their budget suggestions.

To access the platform users can visit the Vulekamali website https://vulekamali.gov.za/2017-18/

By Fundisiwe Maseko
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