The Office of the Free State Premier has received R633 571 million, and the Treasury Department R384 million, for the 2025-’26 year.
The budgets for the respective departments were presented during the budget vote in the Free State Legislature on 15 April.
The Office of the Premier’s breakdown of budget is as follows: administration – R110 958 million; institutional development – R270 464 million; policy and planning – R79 590 million; and monitoring and evaluation – R172 559 million. The Provincial Treasury Department’s budget is spread over five programmes as follows: administration – R133 million; sustainable resource management – R65,8 million; asset and liabilities management – R72,5 million; financial governance – R34,1 million; and municipal finance management – R78,4 million.
Presenting the budget Ketso Makume, MEC for Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, stated the Free State economy had contracted by 0,1% in 2024 and is projected to grow by 1,5% in 2025 driven by, among others, agriculture, trade, construction, finance and transport.
“However, sustainable economic growth will require decisive reforms in energy, logistics and investment facilitation, alongside strengthened public-private partnerships and targeted SME support. Attracting foreign and domestic investment while aligning skills development with industry needs will be fundamental to achieving long-term economic resilience. The focus should also be on job-creation, inclusive and sustainable growth,” said Makume.
He said the Free State government would strive to continue the significant progress made in curbing unwanted expenditure between the 2022-’23 and 2023-’24 financial years.
“This marks a commendable milestone of which we, as a province, can be proud. However, we remain mindful that more effort is required to sustain and build on this progress. Departments and entities should still do more to curb it and finalise accumulated outstanding investigations.”
The DA expressed a vote of no confidence, reacting to the budget presented.
“The compensation of employees of the premier is R402 million, more than the entire budget of the legislature. The victims of the budgetary leap by the Office of the Premier is the legislature, but the real victims are the people of this province whose seat of democracy is unable to carry out its constitutional mandate regarding oversight over the executive and holding that branch of government accountable,” said Roy Jankielsohn, party leader.
“Just compare the number of oversight field visit reports from a few terms ago. The ANC seems to think that the 1,1 million out of our 2,9 million population in the Free State, 60% of whom live in poverty, would prefer to be on social grants and rely on poor state healthcare instead of real jobs with pension funds and medical aid schemes.
“The expenditure on compensation of employees exceeds actual service delivery in many departments,” he added.
Dulandi Leech, DA spokesperson on finance, elaborated on this.
“Also concerning is that under financial governance, R30 million is reserved for employee costs, not counting consultant fees under goods and services. These are the people we entrust with monitoring the finances of departments and municipalities. And yet, the Department of Education could not pay service providers in the last quarter.
“The budget should be more balanced aimed at providing services and opportunities for growth, the lack of which has driven several residents and investors to other provinces – taking with them their money and jobs, lowering our population and effectively our contribution to the GDP, resulting in the Free State receiving R64 million less than the previous financial year.”
