Rockman's much-anticipated budget speech set to be delivered at Gariep Dam will come less than a month after the Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, delivered his first budget speech. 

The speech, to be delivered on March the 5th, is expected to shed more light on how the province plans to spend its money and what the key projects for the year will be. Following the plans that were outlined in Premier Sisi Ntombela's State of the Province Address (Sopa) last week, Rockman will be expected to allocate more funds to the Departments of Education, Health and Agriculture.

Ntombela has highlighted that the province plans to invest more money in the youth and measures that could empower them to participate meaningfully in the economy. She said more efforts are going to be taken to improve the quality of education and infrastructure, as well as hiring more teachers. She alluded that refurbishments are also planned at a number of public healthcare facilities and that they will soon appoint 457 more doctors and 1 710 more nurses to deal with health demands in the province.

Ntombela has reiterated the need to eradicate poverty and create employment by urging young people to partake in agricultural programmes in the province. She announced that the province aims to create about 52 000 job opportunities and is certain a number of them will come from the agricultural sector. She said more efforts are going to be taken to ensure that commercial farmers and upcoming farmers are given the necessary support.

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