Experts warn against high hopes as Gauteng budget speech draws closer

With just a day left until the 2022 Gauteng provincial budget speech, the expectations of experts were not high.

JSE Efficient Group chief economist Dawie Roodt said the province had no sense of funding control and solely relied on national government for the bulk of its revenue. According to Roodt the province struggled with its own revenue and the management circle of the province was in a “dilemma” at various levels because provincial government belonged to the ruling party, while the biggest cities were run by the opposition parties.

“The fiscal accounts are very much under constraint and we have already seen that some of the municipalities are going out of their way to collect outstanding fees owed to them,” he said.

“The province could try to do a similar thing but it is not easy because they themselves owe a lot of money.”

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Roodt said provinces appeared not to be run as though they were not important and were only regarded as significant from a political point of view.

“It seems like the local authorities are more important as they include businesses,” he said.

Gauteng Treasury promised the budget would offer details of how available resources would be used within a tight fiscal environment.

Meanwhile political analyst Levy Ndou said all the areas which were prioritised by Gauteng premier David Makhura in his provincial address would need equal attention in the budget.

Makhura had prioritised the completion of incomplete projects. However, Ndou said this would depend on enough money being allocated to the right departments