The Gauteng Provincial Government has reaffirmed its commitment to prioritise health and education in the province.
Finance MEC, Barbara Creecy said the government wants to ensure that children grow up in safe and clean neighbourhoods, close to economic opportunities with a decent standard of living and a better future.
To that effect, the provincial government will spend more than R250 billion over the next three years on health and education. This was revealed by Creecy while delivering the medium-term budget policy statement at the Gauteng Legislature on 22 August. Creecy said over the next three years, R128.7 billion will be spent on education. “This will finance 2.3 million pupils in the public schooling system, 1.2 million… at no-fee schools, 42 000… in special schools and 141 000 Grade R pupils.
“To improve the delivery of comprehensive health services to citizens, including preventative, curative, palliative and rehabilitative services and health promotion activities, the health department will receive R127.2 billion over the next three years.” She mentioned that in the last two-and-a-half years, close to 17 million patients were seen at health facilities in the province and 514 000 healthy babies were born at Gauteng’s government facilities.
Creecy highlighted that the public purse must be used strategically and ethically to meet the needs of citizens who rely on the government to educate children, heal the sick and house the homeless.
The MEC also said the third key area of government’s expenditure in the coming years will be infrastructure, which she said is important to improving service delivery in communities and create much-needed jobs. “In this regard, the Gauteng Infrastructure Financing Agency will, over the 2017 Medium Term Expenditure Framework period, have a project pipeline with a potential to raise more than R40 billion to support the provincial infrastructure plan,” she explained.
Creecy said the provincial government was committed to clean government, adding that their war on waste is showing progress. “Last year, the Gauteng government drastically reduced fruitless and wasteful expenditure,” she said.
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