Limpopo budget: Infrastructure development gets R7.851b

POLOKWANE – Treasury MEC Seaparo Sekoati tabled the province’s 2024/25 budget in the Legislature on Tuesday, reflecting an expenditure of R7.851bn for infrastructure development. This is an increase of 6.1% compared with the previous year.

The Department of Education will receive R1.623bn and Agriculture and Rural Development R206.260m, while the Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism will receive R25m and Health R848.228m. An amount of R62.688m was set aside for the Department of Transport and Community Safety and R3.714bn for Public Works, Roads and Infrastructure, while Sport, Arts and Culture will receive R243.585m of which R200m was allocated to the provincial theatre.

The Department of Co-Operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (Coghsta) will have R1.107bn to spend and the Department of Social Development R20.333m.

For operational expenses, the Office of the Premier was allocated R506.194m and the Provincial Legislature R549.516m, while Education will receive the bulk of the provincial budget at 48.2% representing R40.029bn.

Agriculture and Rural Development is allocated a budget of R1.783bn and Provincial Treasury will receive R478.063m, while Economic Development Environment and Tourism is allocated a budget of R1.866bn.

Department of Health receives the second largest allocation of 29.7% at R24.639bn of which R20,9m is set aside for payment of the Cuban doctors. The Department of Transport and Community Safety’s budget is R2,611bn and Public Works, Roads and Infrastructure will receive R5.272bn. Sport, Arts and Culture receives R827.099m and Coghsta receives R2.473bn, while R2.077bn has been set aside for Social Development. Full details of the proposed expenditure of the departments will be provided when the respective budgets are tabled.

Equitable shares and conditional grants are the primary revenue sources for the provincial expenditure. These two sources of funding, on average, constitute 97.8% of the total revenue while the balance of 2.2% is provincial own generated revenue.

DA provincial leader Lindy Wilson said the DA is extremely disappointed at the budget.

“The MEC was excited about the roll-overs on health and agriculture. These are not increases in the budget and are already accounted for, so he was misleading. The budgets allocated for staffing in health and education is abysmally small and will make very little difference to the clinics and hospitals who are severely constrained with staff shortages, as well as the education sector. To compound a bad situation millions are still allocated to the Cuban doctors, which means that local doctors cannot be employed. There was nothing in the budget that directly addressed the collapse of the entire bulk water system in the province. The MEC added that millions have been allocated to projects like the Makhado Musina Special Economic Zone. It is now well known that the backers for this project have withdrawn their support. Without water, electricity, rail services and general basic services, these projects will not get off the ground and millions will be wasted on them. These have been part of the budget for the past couple of years but to date no progress has been made. Where there is no service delivery and basic services, no one is likely to invest in the province, and where there is no development there can be no job creation. Sadly, with this budget the citizens of Limpopo are going to continue to suffer without the most basic of services,” Wilson stated.

Spokesperson for the EFF Fighter Mapoulo was requested to comment on the budget but no response had been received at the time of going to print.