Delivering her keynote address at the provincial executive council budget planning lekgotla at Imvelo Safari Lodge in Bloemfontein, MaQueen Letsoha-Mathae emphasised the need for strategic reflection, realignment, and decisive action. “The lekgotla must serve as a space for honest reflection, strategic realignment, and most importantly, decisive action,” she said.

At the heart of her address was the call to build a capable, ethical, and developmental state. She stressed the importance of strengthening governance and tackling financial inefficiencies head-on.

“We must reduce fruitless, wasteful, irregular, and unauthorised expenditure and professionalise the public service.”

Education and skills development were highlighted as top priorities. Letsoha-Mathae pointed to existing pressures within the compensation budgets for education, health, and community safety, roads and transport, calling for a focused effort to improve learner outcomes, especially in underperforming districts.

She said the department of health must deal with accruals, invest in critical infrastructure, and improve access to quality primary healthcare. Revitalising health systems and infrastructure remains a key pillar in the province’s service delivery agenda.

Letsoha-Matahe also committed her government to inclusive economic growth and job creation through targeted investments and support programmes.

“We will implement high-impact catalytic projects, support township and rural economies, and create work opportunities through infrastructure and EPWP programmes.

“We must also resolve delays in the completion of projects, as well as avoid cost overruns, and prioritise spending on the maintenance of roads, schools, health facilities, housing, and water infrastructure.”

She warned that the fiscal space was tightening. “Let me be frank: we are operating in a constrained fiscal environment. National Treasury has made it clear that the country is under fiscal consolidation, and the macroeconomic outlook remains subdued, with low economic growth and revenue shortfalls. As such, the fiscal envelope available to us as a province is shrinking in real terms.”

Personnel budgets in critical departments, including education, community safety, roads and transport, and health, were under significant strain.

In particular, she warned, accruals in the department of health and public works and infrastructure posed risks to both service delivery and the survival of small businesses reliant on government contracts.

“Departments and public entities must exercise prudence, discipline, and innovation in the use of public resources. We cannot afford bloated organograms, underperforming projects, or non-strategic spending.

“We must embrace cost-containment, avoid irregular and unauthorised expenditure, and ensure that every rand spent advances our development mandate.”

She stressed the importance of delivering services, highlighting expectations from the people of the Free State.

“The Free State people are not interested in plans that remain on paper; they want to see tangible change in their daily lives in the form of water, human settlements, clinics, hospitals that work, schools that teach, and jobs that restore dignity.”

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OFM News/Kekeletso Mosebetsi cvs