Health top on list as MEC sets budget ‘for growth’
FINANCE MEC Ivan Meyer says the Treasury would have to come up with the balance of proposed salary hikes for civil servants, with the provincial government capping these at 5.5 percent, despite government saying they could go up 7 percent.
This year, the province will spend R29.7 billion on salaries for public servants.
Tabling the province’s R55 billion budget yesterday, Meyer said like previous years, Health, at R19.9bn, would take up the largest chunk of the expenditure for 2016/17. Education comes second, with R19.2bn.
“This is a budget for growth. This will happen in the infrastructure space, in building schools, health facilities, new roads, broadband (internet access)… Over the next three years, we’re setting aside R4bn for broadband,” said Meyer.
The provincial government will set aside R2.4bn for Human Settlements in the new financial year, which, over the three-year medium term, will translate to R7bn.
“We will spend, over the next three years, R180 million for skills development, largely targeting the youth and the unemployed because our main objective is to grow the economy of the Western Cape. There are key sectors which will get special allocations; the tourism sector, oil and gas, agri-processing, and also the current IDZ (Industrial Development Zone) in Saldanha Bay.”
He deemed Saldanha Bay one of the key growth nodes, allocating R349.4 million to “catalytic infrastructure initiatives” over the next three years like the IDZ, improved air access, a Cape Health Technology Park and expansion of the CTICC.
Meyer said the provincial government welcomed Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s announcement that R9bn would be invested in the rig repair industry as part of the Phakisa Oceans Economy Initiative.
But the ANC slammed the DA saying the budget failed to show how poor people will benefit.
ANC spokesperson on finance Carol Beerwinkel said: “There needs to be tangible plans and programmes beyond all the old tricks and talk about assisting the poor.”