National Treasury has revealed that South Africa's provinces spent 50.6%, or R384.9-billion, of the allocated main budget of R760.1-billion in the second quarter of the 2024/25 financial year, which represents a 4.8%, or R17.7-billion, increase compared with the same period in the 2023/24 financial year.

Spending on education amounted to R158.6-billion, or 50.1% of the provincial education main budget of R316.5-billion, from April to September. This was R4.9-billion, or 3.1%, higher year-on-year.

Social development expenditure at the end of the second quarter of 2024/25 amounted to R11.2-billion of the total main budget of R22.3-billion, which represented an increase of 5%, or R534-million, compared with the same period in 2023/24, Treasury said.

Further, personnel expenditure, or compensation of employees, amounted to R235.5-billion, or 49.9%, of the R471.7-billion main budget. This represented an increase of 5.3%, or R11.9-billion, compared with the same period of the 2023/24 financial year.

Departments are projected to overspend by R11-billion, primarily driven by goods and services of R6.9-billion, and compensation of employees of R3.4-billion for the full financial year.

Aggregate spending on goods and services was R83.4-billion, or 53.3%, of the R156.4-billion main budget, which was 5.1%, or R4-billion, higher compared with the R79.3-billion spent during the comparable second-quarter period of 2023/24.

Meanwhile, provinces collected R12.8-billion, or 52.1%, of the budgeted own revenue of R24.5-billion. This represents an increase of R637.6-million, or 5.2%, compared with the same period in the previous financial year.

For the year to date, payments for capital assets, or capital spending, amount to R17.9-billion, or 43.6%, of the R41.1-billion main budget. The spending rate has increased by 13.9% compared with the same period in the previous financial year, Treasury said.