Densely populated provinces such as Gauteng received the highest allocations of funds in the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement on Wednesday.

Treasury had to prioritise certain programmes implemented by provincial departments which are necessary to keep the economy going and also save livelihoods.

The country’s most populated province, Gauteng, received the highest equitable share of the nine provinces at more than R108bn. It was followed by KwaZulu-Natal with over R107bn and Eastern Cape with R69bn.

The Free State received R28.9bn, Limpopo R60.3bn, Mpumalanga R42.6bn and North West R36.3bn

The province with the lowest equitable share was Northern Cape with just over R13.7bn.

To help accelerate construction, maintenance, upgrading and rehabilitation of new and existing infrastructure in education a total of R8.7bn was allocated. This money will also be used to address damaged infrastructure and achieve set out minimum norms and standards for school infrastructure. This is also called the education infrastructure grant.

Provincial education departments also received R7.6bn to provide nutritious meals to schools. KwaZulu-Natal received the biggest allocation of R1.7bn followed by Eastern Cape with R1.4bn and Limpopo with R1.3bn.

To enable public institutions to provide tertiary health services and additional costs associated with these services, an allocation of R14bn was made. About R5bn went to Gauteng, followed by Western Cape with R3.4bn and KwaZulu-Natal with R2bn. The lowest allocation went to Mpumalanga with R135m.

In helping support investment and maintenance of road infrastructure, an allocation of R10.4bn was set aside for all provinces. KwaZulu-Natal got the biggest share with R1.8bn followed by Eastern Cape with R1.6bn and Free State with R1.3bn.

To help metros implement infrastructure projects that facilitate inclusive urban development and upgrade of informal settlements, the government set aside more than R313m. The biggest beneficiary of this allocation was the City of Johannesburg with R73.8m, followed by the City of Cape Town with R65.1m and the City of Ekurhuleni with R52.9m. The City of Tshwane received R50.9m for this purpose.

Provinces were also given R162.5m to help them address the backlog in the issuing of title deeds.

The government also set aside R1.4bn to increase the number of poor children accessing subsidised early childhood development.