The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng opposed Gauteng’s adjustment budget vote, which fails to prioritise infrastructure maintenance and investment. While Lesufi’s minority government continues to prioritise vanity projects, residents continue to deal with the lack of basic services such as water, electricity, and pothole-free roads. A detailed review of the adjustment budget shows that, despite large allocations, the budget fails to meaningfully address the province’s most pressing crisis: collapsing infrastructure.
Gauteng‘s transport, water, and electricity infrastructure is in a dire state of decay. Public facilities, namely schools, clinics, and hospitals, are in decline, leading to inferior services to residents. Once again, the Gauteng government has tabled a budget that falls far short of the National Treasury benchmark of allocating at least 8% towards infrastructure maintenance.
Instead of fixing what is broken, billions of rands have been diverted towards the e-Toll debt and large-scale projects that do little to improve the daily lives of residents. Gauteng residents are forced to pay a steep price for the Lesufi-led Gauteng government’s failures.
The issue is not only the allocation of funds but also the persistent failure to spend effectively. The failure to spend R1.92 billion in the previous financial year is a clear indication that departments are unable to convert budgets into service delivery. This is unacceptable in a province where residents are struggling with unreliable basic services.
While departments such as Health and Education receive significant portions of the budget adjustment, this has not translated into improved outcomes. Patients continue to face overcrowded facilities and equipment shortages, while learners are subjected to infrastructure backlogs and resource constraints. The capital budgets of the Department of Human Settlements and the Department of Roads and Transport remain under pressure, negatively impacting the housing backlogs and infrastructure decay.
Of the additional R3.3 billion allocated in this adjustment budget, approximately R1.5 billion and R1 billion are given to the Department of Health and Education, respectively. The allocation to Roads and Logistics remains unchanged, despite perpetually worsening provincial road infrastructure.
The Department of Community Safety has received an additional R200 million. However, despite the ever-increasing budget for this department, Community Policing Forums’ (CPF) budgets have been slashed by R21 million. The remaining department that receives the greatest increase is e-Government, with the additional R400 million.
The DA supports the budgets of Provincial Treasury, Economic Development, and the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, as these votes are essential for strengthening financial oversight, promoting economic growth, and ensuring accountability within government. It is, however, important to note that no meaningful budget allocation adjustments were made. We cannot support a budget that fails to prioritise service delivery and infrastructure maintenance.
A DA-led provincial government would prioritise adjusting allocations to schools in the province and ensuring that their municipal services are paid to avoid disconnections. We would prioritise the development and maintenance of road infrastructure in the province. We would prioritise addressing medication procurement backlogs through proper supply-chain management and reducing accruals within the department. Finally, the DA would demonstrate that maintenance-first spending is possible in a province that has adopted a spend-first plan-later approach to governance, because it can be done.