Successes & Challenges Facing Western Cape

On Monday, 7 October 2024, members of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament’s (WCPP) Standing Committee on the Premier and Constitutional Matters deliberated on the Department of the Premier’s (DoTP) 2023/24 Annual Report.

As a government that deeply respects transparency, the DoTP welcomes the legislature’s role in scrutinising this report.

The department’s expenditure for the 2023/24 financial year was R2.006 billion, representing nearly 99% of the budget allocated.

“This document details the department’s achievements of the past financial year and allows us to examine our successes and shortcomings. It serves as a guide on how we can improve our work for all the residents of our province,” said Premier Alan Winde in his introductory remarks.

The Premier was candid in highlighting that the Western Cape Government (WCG) is facing significant challenges, among them:

• the national fiscal emergency;
• the impact of the climate crisis; and the
• the national energy crisis.

National fiscal emergency

The Premier and officials from the DoTP outlined the challenges the department and the entire provincial government are facing having been forced to make unprecedented in-year (2023/4) cuts to budgets due to the centrally negotiated public service pay increase agreement not being fully funded by national government. All provinces are facing a budget shortfall because of the national government’s action following this agreement.

Premier Winde said, “We had repeatedly warned national government that provinces would not be able to fund the wage agreement. We have always been open and transparent about this and the impact it would and is having on frontline services. We, unfortunately, had to find funds in core budgets, leading to this severely constrained fiscal environment in which we must operate. This is unacceptable and that is why we declared an Intergovernmental Dispute. Engagement with the national Minister of Finance resulted in an agreement that wage agreements have to be tabled and agreed by impacted provincial governments. We will continue to hold national government accountable and ensure that the correct processes are followed in future wage negotiations.”

Significant budget cuts had to be introduced through the Provincial Equitable Share (PES) and reductions in conditional grants from the national fiscus. “We were forced to make very difficult decisions,” added the Premier.

Energy crisis

South Africa has only recently emerged from the worst load shedding to date, but the affordability and sustainability of energy continue to be an issue. While the respite from rolling power cuts is welcome, we cannot take our eye off this issue, the Premier told the committee.

“The load shedding crisis was a call to action for us. We had to take steps to mitigate the impact of the power cuts and add more megawatts to the province’s power grid. While we currently have a respite from load shedding, we have to ensure that we invest in sustainable energy solutions and that our residents can afford electricity” the Premier told the committee.

Through the Western Cape Energy Resilience programme, the DoTP has worked closely with other WCG departments to mitigate load shedding, reduce the province’s dependence on Eskom and enable municipalities and the private sector to generate more power through renewable energy solutions.

One aspect of the programme in the year under review was donating load shedding relief packs to vulnerable groups of residents.

• To date, 75 693 packs have been delivered to all targeted schools and Western Cape Department of Social Development (DSD) facilities. 24 332 packs are in the process of being distributed, with 13 000 packs to be given to neighborhood watch groups and 2 334 to DSD-supported homeless shelters,
• Alternative energy support (AES) is offered to SMMEs. The AES Programme has supported 77 businesses to date.

The impact of the climate crisis

Several interventions were implemented to respond to the climate crisis. The newly constitute Integrated Energy and Water Council was recently established to address the pressing challenges of energy and water scarcity.

The Premier stressed that the Western Cape and South Africa must seek out further opportunities to “make our voices heard” in calls for developed nations to further support developing countries to address climate change and transition to renewable energy sources. He stated, “Cape Town will host the 2024 Earthshot Prize event in November 2024, offering us another platform where we can further discuss and, more importantly, implement policies and strategies to combat the impact of the climate crisis on our province.”

The Premier explained, “We are bringing together our biggest risks and have escalated our responses. I am honoured to have been made the co-chair of the Under2 Climate Group, and I recently attended the Climate Week NYC gathering where I had the privilege of representing the Western Cape, South Africa, and Africa.”

Culture of good governance, instilling resident-centric services, and expanding ICT services

The WCG and the DoTP pride themselves on their track record of clean governance as evidenced by all 14 departments and its 11 entities achieving unqualified audits for the 2023/24 financial year for the second year in a row.

“Service delivery to our residents depends on ensuring that every cent we spend is done diligently and responsibly. I have said many times that there is a clear and direct correlation between good governance and service delivery to our residents. If we build and maintain fiscal discipline across our departments and entities, we ensure that every cent is spent in the best interest of residents. As I said earlier this week, I urge our WCG family to keep working as meticulously as they have to maintain our proud track record of good governance,” said Premier Winde to the committee.

The DoTP played a key role in developing and expanding e-services across all departments and the province. This included the launch of the province’s first mobile e-Centre over the past financial year, bringing services closer to residents, particularly in rural areas. The number of e-Centres province-wide has been increased to 80 facilities,

The provision of the provincial ICT infrastructure to improve digital services for residents and employees took up the bulk of the department’s budget allocations.

Premier Winde concluded the meeting, “We pride ourselves on being a lean, agile and caring department and government that turns over every Rand in a difficult environment to benefit the well-being of our residents. There is considerable pressure on our government to maintain and expand services, a challenge we will never shy away from. I want to thank all 1 000 employees in my department for their dedication and commitment to working every day to improve the lives of our residents.”