The Gauteng provincial government will spend more than R400-billion over the next three years, with the aim of growing the economy, creating jobs and expanding basic services to the public, Finance and e-Government MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko said, presenting the province's 2022/23 budget to the Gauteng Legislature on March 9.

She highlighted that the 2022 MTEF Budget comes in a constrained fiscal environment, impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and the July 2021 unrest which saw a subsequent investor confidence drop, which had bought increasing levels of unemployment.

The Gauteng government will receive R146-billion from national government in the 2022/23 financial year, in the form of Provincial Equitable Share and Conditional Grants.

This increases to R148-billion in 2024/25, the outer year for the MTEF.

During the same period, total provincial revenue collection from, besides others, gambling taxes, hospital patient fees, interest earned and motor vehicles licensees will increase from R7.2-billion in the 2022/23 financial year to R8-billion in the 2024/25 financial year.

Nkomo-Ralehoko emphasised that Gauteng wanted to considerably increase own-sourced money collection, including gambling taxes and motor vehicles licences, over the next three years to supplement transfers from national government and maintain funding for key priorities.

Current projections are that the province will collect more than R22-billion over the next three years, but there are plans to considerably increase this, Nkomo-Ralehoko says.

She noted that Gauteng had developed a revenue enhancement strategy.

The 2022 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) budget will be taking the province to the end of the sixth administration, and therefore, the emphasis is on consolidation and delivery of the Growing Gauteng Together 2030 (GGT2030) interventions to realise the goal of building the Gauteng City Region (GCR), despite impacts from the Covid-19 pandemic, Nkomo-Ralehoko noted.

She explained that this budget comprised R153-billion allocated for the 2022/2023 financial year, R152-billion for the 2023/2024 financial year and R156-billion for the outer year.

“Therefore, the total budget that we are allocating to provincial departments over the 2022 MTEF amounts to R462.7-billion. I must emphasise that the funding of the GGT2030 priorities has been carried through in the 2022 MTEF period,” said Nkomo-Ralehoko.

She noted that, therefore, the total new money that would be added to the baselines of provincial departments' budgets over the next three years will be just over R15-billion.

The social sector, comprising health, education and social development, will account for the largest share, as the provincial government aims to address the triple challenge of poverty, inequality and unemployment, said Nkomo-Ralehoko.

Nkomo-Ralehoko said that, as part of efforts to address the youth unemployment crisis, R2.4-billion had been allocated to fund the creation of youth-centred employment opportunities.

About R2-billion has been set aside over the next two years from the Presidential Youth Employment Service initiatives to enable the Department of Education to employ more than 40 000 unemployed young people to assist in the implementation of various education sector youth employment programmes, including employing the youth as teacher and administrative assistants.

Nkomo-Ralehoko said the Department of Education would receive an additional R367-million over the 2022 MTEF to employ youth, as part of the Youth Brigade and ensure the youth were placed and employed in critical service areas of the department, such as bus conductors.

Moreover, R13.1-billion has been allocated to the Department of Community Safety to hire about 400 more patrollers to fight crime in Gauteng.

Nkomo-Ralehoko noted that R6-million had been set aside to fund the Gauteng e-Waste Management Strategy, which aimed to protect the environment and create job opportunities.

Also, R177.2-million of additional funds had been allocated to the Department of Human Settlements as part of efforts to reverse Apartheid spatial planning. These funds will be used to clear the current backlog in the process of issuing title deeds and provide security of tenure to beneficiaries of housing projects by 2024, said Nkomo-Ralehoko.

Following Statistics South Africa's release on March 9 of the fourth quarter growth rate for the country of 4.9%, Nkomo-Ralehoko said Gauteng, which contributes more than 35% to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), grew by 7.4% in the first half of 2021 compared with the same period in 2020.

She noted that this higher-than-anticipated recovery in the first half of the year was owing to supportive global growth, higher commodity prices and the easing of Covid-19 restrictions.

The province’s economy is projected to have grown by 4.9% in 2021, from a revised contraction of 6% in 2020. Growth is expected to moderate to 2.2% this year and 2.1% in 2023.

Despite this recovery, the provincial economy was still about 1% smaller than it was in 2019, prior to the pandemic, Nkomo-Ralehoko pointed out.