The Western Cape Government (WCG) has welcomed the additional funding allocated to provinces for education and health services in the Budget presented by Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana on Wednesday.
Godongwana announced that the provincial education sector's baseline budget over the 2025 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) will be R1.04 trillion, with an additional R9.5 billion allocated over the medium-term.
This funding aims to retain teachers in classrooms and hire more staff.
In addition, R10 billion has been included in the baseline to maintain expanded access to early education, as announced in last month's budget.
This adjustment will increase the Early Childhood Development (ECD) subsidy from R17 per child per day to R24.
According to the Minister, this extra funding will also support increased access to ECD for an additional 700 000 children up to the age of five.
Meanwhile, the provincial health sector budget has been projected to be R845 billion over the medium-term.
This budget will be increased by R20.8 billion over three years to hire 800 post-community service doctors and to cover essential goods and services, as well as to reduce accrued liabilities.
The Minister noted that this increase will help address pressure on the personnel budget in the health sector.
The WCG has recognised the challenging fiscal environment in which this budget has been formulated.
"However, provincial government budgets remain under intense pressure, and we note that provincial fiscal frameworks have not been further cut to protect critical services."
Western Cape Premier Alan Winde acknowledged that the 2025 budget process has been difficult and contentious, but said they were relieved that the key compromises have been made and that citizens will be spared from the value-added tax (VAT) hike.
Meanwhile, the Western Cape MEC for Finance, Deidré Baartman, said the provincial government aims to table its new budget in the first week of June 2025.
"We also urge all municipalities in the province to table and adopt their budgets by the end of June, in line with legislative timelines, and to ensure that service delivery continues to reach our communities uninterrupted," said Baartman.
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The Premier said the additional allocations for health and education will only come into effect in the adjustment budget later this year.
"The main budget provides provinces with a clearer understanding of how we will manage the significant fiscal challenges over the current financial year," Winde said.
The Premier said the province's population grew by nearly 20% between 2015 and 2024 - a 19.6% increase over this period.
Over the next decade, the Western Cape is expected to grow by another two million people.
"We welcome those who are making the Western Cape their home and want to contribute to our success, but we must find ways to simultaneously build our services to meet their needs and the funding to support this.
"The majority of provincial budget funding comes from national government - thus, not increasing provincial envelopes in real terms has a direct impact on service delivery, such as health, education, and social development," Winde said.
