Staff Reporter
The Free State departments of health and education have been allocated an additional R700 million to help address challenges presented by COVID-19 in the coming months.
Presenting the province’s supplementary budget this Tuesday, Finance MEC Gadija Brown said the health department will receive a further R667.2 million to strictly spend on pandemic response measures.
She said the education department will get a boost of R45.5 million to help prepare schools for the safe of return of learners who have been forced to stay home since mid-March as part of measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
“We have all already noted the spike in the numbers of people infected by COVID-19 and the financial and human resources needed to effectively respond to the . . . challenges,” Brown said in a virtual address to the provincial Legislature.
“There is further need to speedily increase provision of personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators, additional beds and human resources and other concomitant materials in this regard,” she pointed out.
The funds were made possible through the reprioritisation of the provincial budget in a bid to address new financial needs stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The additional funds will see the provincial health department spending close to more than R38.5 billion over the next three years.
The funds will also go towards the hiring of additional staff; medicines; medical supplies and the disposal of medical waste; laboratory and blood supply services; children’s vaccines; anti-retroviral and TB treatment; community outreach as well as infrastructure and maintenance, among others.
“The importance of education and its impact on economic growth cannot be understated,” Brown said.
“We need to understand the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our learners and schools’ performance.”
The additional funds mean the education department has been allocated about R15.6 billion for the current financial year.
Over the next three years, the department will receive an estimated R50.6 billion.
The funds will go towards the National School Nutrition Programme; learner transport; learner and teacher support material; school hostel support; infrastructure; school hostels and others.
Meanwhile, the Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation received a further R12.5 million as relief funds for artists and different sporting codes.
Public Works and Infrastructure was allocated another R64 million for the provision of quarantine facilities.
Police, Roads and Transport was given a further R20 million for the procurement of PPEs.
More funds from the public transport operations grant have been repurposed for the sanitisation of buses and public transport facilities.
Agriculture got an additional R500 000 for PPEs, with the department receiving over R712 million for the current financial year.
The budget further provides for the continuation of land care programmes, support and training for farmers, veterinary services and others.
Other departments also received different amounts to supplement their budgets in a period that Brown described as challenging and requiring resilience to succeed.