Opposition parties gang up on Western Cape Premier over budget vote

Opposition parties in the Western Cape legislature have made their voice on Premier Alan Winde 2025 budget vote speech heard as the two-day debate came to an end on Monday afternoon.

Winde had started his budget vote speech last week stating that the country doesn’t have a revenue problem, but rather a spending problem.

“This is far from ideal, when the needs out there are so severe, but it is the reality of our current fiscal environment and budgets," Winde said.

In his speech, he highlighted how the Western Cape’s budget for 2025/2026 would be spent, but opposition parties were left unimpressed.

Prior to his speech the initial provincial budget was first tabled by MEC Finance, Deidré Baartman on 27 March.

Baartman said that the provincial government's vision is to help businesses grow and create jobs.

“Over the next three years we will allocate R43.789 billion for Growth for Jobs; R3.955 billion for Safety; R194.928 billion for Educated, Healthy and Caring Society; and R23.439 billion for Innovation, Culture and Governance.”

The budget vote speech included the various MEC's delivering how their departments intend on spending their allocation on the budget.

“Every household in South Africa knows what it means to stretch a rand further than before. They have had to adjust, to innovate, to make tough decisions. As a government, we are no different, but while others make excuses, we offer solutions. Our duty is not just to do more with less—it’s to make every cent work smarter, driving real impact where it matters most,” Winde said.

“But we do this with one non-negotiable front of mind: we must spend every rand and cent of our residents’ money responsibly, with our apex priorities, as outlined in the Provincial Strategic Plan 2025-30, guiding us towards strong, sustainable growth that creates jobs, and equips our residents with the skills and support they need to get those jobs.”

ANC leader in the legislature Khalid Sayed said that the Premier's speech did not lay out a vision for an inclusive Western Cape.

“It did not answer how this province will address the deep inequalities that still scar our communities. It did not speak to the lived experiences of people in Nyanga, Mitchells Plain, Beaufort West, or De Doorns.

“Instead, the premier presented a budget reliant on national funding while his party - the DA -rejected the very National Budget that provides 95% of this province's financial lifeline,” Sayed said.

“Let's be clear: 81.6 billion rand of this provincial budget comes from National Treasury. Just 5% comes from provincial revenue. So ask the premier, ‘what were you really offering in your provincial budget - when the resources you depend on were ones your party voted against?’”

Sayed said that the budget deepens the “Tale of Two Western Capes” narrative - one Cape lives in comfort-with access to quality education, safety, and opportunity. The other Cape struggles-with overcrowded schools, unsafe transport, and economic exclusion.

EFF MPL Aishah Cassiem said a budget which does not speak to an increase to the number of teacher posts, an increase in building of classrooms made of brick and mortar, and implementing an effective school placement system in the province, “is not the kind of budget we will support”.

“The education system in the Western Cape remains highly exclusionary when it comes to quintile 4 and 5 schools - especially – ‘when you are not white’. The quintile 4 and 5 fee paying schools are formally what used to be called ‘Model C’ schools and they are mostly in areas like Rondebosch, Cape Town, Camps Bay etc. But while these are schools which in the past, were reserved for whites only, - to this day, most of them still resemble whiteness,” Cassiem said.

GOOD party MPL Brett Herron said that budgets are political statements which reveal priorities, values, and who truly benefits from public spending. Herron focused his reply on the infrastructure budget.

“The Western Cape’s R9.827 billion infrastructure budget for 2025/2026 should be a catalyst for transformation. Yet, it feels more like a betrayal of those who need it most.

“R2.243 billion is allocated for Human Settlements Infrastructure for the 2025/2026 financial year but the track record of this government’s housing delivery is shocking and it is the cause of the department losing grant funding – R500 million in 2023 and now R300 million in 2024,” Herron said.

“We welcome the MEC’s announcement of housing projects in the inner-city, but this government is a government of announcements. The MEC is also aware that these sites were identified and announced for development over a decade ago, and now they are announced again as if they’re something new.”

“The transport infrastructure budget stands at R4.630 billion. Yet, investment continuously favours well-developed urban centres while historically underserved areas are left waiting for long-overdue road upgrades.”

Herron added that a R200 billion ‘pipeline of bankable projects’ sounds fantastic, but asked what that means for taxpayers.

“Private investors expect returns on their investments, which could lead to creeping privatization, user fees for essential services, and reduced public accountability. Meaning ordinary people will ultimately bear the burden. We already hear of tender corruption with the rampant ‘construction mafia’.

“Public funds meant to uplift communities are being siphoned off by corruption and inefficiency,” Herron said.

“We cannot believe that private investment will be any different. Development should not be dictated by privilege but by need. Until these principles guide our spending, billions will continue to be allocated without meaningful change.”

theolin.tembo@inl.co.za