Provincial governement says the cost of funding the health and humanitarian response will exceed R5 billion for the 2020/21 financial year.
The Western Cape government has had to revise its provincial budget to support a full-scale response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The ‘Covid-19 budget’ includes providing temporary hospital facilities, quarantine and isolation facilities, school feeding schemes; emergency food relief, and the sanitising of schools.
On Thursday, Finance MEC David Maynier revealed that the province has set aside R3.05 billion towards what he calls “A budget to beat Covid-19 in the Western Cape“.
The allocation includes the following support:
- R1.8 billion to the Department of Health for personal protective equipment, temporary field hospitals, testing and screening, and additional bed capacity
- R400 million to the Department of Transport and Public Works for the hiring of venues and the purchase of services for quarantine and isolation facilities
- R310 million to the Department of Education for personal protective equipment, and the sanitisation of schools;
- R84 million for humanitarian relief including inter alia:
- R25.9 million to the Department of Social Development for an emergency food relief programme;
- R18 million to the Department of Education for an emergency school feeding scheme; and
- R17.8 million to the Department of Local Government for an emergency food relief programme;
- R27 million to the Department of Local Government for the coordination and implementation of the response to the pandemic in hotspots;
- R14 million to the Department of Economic Development and Tourism to support small businesses, workplace safety, and screening passengers at the George Airport; and
- R12 million to the Department of Social Development for personal protective equipment and operational support to Old Age Homes and Early Childhood Development Centres (ECDs) across the Western Cape.
MEC Maynier tells CapeTalk that provincial government will be developing measures in order to combat financial mismanagement.
He says the Western Cape will be compiling a ‘Procurement Disclosure Report’ in order to remain transparent and accountable to the public.
According to Maynier, the report will be published on the provincial government’s website and it will contain the details of the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the Western Cape.
We are essentially going to make public, on our website, information relating to the procurement of PPE. The names of the suppliers, the unit price, the total price. We’ll put it out there for the public and public representatives to scrutinise.
David Maynier, MEC for Finance and Economic Opportunities – Western Cape
In March, Maynier tabled the annual budget for the province. However, the budget had to be adjusted in light of an emergency Covid-19 relief efforts across various departments.
He says the Covid-19 storm has required all departments to re-prioritise all non-essential expenditure to support the adjustment budget.
It’s a first response to what we believe will be a total financing requirement this year of about R5.1 billion.
David Maynier, MEC for Finance and Economic Opportunities – Western Cape
We kicked off with a R3.05 billion adjustment to support principally, the Department of Health with R1.8 billion… R400 million to the Department of Transport and Public Works… R310 million to the Department of Education…. and R84 million for emergency feeding schemes and food relief throughout the province.
David Maynier, MEC for Finance and Economic Opportunities – Western Cape
I’me really proud that the Department of Education, despite significant pressure from the national government, opened the school feeding scheme and kept it open.
David Maynier, MEC for Finance and Economic Opportunities – Western Cape
We’ve had to introduce a special, adjusted budget so that we can respond to the health and humanitarian crisis.
David Maynier, MEC for Finance and Economic Opportunities – Western Cape
When we tabled the main budget this year, we did not anticipate the size and ferocity of the storm that was to come.
David Maynier, MEC for Finance and Economic Opportunities – Western Cape
Listen to the discussion on Today with Kieno Kammies:
