Gauteng health and education departments are set to receive the lion's share of the province's R153bn budget for the 2022/2023 financial year.

This was revealed by finance MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko as she delivered the budget speech on Wednesday at the Gauteng legislature.

Education is due to receive R59.7bn while the Department of Health will get R59.4bn.

Nkomo-Ralehoko said the 2022 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) budget was the culmination of a protracted planning process, both at national and provincial level.

She added that the budget was tabled under a tight fiscal environment characterised by the economic impact of the pandemic, the negative impact of the July unrest on the economy and resultant negative investor confidence, and the ever-increasing levels of unemployment.

“The higher-than-anticipated recovery in the first half of the 2021 financial year was because of supportive global growth, higher commodity prices and the easing of the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.

“Gauteng’s economy is projected to grow by 4.9% in 2021, from a revised -6% in 2020, before moderating to 2.2% in 2022 and 2.1% in 2023.

“However, overall the provincial economy is still about 1% smaller than it was in 2019. Gauteng is a service-based economy that is mainly dependent on the tertiary sector. Industries such as agriculture, finance and government services are expected to recover significantly in 2021 compared to 2019,” she said.

Nkomo-Ralehoko said the funding provincial government will receive from national government in 2022/23 financial year in the form of provincial equitable share and conditional grants amounts to R146bn, which increases to R148bn in 2024/25, which is the outer year of the MTEF.  

“During the same period, total provincial own revenue collection from, amongst other things, gambling taxes, hospital patient fees, interest earned, and motor vehicle licences will increase from R7.2bn in the 2022/23 financial year to R8bn in the 2024/25 financial year,” she said.

Addressing the ballooning wage bill, Nkomo-Ralehoko said a once-off amount of R3bn had been allocated to provincial departments to offset the public wage settlement which was previously not budgeted for.

“This is a once-off amount, and it must be borne in mind that the wage negotiation process is under way and expected to conclude in the course of the 2022/23 financial year.

“The resourcing of this will be communicated to all departments upon conclusion of the process. As a province, we have managed to contain the wage bill at below 60% of the provincial budget, and largely avoiding crowding out resources from other areas,” she said.