Gauteng’s Nov ’24 Adjustment Budget shockingly delayed by 4 months; passed at last minute after majority already spent

Issued by Ruhan Robinson MPL – DA Shadow MEC for Finance
12 Mar 2025 in Press Statements

With only three weeks left in the current financial year, the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) only moved to adopt its adjustment budget on 11 March 2025, despite having tabled it in November 2024 already. This reinforces what the Democratic Alliance (DA) has been saying about the spend-first-plan-later approach to governance under the current ANC-led coalition government.

“GPL has a constitutional and legislative duty to partake in the approval of budgets and their oversight. In the instance that parties vote against adjustments, but the money has already been spent, then we have a serious problem. I am certain that it is a deliberate move by Premier Lesufi’s government to abrogate their accountability.”, Ruhan Robinson, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC of Finance.

This comes on the backdrop of several issues that plague Gauteng departments and their spending in the current financial year. A basic review of Gauteng’s precarious financial position shows that several departments have not budgeted adequately, even within this adjustment budget cycle. Some examples include:

  • The Gauteng Department of Health’s projected overspending in the current financial year is a staggering R4.3 billion.
  • Projected accruals in the Department of Education for the new financial year include R1.1 billion in overspending.
  • Gauteng Provincial Government also paid R3.8 billion in the current financial year for the failed e-Toll funding model of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP).
  • GPL achieved an adverse audit finding for incurring more than R250,000 on fraudulent subsistence and travel claims. The GPL political leadership intervened to stop Peter Skosana, the GPL Secretary from implementing the disciplinary proceedings against 34 implicated staff members. He was pushed out of employment and given an R6 million settlement to walk away.

A DA-led Gauteng would ensure constitutional imperatives of tabling and approving budgets and thereby not reducing represented political parties into malicious compliance territory.

Voting on an adjustment budget when all the money has been spent a mere three weeks before the end of a financial year is a fruitless exercise, apart from the legal necessity to do so. As a result, the DA has opted to vote against all budget adjustments in the 2024/25 financial year.