Durban - THE Department of Education will receive the biggest portion of this year’s provincial budget, with the allocation set at R53.2 billion.
The second largest portion – R48.4bn – of the province’s public purse will go to the Department of Health. During her budget speech delivered yesterday, Finance MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube said she would ensure that the new Dr Pixley ka Isaka Seme Memorial Hospital was operational within this new financial year .
The Department of Transport, which underspent on its 2019/20 capital budget, will receive R11.6bn, the third largest allocation.
The sum total of this year’s budget “ increased in 2021/22 by R142.3m” and marks the ninth consecutive budget cuts for the province.
The MEC said public servants would be receiving a zero percent increase in this financial year.
The MEC said: “The largest conditional grant continues to be the HIV, TB, malaria, Community Outreach and HPV Vaccine grant with a budget of R7.2bn, followed by the Human Settlements Development grant at R2.5bn and the Education Infrastructure grant at R2.1bn. The other significant grant in terms of budget allocation is the Provincial Roads Maintenance grant with a budget of R2.1bn.”
“The budget allocation made to the public health sector will go towards installing more generators, the eradication of asbestos roofs, the replacement of fencing and fire protection to improve the reliability of state facilities,” the MEC said.
Political analyst Sipho Seepe described the budget as “pro-radical economic transformation”.
“The MEC was clear in her support for radical economic transformation urging that this must find practical expression in government business. In what sounded like an echo of former president Jacob Zuma’s 9-point plan she zeroed on the need to:
1: Use procurement as a tool to achieve an inclusive economy;
2: Focus on supporting productive sectors of the economy;
3: Encourage localisation; and
4: Support small and medium enterprises, Seepe said.
Civil society and unions also had their issues with the budget.
Abahlali Basemjondolo chairperson S’bu Zikode expressed disappointment that the budget for the Human Settlements Department was small, calling it a “hopeless budget”.
He said this reflected how the MEC did not see the department as being important. Zikode said the budget was for the politicians and the elites.
KZN Parents Association chairperson Vee Gani said the decreased education budget would affect service delivery and would add more strain on an already strained budget for the provincial education department. He said that in the end, it was education in KZN that was going to suffer.
National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union provincial secretary Ayanda Zulu said the budget was in lock-step with that of the National Treasury that was delivered by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni last month.
He said the budget was pro-rich and business class and not supportive of the working class. Zulu said that when it came to KZN there was a need to fill in vacancies in the health and education departments.
He acknowledged that there were programmes by the government that aimed to help the poor.
While welcoming the MEC’s downscaling, the IFP noted with concern consistent gross irregular expenditure, the rampant lack of discipline in the provincial government and the use of the public purse to fight political battles.
“The total cumulative irregular expenditure is at R44bn for the government departments, and just above R390m for the provincial government entities,” said IFP leader Velenkosini Hlabisa. He said the ANC needed to “pull their socks up in all departments”.
“This huge irregular expenditure shows that there is no impunity in spending in the province. Officials continue to commit wrongs on financial spending and avoid being disciplined while consequence management still evades most of our departments and entities,” he said.
The IFP said it would be keeping a closer eye on procurement and supply chain management, particularly in the portfolio committee meetings.
Meanwhile, the DA provincial spokesperson on finance, Ravi Pillay, said the budget “paints an extremely dark picture and spells out a bleak future for our province”.
“The matter of the back pay of the Izinduna – a total of R200m – was conveniently, once again, left off the table. The question is: does this mean that KZN will have to address this unfunded mandate, dropped on the province by then president Jacob Zuma?”
Daily News