Western Cape Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement 2021

6 December 2021

Today, we tabled the Western Cape Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), 2021 Municipal Review and Outlook (MERO) and the 2021 Adjusted Estimates of Provincial Revenue and Expenditure in the provincial legislature.

During today’s speech, I unequivocally called on the international community to “reverse your travel bans, which are ineffective, and which are killing jobs in the Western Cape”. I noted that empirical evidence shows that travel bans are ineffective once community transmission of an airborne virus has occurred.

What we do know, with absolute certainty, about Omicron, is that its timing is terrible, because we are in deep economic trouble, and we face a significant “budget crunch” in South Africa.

Which is why, since the announcement of the variant, we moved swiftly, and we moved decisively by:

Convening daily operational meetings to coordinate our economic response, most importantly between the Department of Economic Development, the Airports Company of South Africa and Wesgro.

Supporting airlines, the airports company and consular generals to assist stranded passengers to find accommodation, to find transport and, in the end, find flights home.

Supporting business by convening virtual meetings to share not just what was known, but also what was not known, at that time, about Omicron.

All the while we remain guided by the ‘North Stars’ set out in the recovery plan which focus on “Jobs”, “Safety” and “Wellbeing” over the medium term, in the Western Cape.

We expect to spend R75.8 billion in 2022/23, R73.4 billion in 2023/24 and R76.2 billion in 2024/25 in the Western Cape.

To back you, and provide hope for you, the medium-term budget policy statement outlines how to we will sustain the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic in the Western Cape by:

Reprioritising and allocating an additional R211.3 million to fight the Covid-19 pandemic in the Western Cape.

Ensuring that we are sufficiently agile, and flexible by continuing to ringfence R800 million in the provincial reserves to support the fight against Covid-19 in the Western Cape.

To support “Jobs”, “Safety” and “Wellbeing”:

We plan to spend R1.4 billion over the medium term on the ease of doing business, boosting investment and exports, enterprise development, skills development and energy resilience in the Western Cape.

We plan to spend R2.2 billion over the medium term on more law enforcement officers, support to families at risk, providing safe spaces and on safety data in the Western Cape.

We plan to spend R160 billion over the medium term on providing strong foundations, improving nutrition, mental wellness and after school programmes in the Western Cape.
To protect frontline services, including education, health and social development, despite facing a budget crunch, the Western Cape Government will:

Spend an additional R350 million over the medium term on education, health and social development.

Spending 82% of our budget over the medium term on the provincial “social wage”, including on education, health and social development. This includes spending on school nutrition, learner transport, fee exemptions, housing opportunities and after school programmes in the Western Cape.
To support effective, and clean, municipal government in the Western Cape, we will:

Allocate an additional R15 million over the medium term to increase municipal capacity building and support initiatives.

Allocate an additional R15 million over the medium term to increase the capacity of legal services and forensic services in the Western Cape.
Looking forward, we will work hard to reverse the travel bans, we will double down on destination marketing, we will provide regular business briefings, and we will fight to keep the economy open so that we save jobs in the Western Cape.

Because, while we may have been knocked down, we have not been knocked out, and so we will stand up again, brush ourselves off, and fight on so that we move forward in the Western Cape.

Issued by Cayla Murray, Spokesperson to the Premier of the Western Cape, 6 December 2021