Gauteng budget: Here’s where your money is going

Efficiency, investment and infrastructure are the medium-term goals in the sights of Gauteng MEC for Finance, Lebogang Maile.

The MEC gave the first budget speech of the seventh provincial administration on Tuesday, detailing the departmental allocations for the biggest local economy in southern Africa.

Maile said Gauteng contributes 35% of South Africa’s GDP and believes the provincial economy will grow fractionally more than the nation over the next two years.

Billions in investment needed

More than R520 billion – R171.5 billion for the 2025/26 financial year — has been allocated over the next three financial years, with only R26 billion coming from Gauteng’s own revenue generation efforts.

Acknowledging a “compulsory baseline reduction across all provincial departments” instituted toward the end of 2024, Maile stressed the need for investment.

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The MEC set a lofty investment target of R800 billion to be secured within the next five years, starting with R300 billion this financial year.

“We are concerned that our infrastructure spending as Gauteng has repeatedly fallen short, owing to late project approvals, community disruptions, poor contractor performance, and inadequate planning capacity,” stated Maile.

“This underspending has worsened unemployment and left critical projects stalled, including road maintenance and school infrastructure,” he added.

To advertise the province to the world, provincial leadership is hosting the Gauteng Investment Conference in April.

“This investment drive is focused on areas that are key to our growth plan, including innovation, industrialisation, sustainability, green energy, ICT, infrastructure, transport, manufacturing and township economies,” stated Maile.

Controlling expenditure

Wasteful expenditure was highlighted as an area for improvement, and Maile announced new measures to control this.

Tighter measures include improved data sharing between finance and procurement systems and an automated budget validation system to prevent purchase orders from being created without available funds.

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Maile said the objective was to focus on “strict procurement discipline, upfront payment verification process and strengthened consequence management”.

“In line with national directives, we will treat accruals as a first charge against department budgets, ensuring that no new spending is approved until outstanding obligations are settled,” said Maile

Health and education a priority

Receiving the biggest portions of the 2025/26 budget pie are the departments of health and education.

On the education front, R69.6 billion has been allocated for all phases of education with the aim of “changing the education landscape to accelerate relevant and quality learning”.

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Education activist Hendrik Makaneta said the education allocation was encouraging but that it did not address the department’s toughest challenge.

“What is required is the political will to improve infrastructure. We have seen a trend where Gauteng province experiences a rising demand for schools every year. That is why, at the beginning of each year, we sit with unplaced learners,” Makaneta told The Citizen.

The health department’s R66 billion will be spent on infrastructure and process modernisation to better provide “patient-centred, equitable care”.

“In the previous financial year, the province had a deficit of R5.4 billion, most of which went to the health department. This year the health department only received R1.2 billion in increased funding. It will again be insufficient,” the DA’s Shadow MEC for Finance Ruhan Robinson told The Citizen.

Departmental allocations

Social development will be allocated R5.5 billion, but Robinson highlighted the R200 million less that non-profit organisations will receive.

Transport in Gauteng will receive R9.7 billion, some of which will be used to fix potholes and broken streetlights. Still, Robinson notes that the figure could have been higher, as R5.47 million had been allocated towards e-toll debt.

The Department of Economic Development (DED) received only R1.6 billion, a portfolio close to the heart of Build One South Africa’s (Bosa) Ayanda Allie, who led a call to investigate the DED township economy schemes.

“We do not believe that measures are in place to ensure that the figures quoted by MEC Maile will be spent on achieving tangible results, and we do not believe they can be accounted for,” Allie told The Citizen.

Other notable allocations were R5.8 billion to human settlements, R2.4 billion to community safety, R1 billion to sport and R1 billion to e-government, which will go towards Wi-Fi and CCTV cameras in townships.

How the opposition’s budget would look

Maile thanked his party’s allies in the legislature for their input, but Robinson felt the DA was sidelined by the ANC.

“The DA was not part of any consultation. It was a deliberate move to isolate and alienate the party in the budgeting process,” he said.

He said an activist approach was needed to “find other ways of having the national government to pay their own debt”.

“We have been saddled with this debt and the executive is just accepting it.”

Robinson also felt the budget did little to address the core issues facing the province while attempting to hide fiscal challenges.

“The MEC announced very little in the way of tangible initiatives to grow the economy, create jobs or fight crime,” he explained.

“It is clear from the budget that there is a great measure of financial distress in the province.

“At this stage, we are of the view that this budget merely seeks to keep the province’s head above water,” Robinson concluded.

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