While millions are being allocated in the Western Cape budget to deal with disasters and emergencies, hundreds of families left homeless by a devastating fire in the Imizamo Yethu informal settlement in Hout Bay say the promises offer little comfort as they struggle to rebuild their lives.
For Ntombozuko Dyantyi, 43, a mother of three, disaster funding feels like a distant concept as she shares a crowded community hall with 25 other families, trying to make sense of the loss of everything she owned.
Hundreds of families were left homeless after a fire tore through the settlement at the weekend, destroying more than 180 shacks and leaving residents scrambling for shelter.
As Western Cape finance MEC Deidre Baartman tabled the province’s budget on Thursday, announcing an additional R949m for unforeseen and unavoidable events including drought relief, energy and water resilience, combating gender-based violence, responding to foot-and-mouth disease and fighting fires, many residents said the announcement meant little to them as they continued picking up the pieces.
“I only managed to save the kettle and washing basin, which makes it easier for my kids and me to bathe in the morning,” Dyantyi said.
When housing backlogs grow, when informal settlements expand without services, when learners sit in overcrowded classrooms, the responsibility does not lie somewhere else. It lies with the provincial government.
— Brett Herron, GOOD Party
“We were lucky that we received donations of mattresses and blankets, and we are getting meals three times a day. However, no one is saying anything about helping us rebuild.”
Another resident, Amanda Thethi, said life inside the temporary shelters was extremely difficult.
“The least we are asking for is rebuilding material. There is no privacy in these halls. We have children, and this is not the way of raising them,” she said.
“This finance budget speech means little to us; it’s just fancy English to make politicians look better.”
Budget priorities
Baartman announced that the provincial budget for the next three years is estimated at R285.8bn, with R93.5bn allocated for the 2026/27 financial year.
She said 77.48% of the budget will be directed towards education, health and the caring society.
Baartman noted that the province’s population continues to grow as people move to urban areas in search of work.
“The 2025 Mid-Year Population Estimates confirm that the Western Cape remains the third-largest province in South Africa,” she said.
She added that new data from Statistics South Africa shows poverty is increasingly shifting from rural provinces to urban centres as people migrate to cities.
These updates have slightly increased the province’s share of the provincial equitable share, giving the Western Cape an additional R1.204bn over the 2026 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF).
Baartman said the province would focus on improving access to employment opportunities, particularly for young people.
An additional R3.098m will be allocated over the MTEF to the Western Cape department of economic development and tourism to support a new Employment and Enterprise Development Outcomes Fund, which aims to leverage public, private and donor funding to support job creation initiatives.
Funding has also been allocated for skills development in the business process outsourcing and technology sectors, while the Western Cape department of infrastructure will spend R255.2m on community-based programmes, including the Masakh’iSizwe Bursary Programme, professional development initiatives and contractor development programmes.
The YearBeyond programme will continue providing opportunities for more than 3,000 young people who are currently not in employment, education or training.
Opposition criticism
However, critics argue the budget failed to address the daily struggles facing the province’s poorest residents.
Brett Herron, a member of the GOOD Party and the Unite for Change Leadership Council in the Western Cape legislature, said the provincial government has again failed to prioritise the issues that most directly affected people’s lives.
“The lack of housing, public and affordable, is a continuing crisis that this government has failed to address,” he said.
“When housing backlogs grow, when informal settlements expand without services, when learners sit in overcrowded classrooms, the responsibility does not lie somewhere else. It lies with the provincial government.”
Herron said that despite an apparent improvement in employment figures, food insecurity in the Western Cape is rising.
“The increase in moderate food insecurity at the same time as more jobs are apparently being created is alarming,” he said.
“One would expect more jobs to mean less hunger. Instead, more than half of the Western Cape population is food insecure.”
He questioned the quality of jobs being created, warning of a growing class of the working poor.
“What kind of jobs are we creating if we have a growing social injustice of the working poor? Yet this budget offers no serious intervention,” Herron said.
He added that the province should have expanded feeding schemes beyond schools.
“Hunger undermines educational outcomes, damages public health and destabilises communities. A government that ignores rising food insecurity is choosing to ignore the foundations of social well-being. The budget has chosen to fund the top of the pyramid while neglecting the base,” he said.
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