Johannesburg - The Gauteng province has committed to injecting almost R500 billion into the province over the next three years to boost service delivery and development in the province.
The MEC for Finance, Jacob Mamabolo, said the majority of the province's budget will be focused on boosting township economies, fighting crime, and improving the lives of Gauteng residents.
"Let me now turn to the Economic Cluster, which will receive a total of R66.6 billion, or 13.5 percent, of the budget over the 2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF)."
"The Governance Cluster, which focuses on, among other things, strengthening collaboration amongst all spheres of government and enhancing integrated planning for improved service delivery, accounts for R12.1 billion, or 2.5 percent, of the 2023 MTEF budget," Mamabolo said.
Mamabolo said the strategic focus of the budget remains empowering women as a basis for contributing to the fight against gender-based violence and femicide.
"This we will do by repositioning and through leveraging technology, supply chains, and procurement instruments to create capacity for departments to meet their quarterly and annual targets for women's empowerment," he said.
Mamabolo said he was concerned about youth unemployment in the province. He said a number of initiatives would be launched to combat the increasing number of unemployed young people.
"We are collaborating with the Office of the Premier and GDED with regards to tracking and monitoring the performance of departments related to women, youth, and people with disabilities. These issues were adequately and comprehensively addressed by Honourable Premier Lesufi in his State of the Province Address," Mamabolo said.
Mamabolo said a total of R4.6 billion will be allocated to the Gauteng Department of Education.
"These funds are to address the pressures in the Compensation of Employees baseline as well as augment the delivery of support services such as scholar transport, school nutrition, and school subsidies to make education more accessible," he said.
Prioritisation of the health and wellness of people also takes up a significant share of what is being allocated to the Gauteng Department of Health.
"Additional to the existing baselines, with an additional R5 billion over the medium term, with a focus on retaining part of the capacity taken on board to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, and which will go a long way in strengthening the health delivery platform," Mamabolo said.
More crucially, of the R5 billion, a total of R784 million has been allocated to the Gauteng Department of Health to address urgently the backlog in surgical and radiation oncology services, emanating from shortages in both personnel and equipment, and the knock-on effect of the COVID-19 pandemic that stretched the capacity of the Gauteng health system.
The Gauteng community safety department was allocated an additional R4 billion to deal with crime issues in the province. The province will employ new strategies to fight crime using drones and helicopters.
"The R4 billion additional allocation over the 2023 MTEF is for the training and absorption of the 6 000 crime prevention wardens who are currently undergoing training that is scheduled to conclude at the end of April 2023," Mamabolo said.
The Star