15 JULY 2025, GAUTENG PROVINCIAL LEGISLATURE, JOHANNESBURG
Yesterday, I presented the 2025/26 Budget Vote for the Gauteng Department of Health here in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature. The department has been allocated R67 billion for the 2025/26 financial year. This budget affirms our commitment to strengthen services, improve infrastructure, and address priority health needs across the province.
Key highlights are:
On health infrastructure delivery – We have allocated R1.7 billion (Health Facility
Revitalisation Grant and Equitable Share) for maintenance and new capital projects.
R100 million has been ringfenced to support our recapitalisation programme specifically for laundry services and theatres. Already, theatre refurbishments are advanced at Carletonville and Bheki Mlangeni hospitals. We are moving forward with key projects such as the Daveyton new hospital, Sterkfontein Psychiatric Hospital with 287 new mental health beds, and the upgrading of Johan Heyns Community Health Centre into a district hospital to meet the needs of the community. On digitisation – We continue to expand our digitisation programme, which started with 800,000 files being digitised at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital as a pilot project. This will now be scaled up to 36 other hospitals. This project is a catalyst for skill transfer for 100 young people in the local communities, bringing economic opportunity and community ownership.
Forensic Pathology Services will introduce biometric body tagging and fingerprint
integration to improve traceability and administrative justice. Two LowDox machines,
budgeted at R14 million, will be procured to support non-invasive forensic diagnostics.
On mother and child services – We have prioritised R38.4 billion for Primary Health
Care, focusing on maternal and child health. The investment affirms our collective intent to deliver respectful maternity and childcare. This will help to eliminate preventable maternal and perinatal mortality. On expanding metal health services – R484.1 million is allocated for mental health in 2025/26, and R1.4 billion over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework. Furthermore, we added 400 long-term care beds, bringing total capacity to 1,930 and expanded occupational therapy and psychosocial rehabilitation services at Tara Hospital. On strengthening oncology care – 590 patients are currently receiving radiation oncology care through private partnerships, and 1,076 patients have completed treatment. Construction of radiation bunkers and installation of LINAC machines at Chris Hani Baragwanath and Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospitals are underway, with completion targeted for 2026.
On reducing medico-legal costs – We continue to work had to reduce contingent
liabilities. Sofa we have reduces this from R24.7 billion in 2019/2020 to R7.2 billion in
2024/2025.Through mediation and strong internal systems, we are shifting focus from paying for errors to preventing them. On HIV, TB and Outreach programmes – we have allocated R5.4 billion for HIV, TB, STI, HPV, and community outreach.
95% of people living with HIV know their status and 76% of those diagnosed are on
treatment (pursuing the target of 95%) while 94% of those on treatment are virally
suppressed.
We aim to re-engage and put back on HIV treatment over 326,000 individuals as part of the 1.1 million ART Gap campaign by December 2025 and test 900,000 people for TB. On inclusive primary health care – we are improving access and strengthening PHC services. We have successfully installed the much-needed X-Ray machines in Westbury, Florida and Fanyana Nhlapo Community Health Centres as part of the commitment to improve diagnostics after hours. There are plans to further install at Daveyton Clinic, Phola Park and Empilisweni CHCs. On human resources and capacity building – It is the intention of the department to expand the capacity of nurses in a phased-in manner across facilities. To mitigate the high number of nursing vacancies, we have prioritised the training of nurses in our colleges, 500 professional nurses, 200 midwifery undergraduates and 90 post grads in midwifery would be trained by December. Given our resource constraints, the department will continue to fill all critical posts in a phased-in manner. Our approach seeks to balance between management and frontline clinical posts, prioritised in line with the clinical risk.
On treatment time guarantees – as part of Mandela Day, on July 18, under the theme
“Let’s Get Involved: It’s Still in Our Hands to Combat Poverty and Inequity,” our
clinical teams across the province will perform around 1000 surgeries, prioritising
cataracts, prostate cancer, cleft palate and colostomy reversals. We honour Tata Madiba’s legacy not just in words but through action that restores dignity and independence. What makes 2025 special is that it marks the launch of Treatment Time Guarantee (TTGs) for all surgical procedures on patients presenting to any public healthcare facility in Gauteng.
Going forward, each patient will be given a guarantee during the first booking as to by
when his or her operation should have been done this will help to manage treatment
expectations. This will provide clarity on what constitutes waiting time and a backlog.
