Cape Town: The Western Cape Government (WCG) has expressed approval of the additional funding allocated to provinces for education and health services in the Budget presented by Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana.
According to South African Government News Agency, 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. Furthermore, 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. The Minister also noted that this extra funding will 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 cover essential goods and services, as well as to reduce accrued liabilities. The Minister emphasized that this increase will help address pressure on the personnel budget in the health sector.
The WCG has acknowledged 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 expressed relief that key compromises have been made and that citizens will be spared from a value-added tax (VAT) hike. Meanwhile, the Western Cape MEC for Finance, Deidr© Baartman, indicated that the provincial government aims to table its new budget in the first week of June 2025. She also urged all municipalities in the province to table and adopt their budgets by the end of June to ensure uninterrupted service delivery.
The Premier noted that 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.
Winde also mentioned the province’s population growth, which increased by nearly 20% between 2015 and 2024, with expectations to grow by another two million people over the next decade. He stated, ‘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.’ He further highlighted that not increasing provincial envelopes in real terms has a direct impact on service delivery, such as health, education, and social development.