Western Cape leads with pro-growth budget & 75%+ spend to benefit poor and vulnerable residents
7 March 2024
Today, provincial Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunities, Mireille Wenger, tabled the 2024 Main Budget, in the Provincial Parliament, under the theme of ‘A budget to keep building a Western Cape that works for all’.
“Over the 2024 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), this R255.29 billion budget places the 7.4 million residents of this Province, our vulnerable communities and future generations, at the very centre of decision making,” said Minister Wenger, opening her address.
Speaking to the need to protect the vulnerable, Minister Wenger confirmed that “Of the total R255.29 billion provincial budget over the 2024 MTEF, a full two-thirds (75.4 per cent), or R192.21 billion is being spent to champion the needs of the poor and most vulnerable residents in the province, which include allocations for primary health care, home and community-based care, mental health services, learner transport, the school nutrition programme, low-cost housing, food gardens in communities and schools, child and youth care centres, and poverty alleviation programmes.”
“To continue to build a better future we will invest in and maintain vital infrastructure to support the growth of our businesses, our economy, and our people. This is why we will invest in fixed assets, catalytic, and agricultural infrastructure over the 2024 MTEF, amounting to a total of R32.12 billion,” she continued.
The Western Cape Government will allocate a total budget of R84.00 billion in 2024/25; R84.38 billion in 2025/26; and R86.908 billion in 2026/27.
Over the 2024 MTEF to keep building a Western Cape that works for all:
We will allocate R182.35 billion to wellbeing, inclusive of Health and Wellness, Education and Social Services;
We will allocate R45.35 billion to continue our work to grow the economy and enable the creation of many more jobs, across the province;
We will allocate R21.87 billion to innovation, culture, and governance, as a critical tool to enhance service delivery and to enable public servants to do more for our residents; and
We will allocate R5.08 billion to safety to boost existing interventions, which includes an additional R 190.36 million over the 2024 MTEF, so we can keep building a future where we all feel safe.
Speaking to the exceptionally tough national fiscal environment, Minister Wenger set out the resulting impact on the provincial budget, including:
A reduction of R6.36 billion of the Western Cape Government’s budget over the 2024 MTEF due to fiscal consolidation;
A reduction of R379.61 million over the MTEF in Provincial Equitable Share (PES) due to the delayed release of the 2022 census datasets, technical changes and data updates; and
Net cuts of R1.135 billion over the MTEF to conditional grants allocated by national government to provinces for specific programmes.
Minister Wenger thanked the many citizens from every corner of the Western Cape who shared their #MessagesForMireille on the 2024/25 Budget and said that, “it’s no secret that this is a difficult budget to table today, probably one of the most difficult of this term. Despite the challenges, we are determined to move forward because the decisions we make now will make the difference between continued decline and increasing unemployment; and a growing economy, more employment, and added opportunities, in our Western Cape that works.”
Concluding her speech, Minister Wenger said, “The budget I table today strikes the difficult balance of protecting the essentials now for the poor and vulnerable who need it the most, and prioritising our key interventions that will take us all into the future we want, as we keep building a Western Cape that works, for all.”
The Budget Speech can be accessed here.
Issued by Georgina Maree, Spokesperson for the Provincial Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunities (Responsible for the Provincial Treasury and the Department of Economic Development and Tourism), 7 March 2024
