KwaZulu-Natal Finance MEC Penny Nkonyeni delivered the provincial budget on Thursday with the bulk of the allocation going to the health, education and the transport departments.
Nkonyeni again announced a budget in line with National Treasury’s austerity measures meaning the province will receive R4 billion less in the MTEF (Medium Term Expenditure Framework) 2024/25, R4.2bn less in 2025/26 and R4.3bn less in 2026/27.
The MEC said the Provincial Equitable Share will increase by R2.3bn in 2024/25 and conditional grants by R501.3 million.
Nkonyeni said education will get R63bn, the biggest slice of the budget pie, to be used towards 5 785 public ordinary schools with 2 651 922 learners, 75 public special schools with 21 286 learners, as well as 119 independent schools with 31 018 learners.
“The budget also provides for the school security programme, among others. In 2024, the province will have 260 schools from six districts piloting the new coding and robotics subject in the foundation phase, intermediate phase and in Grades 7 and 8.
“In total, 2 103 545 learners are aimed to benefit from the ‘No Fee Schools’ policy,” Nkonyeni said.
The budget for the National School Nutrition Programme has been increased by R19m in 2024/25 to R2.2bn.
The health budget is R53.8bn, with Nkonyeni saying the department plans to increase the number of patients on ARV treatment from 1 558 890 to 1 677 836 in the financial year.
“The department has 1 170 medical intern posts and has been allocated 1 081 community service personnel in the various categories. In addition, there are 180 pharmacy interns and 30 clinical psychology posts.”
Transport will get a budget of R13bn to be used for the continued upgrading and rehabilitation of the provincial road network to improve and to prolong the lifespan of the network.
“The department’s budget will also be used to transport 74 731 learners to school.”
She said the provincial Roads Maintenance grant gets an increase of R691.8m in 2024/25, to be used for the maintenance and rehabilitation of the provincial road network, as well as repairs to infrastructure damaged by floods.
“The budget for this grant is R3.2bn after this increase and shows our commitment to improving the provincial road network,” Nkonyeni said.
She said the province is budgeting to spend R17.1bn (2024/25), R17.3bn and R17.4bn over the MTEF on infrastructure projects.
Budget cuts from National Treasury are seen in the Provincial Equitable Share (PES) where the province’s allocation has been reduced, while it will also increase its Contingency Reserve to R236m.
The 2023 wage agreement has seen the PES share increase to R6.6bn in 2024/25 to meet increases for the departments of health, education and social development.
All departments, beside the Provincial Legislature will be affected by PES budget cuts, with Nkonyeni describing these as significant, with affected departments expected to review the targets they have set themselves to fall in line with their amended budget.
“For some, it has meant that various posts will not be filled, additional cost-cutting measures must be implemented, and programmes to address operational inefficiencies must be concluded, while others have noted that some projects will have to be rolled out over a longer period.
“Departments will place more emphasis on implementing efficient business processes to ensure that quality services continue to be rendered to our communities,” Nkonyeni said.
Opposition parties on Thursday said they were disappointed with the budget as the bulk of the funds would go towards paying salaries.
DA provincial leader Francois Rodgers said 85.6% of the provincial budget goes to the compensation of employees, “leaving very little to address KZN’s ongoing poverty, inequality and service delivery crises”.
“Employment prospects for people in the province also remain bleak as government continues to fail in its mandate to provide an environment conducive to business growth, with further poverty and inequality on the cards, as citizens have nowhere to turn after the withdrawal of funding to KZN’s non-profit organisations.”
The IFP’s MPL, Lourens de Klerk, said the cuts to the budget compared to the province’s population growth were disastrous for KZN.
“You have to grow by at least 1.9% just to stay the same, and every year we are going backwards and the MEC is hoping for load shedding to end so we can have growth of 1.2%.”
EFF provincial leader Mongezi Twala said the budget did not give a sense of hope that unemployment in the province would start to improve.
“There is no sense of hope ... people want to see industry grow, not only for labour but to also control the means of production and to be an active player in the economy.
“The budget does not respond to the issues that our people are facing,” Twala said.
The Mercury