# Inside SA's budget choices

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/democracy-unplugged-6911807/inside-sa-s-budget-choices
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/democracy-unplugged-6911807/inside-sa-s-budget-choices.md
Podcast: [Democracy Unplugged](https://stenobird.com/podcast/democracy-unplugged-6911807)
Published: 2026-02-19T13:30:00+00:00
Episode link: https://iono.fm/e/1647832
Audio file: https://dl.iono.fm/epi/prov_3631/epi_1647832_medium.m4a?p=rss
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/democracy-unplugged-6911807/episodes/inside-sa-s-budget-choices
Duration seconds: 2642

## Resource

Is South Africa’s national budget really working for our households? Phumi Mashigo examines what a truly community-centred national budget would look like, from food affordability and social grants to VAT increases, austerity, and fiscal anchors. This conversation is joined by Mervyn Abrahams, Programme coordinator at the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group; Dr Siphesihle Qange, Programme Manager at Seriti Institute; and Liso Mdutyana from Institute for Economic Justice. The Burning Platform

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/democracy-unplugged-6911807/episodes/inside-sa-s-budget-choices/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/democracy-unplugged-6911807/inside-sa-s-budget-choices.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.