Delivering his maiden budget speech in the KZN legislature in Pietermaritzburg on Tuesday, new provincial finance MEC Ravi Pillay announced that education received 41.4% of the provincial budget, followed by health which received 34.5%.
This means the two departments jointly received nearly 76% of the budget, with the balance of 24% allocated to the remaining 13 departments, said Pillay. The budget allocation for education over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework , annual, rolling three year-expenditure planning, was R54bn, R57.7bn and R60.9bn earmarked for prioritising education and skills development.
Pillay said the largest share of the department’s budget allocation was for the provision of personnel. “In this province, no-fee learners currently constitute 75% of the total population of learners in public ordinary schools,” he said.