Moipone Mhlongo, chairperson of the Gauteng education portfolio committee, expressed her displeasure at the department’s failure to address a number of long-standing issues in the previous financial year.
Mhlongo said although there was 3% increase in this year’s budget, the committee was concerned about its adequacy: “This is due to the fact that the budget does not adequately address the eradication of asbestos infrastructure, the improving of sanitation in most schools, the provision of sport facilities in some of the schools that do not have it, as well as major rehabilatative work that most schools require.”
It is also feared that even with an increased budget of R65.8 billion, the Gauteng Education Department won’t have enough money to totally eradicate the hazardous asbestos roofs in many public schools.
This was emerged on Wednesday during the department’s budget vote for 2024/2025, in the Gauteng legislature.
Presenting the department’s budget, MEC Matome Chiloane said despite the budget reduction in some conditional grants, funds were made available for reprioritisation and further fiscal consolidation measures.
“The department’s budget has seen a marginal increase for the 2024/25 financial year which amounts to R65,8 billion. This represents an increase of R2,4 billion (3.8%) from the previous year.
“The budget grew by 27.4% from 2020/21 to 2024/25, a rise of R14,1 billion over five years. The budget is anticipated to grow at an average annual rate of 4.1% over the medium-term. This is an unambiguous demonstration of the commitment of the ANC government to education as a national priority,” Chiloane said.
He stressed that the issue of compensation of employees remained the largest cost to the education budget, amounting to R48,6 billion or 73.9% of the total budget.
He said this represented an increase of 5.8% or R2,6 billion from last year: “This increase is attributable to the need to respond to the cost of implementing the public-service wage agreement. This provision was initially extended to the 2024 MTEF period to cover the carry-through cost of the said wage agreement.
“A revision to the initial provision is that a portion of these funds is redirected to the conditional grants that fund the compensation of employees.”
Chiloane said the seventh administration aimed to prioritise education in order to respond to the key challenges facing the people of Gauteng, and ensure that education contributed to the reduction of inequalities in the province.
“Foremost amongst these challenges is access to quality schooling in the communities we live in and to respond to the high level of migration into the province.
“In his State of the Province Address, the premier, unveiled the elevated priorities of the seventh administration to focus on the priorities elevated for accelerated implementation for the remainder of the sixth administration. This is within the context of the adopted 2024-29 Medium Term Development Plan (MTDP) and Gauteng 2030.”
The Star