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< South Africa's GDP
Economics Main Page >

South Africa's national government departments and their respective budget allocations for fiscal year 2018/2019

​​​​Date: 8 February 2019
Category: Economics

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We take a look at the budget allocation of South Africa's various national government departments. We also investigate which government departments have spent more than they should have so far in the financial year and which government departments have not been using the money allocated to them by the National Treasury?
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So which South African government department has the biggest budget?

So ever wondered which South African government department has the biggest budget? Perhaps the police with all its members? Or the department of health with all its hospital staff? Or what about the department of basic education that has to pay school teachers and principals to educate the masses? Or what about the department of social development paying grants to millions and millions of people (even though we only have 4.9 million personal income tax payers in South Africa).

The list below shows all South Africa's national government departments as well as their allocated budget. (The number on brackets shows the percentage of its allocated budget spent during the first 9 months of fiscal year). The benchmark should be 75% spent as 9 out of 12 months is 75% of the months completed for the fiscal year.

  • Social Development:R 172 901 587 000 (73.99%)
  • Police:R 91 834 161 000 (72.62%)
  • Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs:R 83 651 888 000 (69.59%)
  • Higher Education and Training:R 73 020 643 000 (90.89%)
  • Transport:R 59 798 294 000 (57.62%)
  • Defence and Military Veterans:R 47 949 743 000 (73.52%)
  • Health:R 47 142 866 000 (72.76%)
  • Human Settlements:R 32 355 716 000 (69.12%)
  • National Treasury :R 29 358 390 000 (70.55%)
  • Correctional Services:R 23 848 510 000 (69.91%)
  • Basic Education:R 22 722 437 000 (85.57%)
  • Justice and Constitutional Development:R 17 049 426 000 (73.04%)
  • Water and Sanitation:R 15 571 518 000 (65.81%)
  • Rural Development and Land Reform:R 10 425 243 000 (63.88%)
  • Trade and Industry:R 9 462 611 000 (65.42%)
  • Home Affairs:R 7 915 439 000 (80.48%)
  • Science and Technology:R 7 790 488 000 (74.58%)
  • Public Works:R 7 453 326 000 (79.63%)
  • Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries:R 7 164 998 000 (76.97%)
  • Environmental Affairs:R 7 112 532 000 (49.52%)
  • Energy:R 7 045 017 000 (78.23%)
  • International Relations and Cooperation:R 6 552 768 000 (70.07%)
  • Arts and Culture:R 4 372 264 000 (71.96%)
  • Labour:R 3 295 243 000 (67.82%)
  • Statistics South Africa:R 2 271 699 000 (70.93%)
  • Tourism:R 2 261 817 000 (76.44%)
  • Mineral Resources:R 1 890 661 000 (78%)
  • Parliament:R 1 872 694 000 (74.99%)
  • Communications:R 1 513 146 000 (72.32%)
  • Small Business Development:R 1 488 453 000 (75.59%)
  • Office of the Chief Justice and Judicial Administration:R 1 119 747 000 (65.58%)
  • Sport and Recreation South Africa:R 1 090 777 000 (80.85%)
  • Economic Development:R 1 072 597 000 (76.67%)
  • Public Service and Administration:R 956 656 000 (67.7%)
  • Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation:R 927 351 000 (66.71%)
  • Telecommunications and Postal Services:R 923 407 000 (77.43%)
  • The Presidency:R 505 580 000 (66.77%)
  • Independent Police Investigative Directorate:R 315 113 000 (69.31%)
  • Public Enterprises:R 273 914 000 (58.12%)
  • Women:R 230 207 000 (68.3%)

So mirror mirror on the wall, department of social development is the biggest of them all

So of the R 814 508 927 000 (thats right R814 billion) budget that is allocated to ALL national government departments, the department of social development, the department responsible to paying grants to social grants recipients, received a budget of R172.9 billion (this makes up 21.2% of the total budget allocated to national government departments.   If anyone ever argued that South Africa is not a welfare state, show them this. We only have 4.9 million personal income tax payers in South Africa and our department of social development received 21% of the total budget allocated to national government departments. This department's budget is almost double that of the Police, whose budget came in at R91.8 billion.

Since we like Statistics and numbers, we will compare the budget of social development with that of Statistics South Africa. The department of social development's budget is 76.5 times the budget of Statistics South Africa, the government department tasked with publishing all official statistics including CPI, PPI, GDP, Census and population estimates, employment and unemployment figures etc.

We are a welfare state. And the problem South Africa is facing is that the tax net is not broad enough, so those paying the bulk of the personal income tax is carrying a large number of people living on welfare in South Africa. This is totally unsustainable and needs to be addressed. Otherwise thouse paying the taxes will leave the country and go somewhere where they feel their tax money is better spent on providing services to citizens, instead of paying grants to citizens. 

President Cyril Ramaphosa said yesterday in the State of the Nation address that unemployment and job creation is South Africa's biggest problem. Well to an extent we agree, but we feel that comes a close second to our biggest problem, which is the fact that to many people receive grants and live of it (in fact in the @SONA2019 the president stated 17.5million people receive grants), while the tax paying population of 4.9 is extremely small compared to those receiving government hand outs. Basically for every one person paying personal income tax, 3.6 people receive a social grant. A tax revolt is not out of the question, as something has to give as the current situation is unsustainable

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