True nation-building occurs when public money is used to improve the everyday conditions in which people live, learn, and receive care. After more than a decade in which fiscal consolidation, rising debt-service costs, and repeated bailouts diverted resources away from basic education and health, Budget 2026 reflects a welcome shift towards renewed investment in these sectors.
However, this shift is uneven. While overall funding for education and health has increased, investment in the infrastructure that underpins these services has declined in real terms. As communities across South Africa continue to face overcrowded classrooms and overstretched clinics, this is a significant blow. Operational budgets may stabilise systems in the short term, but without sustained investment in safe schools, functional clinics, and hospitals, service delivery will remain fragile.
Furthermore, the true test of Budget 2026 will be whether increased allocations translate into real improvements on the ground. Every Rand allocated to education and health must result in public services that restore dignity and build healthy, thriving communities.
Increased overall investment in public education and health
Budget 2026 includes important measures aimed at stabilising the basic education system. The basic education budget increases by R14 billion (4% in nominal terms) to R358.5 billion, compared to 2025’s R344.5 billion, slightly above 3.3% CPI inflation. Similarly, the health budget grows by R15 billion from R295.3 billion in 2025/26 to R310.3 billion in 2026/27. This is a welcomed 5% in nominal terms, also exceeding CPI inflation. Rising living costs absorb less of these increases. This allows provincial education and health departments to be in a better position to meet their constitutional obligations in education and health care. If spent effectively, these resources must translate into better classrooms, strengthened health facilities, and improved access to quality public services for all. However, if we want to restore public services, not only does every Rand need to go to these public services, but we need to grow the pie.
The public workforce is still at the heart of service delivery
In basic education, compensation for employees increases from R261 billion in 2025/26 to R274 billion in 2026/27. This almost 5% increase, above 3.3% projected CPI inflation, creates space to stabilise the levels of teachers in our schools. However, addressing overcrowded classrooms will require more than marginal gains. Rebuilding the education system demands a sustained expansion of the teaching workforce.
In healthcare, compensation for employees increases from R189.5 billion in 2025/26 to nearly R200 billion in 2026/27, representing growth of around 5.5% and exceeding projected 3.3% CPI inflation. This is a welcome step towards strengthening frontline care. However, rebuilding the health system will require decisive action to expand the workforce in clinics and hospitals across the country. Without the urgent hiring of nurses, community health workers, and doctors, increased allocations will not translate into improved access to care or better health outcomes for communities.
Making Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) Count
We welcome the inclusion of Basic Education in the Gender Responsive Budgeting pilot, particularly the focus on the National School Nutrition Programme, learner teacher support materials and the Funza Lushaka bursary. This is a crucial step in recognising that sustained investment in education is a direct investment in women and girls. It is also a critical lever for redressing gender inequality in South Africa. However, if our government is serious about wielding public spending to advance gender equity, the pilot must be extended to include the Department of Health which also has significant implications in gender equity in our country. Moreover, GRB must be institutionally strengthened: through a properly resourced and staffed unit within National Treasury so that gender analysis is foregrounded in our Budget, rather than being treated as an add-on.
Unsafe schools and clinics undermine nation-building
Spending on school infrastructure remains a serious concern in Budget 2026. Funding for the poor-performing School Infrastructure Backlogs Grant (SIBG) is reduced sharply as the grant is wound down ahead of its incorporation into the Education Infrastructure Grant (EIG). While this move may be intended to improve efficiency over time, it comes at a moment when many learners across the country brave unsafe, overcrowded classrooms.
Overall, conditional grants to education infrastructure rise marginally to R16.2 billion in 2026/27 from R16.0 billion the previous year, significantly below 3.3% CPI. In real terms, this is a cut. With inflation exceeding the rate of increase, the Budget effectively disinvests in building and upgrading the schools South African communities urgently need. At a time of overcrowding, unplaced learners, and unsafe learning environments, this approach risks slowing progress precisely where it is most needed.
Investment in health infrastructure remains deeply inadequate. The Health Facility Revitalisation Grant increases from R7.6 billion in 2025/26 to R7.7 billion in 2026/27, a nominal rise of just 2% and a real cut once 3.3% CPI is taken into account.
This comes as communities continue to rely on clinics and hospitals that are overcrowded, poorly maintained, and often unsafe for both patients and healthcare workers. At a time when restoring dignity in public healthcare is essential, a real reduction in infrastructure funding undermines efforts to rebuild the health system and address long-standing backlogs in facility maintenance and expansion.
While investment in rail and road infrastructure is important for addressing spatial inequality and improving access to services, it cannot displace investment in the services themselves. Improved transport means little if learners arrive at schools that remain overcrowded and unsafe, or if patients reach clinics and hospitals that are falling apart. True spatial justice requires both access to services and actual facilities that are capable of delivering care and education.
National Treasury has also argued that the core challenge lies not in the allocation of resources, but in weak provincial implementation of infrastructure projects. Civil society, including SECTION27, has long raised concerns about poor quality spending and underspending precisely because it obstructs the realisation of constitutional rights. However, the response to weak implementation cannot be continued disinvestment. It must be sustained investment in state capacity, planning, and accountability. If the state is not deliberate in strengthening provincial delivery and enforcing consequences for failure to deliver, it is ultimately learners and health care users who bear the cost of a state that fails to resolve these backlogs.
South Africans should not be asked to bear the consequences of fiscal choices that leave clinics and hospitals unable to meet the basic standard of care guaranteed by the Constitution.
The real nation-building budget South Africans deserve
While an overall budget shift away from prolonged disinvestment in basic education and health is welcome and necessary, Budget 2026’s proposals are far from sufficient. Without urgent action to reverse infrastructure disinvestment, expand the public workforce, and ensure that funds are spent effectively, it will be difficult to translate Budget 2026 into improved services on the ground. Nation-building requires more than stabilisation. It requires meaningful investment, capacity delivery, and accountability to our communities. Every Rand allocated to education and health must translate into safe schools, functional clinics, and hospitals that protect dignity and life. Anything less falls short of the state’s constitutional obligations to the people of South Africa.
For media enquiries contact:
Pearl Nicodemus | nicodemus@section27.org.za | 082 298 2636
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