Gauteng budget reflects cuts in national grants

The budget cuts to provincial and municipal government grants announced by former finance minister Malusi Gigaba became apparent when Gauteng tabled its 2018-19 R121.4bn budget on Tuesday.

The total budget increased by R9.1bn and the province has committed to raise R6bn of its own revenue to compensate for cuts in its equitable share and provisional grants.

The cuts were necessitated by the announcement in the February budget that R57bn would be reprioritised and allocated to free higher education. Provinces and municipalities have been the worst affected and are scrambling to make the adjustments to their respective budgets.

The Gauteng department of human settlements received about R500m less as part of its grant, while the infrastructure programme budget was cut from R12.2bn to R11.32bn.

A further decline is expected over the medium term as R10.3bn was budgeted for 201920, while only R10.1bn was set aside for 2020-21.

Finance MEC Barbara Creecy said in Johannesburg on Tuesday that the cuts in conditional grants and equitable share from national government had necessitated the adjustments,.

The human settlements budget was primarily a conditional grant from national government, and the department contributed the most to the infrastructure budget, while the cut made to its allocation would affect the total budget for infrastructure.

The departments of health and education received the biggest increases. The department of health received a further R4.4bn, bringing its total budget allocation to R46.4bn for 2018-19. The department of education received an additional R3.4bn, pushing its total to R45.2bn for 2018-19.

The health department was left reeling by the Life Esidimeni tragedy, which highlighted the erratic state of its administration. The handling of the removal of more than 1,000 psychiatric patients from Esidimeni facilities to unlicensed and unregistered NGOs resulted in the deaths of 143 of the patients.

The department of roads and infrastructure received a further R700m for 2018-19.

Adrian Randall, the DA’s spokeswoman on finance in Gauteng, said Creecy omitted the harsh realities of her downgraded budget in her address.

Randall said the human-settlements budget had been reduced because the department could not meet its obligations to provide decent human settlements and that R150m had to be returned to the Treasury because of underspending.