The 2024 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework for the Western Cape was tabled on Thursday, and a substantial portion thereof has been allocated to health, education and social services.

Provincial MEC for Finance and Economic Opportunities, Mirelle Wenger, says 75% of this year’s R255 billion budget is to make provision for the most vulnerable in the province.

This takes the form of a R192 billion allocation for things like healthcare, housing, and learner transport and school nutrition programmes.

“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.”

2024 MTEF breakdown

All that money will not be spent at once. The total budget will be roughly evenly split over the next the years. The allocation for 2024/25 financial year is R84 billion. For the next two years, R84.38 billion and R86.908 billion, respectively.

But back to R255 billion – and how the Western Cape Government will be spending it.

• The largest allocation, of R182 billion, will be used to address “well-being”, the collective title that health and wellness, education and social services fall under

1. Healthcare: R21 billion for primary healthcare; R1,95 billion for home and community-based care; R1 billion to strengthen TB interventions
2. Education: R98 million to support reading programmes, R3 billion for support Early Childhood Development (ECD centres); R71 million for special schools; R70 million to care for children with profound and intellectual disabilities
3. Social services: R1 billion for child protection services; R669 million for persons to care for persons with disabilities; R166 million for poverty alleviation (in the form of food distribution centres, for examples.

• R45 billion will bolster job creation

• R21 billion to boost service delivery under “innovation, culture, and governance”

The smallest allocation (of R5 billion) will go to strengthen existing safety interventions.

1. R1 billion to continue the Law Enforcement Advancement Programme (LEAP)
2. R2 billion for oversight of the South African Police Service
3. R1,56 billion to bolster law enforcement on provincial roads
4. R1 billion for youth support programmes (to prevent them from engaging in criminal activities
5. R31 million for Gender Based Violence interventions

Wenger says these budget allocations is to keep building a Western Cape that works for all.

“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.”

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