The Western Cape government will declare an intergovernmental dispute with the national government if there is no resolution over what premier Alan Winde says is the province’s “unfair” share of budgetary allocations.
Winde said that if no resolution was found in discussions between the Western Cape, finance minister Enoch Godongwana and co-operative governance & traditional affairs minister Velenkosini Hlabisa the matter could end up in court. The law does lay down a dispute resolution process.
The Western Cape government has sent a number of letters to Godongwana over the past few weeks, but there has been no response.
On Tuesday, Winde said in an interview on the sidelines of his address to the Cape Town Press Club that while the Western Cape was the third-highest province in terms of population size, it was fifth in terms of its budgetary allocation, which has been cut by R7bn over the next three years.
It also had the fastest-growing population but was not getting a commensurate budget. “Limpopo actually gets more budget than the Western Cape — that cannot be,” Winde said.
The Western Cape’s budget allocation for 2024/25 is R84bn, R84.38bn for 2025/26 and R86.9bn for 2026/27. Its budget was also slashed by R1.1bn in the middle of the 2023/24 financial year because of the effect of the centrally agreed public sector wage bill on the provincial budget. A dispute was declared on this, and Winde said it would be reinstituted if the province’s demand for a higher budget was not resolved.
The province was R1.3bn out of pocket due to repairs after last year’s floods, to which the national government did not contribute.
Winde said the R7bn cut in the budget over the next three years was creating huge pressure on the provincial government, especially on the departments of health and education — the main service delivery responsibility of provinces. The school build programme had to be cut in half while there were thousands of pupils looking for placements, and queues at hospitals were getting longer.
“We have increasing demands and decreasing funds and that’s not fair. We don’t get the correct amount of money,” Winde said.
In a media statement after a recent Western Cape cabinet meeting, Winde said: “We need adequate funding to keep building healthcare facilities, schools, roads and maintaining services for vulnerable residents. We are being faced with unconscionable choices in providing critical services to our residents.”
He understood that economic growth in SA was slow, that the fiscus was constrained and that different provinces had different backlogs that had to be addressed, but the Western Cape wanted its fair share.
Winde believes the Census 2022 underestimated the provincial population, but even on these figures the provincial budget was unfair.
In his speech to the Cape Town Press Club, Winde said the government of national unity (GNU) provided hope, opportunity and optimism but he stressed that legislation on the formation of such governments was necessary for the future. There were still policies that needed to be negotiated — the DA, for example, was strongly opposed to the National Health Insurance Act and the Public Procurement Act. “There are a whole lot of things that we do not agree with,” he added.
He said the MK party was forcing the GNU to work together as its participants were united against the party. The alternative was “too ghastly to contemplate”.
He noted a new energy and more open approach by cabinet ministers. For instance, Hlabisa had taken only four hours to agree to declare a national disaster after the devastating floods that have hit the rain-drenched province over the past month.
Also, police minister Senzo Mchunu had expressed a willingness to discuss the devolution of policing powers, which has long been a demand of the Western Cape provincial government. Winde said he was optimistic this would happen, as well as the devolution of rail. He also believed the province and the private sector had to play a greater role in the management of ports.
A new dynamic was being worked out between the ruling DA in the provincial government and opposition parties that were also in the GNU.
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