The Gauteng Provincial government has allocated the largest chunk of its 2017/18 to education, mimicking National treasury, which also gave the national Education Department the biggest of the country’s budget for the year.
MEC of Finance, Barbara Creecy delivered the Gauteng Budget Speech at the province’s legislature today, totaling R108 billion.
A total of R40.8 billion was allocated to MEC Panyaza Lesufi’s department, while interim MEC of health, Gwen Ramokgopa’s department got the second highest at R40.2 billion.
The education budget will go towards the following:
- R729 million allocated towards supporting elearning, which includes the distribution of tablets, laptops, smartboards, computer labs and other tech-related resources as part of the province’s Schools of Tomorrow programme.
- R3.7 billion goes to public ordinary schools, early childhood development and special schools
- R1.07 billion will ensure that 1.15 million learners are provided with a hot meal every day at school
- R779 million will be used to transport learners who live more than five kilometres from their nearest school
- R810 million will be used to buy textbooks, stationery, school furniture and other learner support materials
- R362.7 million is to pay municipal bills owed by schools
“One in four South Africans live in Gauteng and this places great demands on social departments to meet the ever growing needs of our citizens. In times of fiscal consolidation at national level, we developed a Revenue Strategy, to raise R15.6- billion over the past two and half years to fund increasing demands primarily in education and health and social services,” Creecy said.
“The 2017/18 budget is positioned to support efforts by the provincial government to use public procurement as a key instrument to bring about greater inclusion and participation in Gauteng’s economy.”
