Where the biggest slice of the cake goes

The lion’s share of the Eastern Cape government’s 2020/2021 budget will be channelled to the departments of education and health.

This is according to finance MEC Mlungisi Mvoko, who tabled his budget in the Bhisho legislature yesterday.

The health department was allocated R26bn, with education set to receive R37bn.

Of the R26bn, R45.3m has been allocated in the 2020/21 financial year to expand the implementation of the NHI programme.

Almost R1bn has been earmarked for the health department to buy medical equipment and employ ambulance staff for the medium term expenditure framework (MTEF).

Just more than R58m has been allocated for the 2020/21 financial year.

“We must ensure that there are enough medical supplies in the health system.

“We should not face situations where community members leave our health facilities with no medical supplies because they were not delivered or are unavailable at any given point,” he said.

To this end, R7bn for medicine and R2.5bn for medical supplies has been allocated for the next three years, with R2.9bn earmarked for the 2020/21 financial year.

He said the government had made solid strides in treating HIV and TB, but more needed to be done.

“Therefore, we have allocated R8.9bn over the 2020 MTEF, of which R2.6bn is allocated in 2020/21 to render primary health care in respect of

HIV/Aids and TB. On the education front, he said R88m was available to the department in the 2020-2021 financial year to cover costs of study camps.

This would include accommodation and catering.

“We are proud of the Eastern Cape 2019 class of matrics, as we saw a 5.9% improvement compared with 2018. However, we shall not rest until we have reached the ideal or desired state,” he said.

“Therefore, continued interventions by government that are aimed at improving learner performance will be implemented.”

He said R1.5bn was allocated to speed up construction, upgrading, maintenance and rehabilitation of school infrastructure.

“Without adequate infrastructure, our efforts to improve education in the province will always receive challenges along the way.

“We are aware that the Eastern Cape still faces major infrastructure backlogs, especially if compared with other provinces.”

Other department allocations include:

● Office of the premier receiving R1.1bn;

● Provincial legislature R608m;

● Social development R3.2bn;

● Public works R2.5bn;

● Co-operative governance and traditional affairs R1bn;

● Rural development and agrarian reform R2.4bn;

● Economic development, environmental affairs and tourism R1.6bn;

● Transport R5.1bn;

● Human settlements R2.3bn;

● Provincial treasury R444m;

● Sports, recreation, arts and culture R1bn; and

● Safety and liaison R116m.