Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 06-03-2019
Gauteng Finance MEC Barbara Creecy has told Radio Islam that her last budget as MEC is a people’s budget.
Creecy tabled a budget of over R121 billion for the 2018/2019 financial year at the Gauteng provincial legislature on Tuesday.
This year’s budget has increased by over R9 billion from the adjusted budget of over R112 billion in November.
The MEC allocated 81% of Gauteng’s budget to health, education and social development.
Creecy says eight out of every ten Rand has been allocated to the provision of social services as Gauteng is home to one in four South Africans.
“There’s ever increasing demand for education. We have about 2.3 million learners in our education system and over 20 million people are using our health services every day. So it’s been very important that we allocate more money to those three departments, so we are able to employ more nurses, teachers, doctors and social workers to service all of those who need government services in our province.”
Creecy says while it was a difficult budget, over the last few years the Gauteng Province had focused on raising it’s own revenue.
“We’ve worked very hard with our sister department, the Department of Transport and the Department of Economic Development to close all of the loopholes, As a consequence we’ve been able to raise about R 20 Billion in own revenue over the last five years.”
Creecy says R 300 million has also been allocated in this financial year to compensate the families of the Life Esidimeni victims who have been approved by the Master of the High Court.
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