This as the MEC for Finance, Motlalepula Rosho, is expected to deliver her 2020/21 Special Adjustment Budget on Thursday. 

The Department of Education and Social Development, which are at the forefront in the battles against the spread of Covid-19, will be looking to MEC Rosho and her department to allocate more than enough to address the plight of this novel virus in the province. This budget comes weeks after Finance Minister, Titi Mboweni, delivered his budget which was met with mixed reactions from different quarters of South Africa. Rosho says this Special Adjustment Budget has been necessitated by the need to reprioritise the budget and redirect funds to the Covid-19 response plan.

The Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act empowers Finance Authorities to Table Adjustment Budgets when necessary. "The historic nature of the Covid-19 pandemic and economic downturn has made it necessary to table such adjustments,” Rosho adds. In June, Minister Mboweni announced that the Supplementary Budget proposed R21.5 billion for Covid-19 related healthcare spending. He also said the budget will propose a further allocation of R12.6 billion to services at the frontline of the response to the pandemic.

Mboweni’s Supplementary Budget followed after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced an “extraordinary coronavirus budget”, injecting up to R500 billion into the economy.

The Health Department was set to receive priority, with the poor and most vulnerable catered for in a range of measures that include an increase in the social grant and billions of rands in subsidies for business and wages.

 OFM News