R78.4 million for municipal finance as Free State province aims for economic stability

By Thebe Mabanga

The Free State Provincial Treasury has prioritised enhanced oversight of departmental budgets, municipal finances, and infrastructure delivery for the current financial year and the next three years.

The province also aims to strengthen its revenue collection capacity while targeting reductions in overall costs, including the public service wage bill.

These priorities were outlined by Free State Finance MEC Moses Makume during the province’s budget vote on Tuesday.

Makume used this month’s commemoration of Freedom Day as the basis of his address.

“As we commemorate 31 years of freedom, we are reminded that democracy is not an event, but a journey: a continuous process that must be nurtured, deepened, and translated into real and lasting change in the lives of our people,” said Makume.

Makume then drew on the constitution’s values and objectives and suggested that the delivery of economic freedom is his department’s, and governments’s ultimate goal.