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Several departments in Gauteng have significantly underspent their 2025 budgets, with some applying for the unspent funds to be rolled over rather than returned to the National Treasury. The Finance MEC, Nkululeko Dunga, highlighted the emerging trends in areas directly linked to service delivery, such as infrastructure service, public safety, agricultural support, digital modernisation, and community development.
Several departments in Gauteng have significantly underspent their 2025 budgets, with some applying for the unspent funds to be rolled over rather than returned to the National Treasury.
Finance MEC Nkululeko Dunga said that many of the underspending trends are emerging in areas directly linked to service delivery. These include infrastructure service, public safety, agricultural support, digital modernisation and community development. He was giving an update on the province’s finances in Soweto on Thursday, after his recent takeover from former Finance MEC Lebogang Maile.
Gauteng Treasury in crisis talks to block R1.9 billion funding freeze amid mounting debt Some of the biggest underspendings were recorded in Human Settlements, the Gauteng Legislature, and Community Safety, but this is not all. Conditional grants have also not been wholly spent by the departments of Education, Health, Sport and Agriculture.
This comes as other departments are operating on the opposite end of the stick, where some experience spending expenditure pressures and unauthorised spending patterns linked to weak planning, procurement failures, delayed appointments, poor contract management and insufficient institutional capacity. Dunga warned that Gauteng cannot continue operating in a system where communities experience collapsing infrastructure and poor service delivery while the government records both over-expenditure and underspending in critical service delivery sectors.
In a stark illustration of this reality, Dunga held the briefing in the heart of Soweto, surrounded by filth, a strong stench and dilapidated buildings around the Dube hostel.
Gauteng Finance MEC Nkululeko Dunga 2025 Budgets Underspending National Treasury Conditional Grants Education Health Sport Agriculture Human Settlements Gauteng Legislature Community Safety Service Delivery Infrastructure Buildings Filth Stink Debt Funding Freeze Mounting Debt Weak Planning Procurement Failures Delayed Appointments Poor Contract Management Insufficient Institutional Capacity
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