NATIONAL NEWS - Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba unveiled a R1.67 trillion budget on Wednesday, admitting it was tough and that South African’s need to steel themselves.
The pain starts with an increase in value added tax from 14 to 15%.
Basic Education has been allocated almost R800 billion, R668 billion will be spent on Health, while R528 billion will go social grants.
On some of the state’s ambitious projects, it's allocated more than R4 billion to get its National Health Insurance (NHI) off the ground.
But it will come at a cost to those with private medical aid.
Gigaba says below inflation increases in medical tax credits will be used to fund the National Health Insurance.
The minister also announced that over R50 billion will be ploughed into Higher Education.
