Paying employees takes most of the Gauteng education budget

About three quarters of the budget allocated to the Gauteng department of education will go to paying employees.

This was revealed in the 2018/19 budget vote‚ which was delivered by Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi.

In the 2018/19 budget‚ education received a total budget of R45.2-billion‚ which was an above-inflation increase of 10.7% or R4.3-billion.

Of the total budget‚ R33.7-billion‚ or 75%‚ went to compensation of employees. This reflects an increase of 11.5% (R3.4-billion) when compared to the previous financial year.

"This increase is mainly attributed to the filling of all key vacant posts and providing for inflation-related salary increases‚" said Lesufi in his budget statement.