Through the budgets appropriated by this house over the years we have built houses, roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, clinics and libraries for the people of our province. We have provided Learner Teacher Support Material (LTSM), medicines, patient food, school nutrition, SMME support, agricultural support, and so on. We hope that this 60th year of the Freedom Charter will give impetus to the work we are doing to build the South Africa envisaged in that charter. We are confident that today is better than yesterday, and that tomorrow will be even better than today.
Economic performance
The economy of our country has not been performing well in recent years and we all need to be prudent in how we allocate and use the resources we have.
We must all strive to do more with less, and ensure that we implement the National Development Plan, carry out the Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) and meet the basic needs of our people. We must use our limited resources to deliver water, sanitation, electricity, education, health, roads and human settlements to our people. The bad times will definitely pass.
The National Executive, through the minister of finance, has announced a Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period of doing more with less. The national budget is being weaned off the loans it has depended on in the previous years. During this period of the financial years 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18 we will target patterns of under-expenditure, non-essential items and all uncommitted resources.
This is a period of far-reaching belt-tightening, of reducing inefficiency and waste, of enhancing the cost-containment plans and of reinforcing austerity measures. During this period budgets will be cut to the bone and no additional funds will be provided for anything.
Nevertheless, provisions of basic services will be protected to minimise the impact on frontline service delivery.
Communities can assist by safeguarding public property such as water infrastructure, schools, roads and health facilities. Destruction of public property is negating the provision of basic services, particularly to the poor and working class people.
Withdrawal of national interventions
The National Executive has decided to reduce the intervention in the province, showing that national government is confident in the progress we have made in turning the province around.
When the national government intervened in the province in December 2011, the provincial government had: an accumulated unauthorised expenditure of R2.7-billion; an overdraft of R1.7-billion and insufficient cash management across the province; run out of cash and would have soon failed to pay its employees and creditors; implemented the Occupation Specific Dispensation in some departments without making the necessary provisions in their budget; widespread poor supply chain management; and widespread poor contract management.
The objectives of the intervention, which was the most severe to be implemented in any part of the country since 1994, included restoring the province to a sound financial footing; holding accountable all those responsible for the serious transgressions; introducing systematic improvements in key processes; assisting the province to upgrade its systems and capabilities to be fully compliant with all legislation, particularly the PFMA; building sustainable capacity; and strengthening the oversight and central financial control by the provincial treasury.
Today, the provincial government is fully capable of running its financial affairs. We have eliminated the provincial overdraft and reduced unauthorised expenditure. There is a significant improvement in the financial management of the province. Action has been taken against officials who contravened the law either through criminal or internal disciplinary processes. A provincial infrastructure development hub is being set up to fast-track infrastructure delivery in the province. There is improved compliance with the 30-day invoice payment system and the province is on a sound financial footing.
Fighting corruption
Throughout the provincial administration, several officials have been arrested and tried for corruption-related crimes.
We must redouble our efforts in fighting the scourge of corruption, which includes bribery, fraud, tender rigging, nepotism, patronage, money laundering and embezzlement. To do this we must tighten up the supply chain management processes and deal with any conflict of interest and work with law enforcement agencies.
We want to strengthen our municipal support system to be able to better monitor and assist municipalities in our province. We support the “back to basics” approach of the ministry of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, which aims among others things to improve service delivery, infrastructure development, public participation and governance. We will together build a responsive, caring and accountable local government that will serve our communities better.
Limpopo Development Plan, 2015-2019
The Executive Council has adopted a Limpopo Development Plan. This budget responds to the challenges raised by the plan and we will strive to meet its objectives.
Enhanced generation of our own revenue is going to cushion us as a province from the budget reductions in the MTEF. The provincial government has adopted a Revenue Enhancement Strategy. The successful implementation of this strategy will improve the provincial revenue collection generated from patient fees, motor vehicle licences, traffic fines and gaming fees. The provincial treasury will continue to provide support and monitoring of departments and public entities in revenue generation endeavours.
The provincial revenue has been growing substantially over the years. We budget to collect own revenue of R976-million in 2015/16, and hope to reach the R1-billion mark by the year 2016/17.
Budget allocations
The total budget for the province is R52.728-billion in 2015/16. This is a 4.2% increase from the 2014/15 budget of R50.954-billion. It will further increase by 6.2% to R55.996-billion in 2016/17 and to R59.004-billion (up 5.4%) in 2017/18.
The provincial equitable share allocation has been revised down by R311.6-million and R467.4-million in the 2015/16 and the 2016/17 financial years respectively. The provincial equitable share is further reduced due to a function shift of further education and training (FET) colleges from the provincial department of education to the national department of higher education, and of port health services and national laboratory services from the provincial to the national department of health.
The R52.728-billion for this year is composed of R45.377-billion equitable share, R 6.742-billion conditional grants and R976-million of own revenue. We have allocated R40.038-billion to education and health, R5.032-billion to fund infrastructure on roads, human settlements, schools, health institutions, bridges and libraries and R4.522-billion towards economic development of the province.
The total provincial 2015/16 MTEF budget allocations per cluster is as follows: The governance and administration cluster receives R1-billion; the economic cluster receives R7.446-billion; and the social cluster receives R44.282-billion.
All of the 13 provincial departments have received their respective shares from the total provincial envelope. A number of factors were considered in arriving at these allocations, inclusive of various mandates, government priorities outlined above, the Limpopo Development Plan objectives, pressing community needs and the availability of resources.
The budget allocated is inclusive of conditional grants. The allocated amounts are as follows: Office of the Premier R352.2-million; Limpopo Provincial Legislature R262.7-million; Education R25.285-billion; Agriculture R1.697-billion; Provincial Treasury R385.2-million; Economic Development, Environment and Tourism R1.161-billion; Health R14.754-billion; Transport R1.839-billion; Public Works, Roads and Infrastructure R2.750-billion; Safety, Security and Liaison R90.3-million; Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs R2.269-billion; Social Development R1.538-billion; and Sport, Arts and Culture R345.3-million.
The R5.032-billion allocated for infrastructure development will be divided across provincial departments as follows: Health R324.6-million; Transport R89.3-million; Education R805.1-million; Economic Development, Environment and Tourism: R62.7-million; Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs R1.286-billion; Public works, Roads and Infrastructure R2.171-billion; Agriculture R185.9-million; Sport, Arts and Culture R43-million; and Social Development R63.9-million.