2026/27 budget: Gauteng government will have to learn to do more with less

The Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) responded to Gauteng’s budget for the 2026/27 financial year, tabled in the Gauteng Legislature on Tuesday, by stating that the provincial government will have to learn to do more with less.

Although the budget has grown by R3,6 billion compared to the previous year, the increase is not sufficient to address all the issues in the province. This means the Gauteng government will have to implement additional internal cost-saving measures.

In a report recently submitted to the MEC for Finance, Lebogang Maile, the Freedom Front Plus indicated that preventing various irregularities that occurred in the 2024/25 financial year could facilitate savings of around R3 billion in the new financial year.

It would entail specifically addressing irregular expenditure in the Departments of Health, Housing, Social Development and Infrastructure Development.

In the Department of Housing alone, R520 million was squandered on viability studies for housing projects that were subsequently cancelled. In addition, the Auditor-General found that the Department of Education’s irregular expenditure amounted to a staggering R1,5 billion.

The Freedom Front Plus's report also shows that if the Departments of Health and Infrastructure Development could achieve a mere 1% saving through more effective procurement of high-value items, it would release an additional R182 million to plug other gaps.

These savings could then be used for, among other things, fully or substantially restoring the subsidy for quintile 5 schools.

This is an issue that the Freedom Front Plus will take up with Maile.

Now that the 2026/27 budget is known, the Freedom Front Plus will look into identifying more instances of ineffective expenditure so that funds can be reallocated to critical priorities.