Education and health get biggest slice of the budget

Gauteng Finance MEC Barbara Creecy has tabled the province’s R95.3 billion budget for the 2015/16 financial year. Education and health received the biggest slice of the budget. R36 billion has been allocated for education which will cater for the immigration of pupils into Gauteng which is steadily increasing. The money will also be spent on school nutrition, new schools and used to connect a further 150 schools to the Internet.

Creecy said the budget available for health is R34 billion and includes R34 million over three years to recapitalise the emergency fleet. Another chunk of this will allow the Department of Health to prioritise the strengthening of primary health care, the prevention and reduction of the burden of disease, transforming the health economy through localised production and procurement of goods and services and modernisation of the public service with a focus on the development and implementation of an e-health programme.

Allocations have also been made to the five development corridors announced by Premier David Makhura in his State of the Province Address last week.

An allocation that the Democratic Alliance (DA) was not happy with is the R10 billion for development corridors in Johannesburg, Sedibeng, West Rand, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni. “Development corridors should focus on economic development, industrialisation and the creation of jobs, not only on the delivery of houses. Housing development must be accompanied by economic opportunity, which this budget does not do,”said Gauteng DA spokesperson for Finance Adrana Randall.

According to Creecy, this money will go toward building houses in Diepsloot, Fleurhof, Tsakane Extension 22, Bekkersdal, Kagiso Extension 13, Chief Mogale, Khutsong South, Kokosi, as well as building social facilities in Hammanskraal, Winterveldt and Mabopane.

The Department of Roads and Transport received R6.153 billion. This department was allocated an additional R1.382 billion this year as it aims to improve public transport and create jobs by fixing the province’s roads. This includes turning the N12 and the N14 between Krugersdorp and Diepsloot into a dual carriageway, among other construction, to widen roads between Joburg and Vereeniging and Tembisa and Fourways.

The Community Safety Department will receive over R600 million over three years for law enforcement and to reduce road fatalities. This will be achieved through improving police visibility and conducting road safety campaigns.

Social Development was allocated R4 billion which will include strengthening of substance-abuse interventions.

Department of Human Settlements received R4.968 billion which will allow a further 30 984 houses to be allocated, with 50 per cent to women-headed households; 10 per cent to child-headed households; 40 per cent to indigent people and two per cent to people with disabilities.

The DA also pointed out their dissatisfaction with the budget allocations as they say it did not finance the premier’s promises. “The budget speech was an attempt to steer the provincial budget ship in a new direction to reprioritise expenditure to new programmes as government tries to placate unhappy ANC voters, however, many years of poor ANC policy and direction means that there is no more fiscal space to meet Premier David Makhura’s new promises,” concluded Randall.