An initial payment to support provinces in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic was made at the end of the 2019/20 financial year (before the full magnitude of the pandemic and its impacts was known). Details of further allocations and reprioritisations for the COVID-19 response in the 2020/21 financial year will be published when the Minister of Finance tables a supplementary adjustment budget on 24 June 2020.
On 25 March 2020, National Treasury approved the release of the amounts shown in Table 1 to provinces from the 2019/20 allocation for the Provincial Disaster Relief Grant. These funds were transferred to provinces by the National Disaster Management Centre to fund the initial costs of purchasing additional personal protective equipment and other medical equipment needed by provincial health departments to respond to the pandemic.
Table 1: Provincial Disaster Relief Grant allocations, 2019/20
R'000 |
2019/20 allocations |
Eastern Cape |
44 551 |
Free State |
12 429 |
Gauteng |
115 996 |
KwaZulu-Natal |
138 918 |
Limpopo |
42 449 |
Mpumalanga |
33 993 |
Northern Cape |
6 224 |
North West |
18 540 |
Western Cape |
53 292 |
Total |
466 392 |