Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni: Presidency Dept Budget Vote 2026/27

Speech by the Hon Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, MP, and Minister In The Presidency on the occasion of The Presidency Budget Vote 2026/2027, National Assembly

Madame Speaker
Your Excellency, President Cyril Ramaphosa,
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on The Presidency
Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Honourable Chief Whip
Honourable Members of the House,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Distinguished Guests,

Madame Speaker,

Budget Votes are not simply statements of expenditure. They are policy statements and key instruments for transparency, accountability and parliamentary oversight. 

I rise to present the Budget Vote 1 of The Presidency. For the 2026/27 financial year, The Presidency’s allocation is R816.8 million, within an MTEF budget of R2.3 billion. The APP also reflects a staff count of 534 in 2026/27, increasing to 594 by 2028/29 as institutional capability is strengthened. This represents an increase of 7.1% from the previous financial year. This increase ensures that we have the necessary capacity to drive the ambitious reforms agenda, specifically capacitating our Policy and Research Services as well as the Project Management Office.

This allocation will be used to support the work of The Presidency across three core programmes: Administration, Executive Support, and Policy and Research Services.

Programme Allocations

The allocation is distributed across our main programmes to deliver the strategic outcomes of the Presidency as follows:

Programme	2026/27 Allocation (R million)
Administration	702.0
Executive Support	68.8
Policy and Research Services	37.5

Honourable members 

The progress that South Africa is making albeit the challenges still confronting us is a result of deliberate and coordinated efforts. The task of The Presidency is to ensure that government priorities do not remain just intentions. They must become funded outputs, tracked commitments, resolved blockages and measurable progress. 

The President has said The Presidency does not build every road, operate every clinic, repair every water system, as those responsibilities rest with line departments, provinces, municipalities and public entities. The Presidency carries the responsibility to ensure that government functions and South Africa works. A working South Africa requires a capable state.

Too often, government has been criticised for producing sound plans which are hamstrung by weaker implementation. It is for this reason that The Presidency is focused on ensuring disciplined execution. 

As the institutional mechanism through which Cabinet priorities are turned into coordinated action across departments and spheres of government, The Presidency will focus on tracking Cabinet decisions to closure, maintaining centralised records of implementation, ensuring that departments provide to Cabinet credible evidence of implementation. To achieve this, The Presidency will strengthen Cabinet and Cabinet Committee processes, the cluster system, the Forum of South African Directors-General and the decision-tracking mechanisms that ensure that Cabinet decisions are implemented. This is part of our efforts to integrate Cabinet decision-making, intergovernmental coordination and monitoring systems to reduce the gap between commitment and delivery across government.

Madam Speaker,

South Africa is dealing with complex and interconnected challenges of unemployment, water security, infrastructure backlogs, local government instability, organised crime, gender-based violence and femicide, public sector capacity constraints, and the need to sustain economic reform momentum. These challenges cannot be solved by one department acting alone. They require coordinated state action, clear ownership, reliable reporting and structured escalation.

As highlighted by the President, Operation Vulindlela remains a key platform for reform coordination. Its purpose remains that of ensuring that reforms are implemented, tracked and translated into economic impact. The Presidency will therefore continue to support the President and Cabinet in driving structural reform. This includes monitoring reform milestones, identifying risks, ensuring that departments report on progress, and escalating blockages that delay implementation.

Honourable members,

Many of the most urgent service delivery pressures are experienced at local level. Water interruptions, poor road maintenance, electricity distribution failures, waste management challenges and weak municipal financial controls affect the daily lives of our people. The President during SoNA 2026 committed to accelerate fixing local government, with priority given to metro municipalities whilst also ensuring capacity building and improving service delivery across all municipalities.

Since 2024, we have provided feedback on the progress being made in eThekwini as supported by the Presidential Working Group on eThekwini. Although the City of Johannesburg still faces major constraints, which the DA and Mr Mashaba of ActionSA now must partly take responsibility for, we are starting to see some green shots. 

We are witnessing concrete progress in the City of Johannesburg efforts to reclaim the Johannesburg Central Business District through a coordinated High Impact Service Delivery programme that was launched in February 2025, which include Inner-City by-law enforcement, JMPD visibility as a deterrent to criminal activities, environmental health initiatives, development planning compliance, City Power and JRA service delivery amongst others. As a result, the City has restored law and order along Lilian Ngoyi, Plein, De Villiers, Nugget and Small streets and their adjoining corridors.

On the financial controls side, the City is working closely with National Treasury on the metro trading reforms, and financial recovery and revenue enhancements which work includes revenue performance monitoring, improving billing accuracy and debtor recovery as guided by the City’s comprehensive Financial Turnaround Framework. We are confident that the work of The Presidential Working Group on Johannesburg in support of the CoJ efforts will gain momentum.

The work of the Presidential Working Groups in the Metros are part of the broader local government reform are being pursued with urgency. Municipal capability, financial discipline, governance and consequence management are being strengthened. 

We appreciate that communities cannot be asked to wait while institutional failure get corrected. The role of The Presidency is to ensure that challenges at municipalities are not treated as isolated municipal problems, but as national priorities requiring coordinated action and accountable follow-through. The strengthened intergovernmental coordination is part of the implementation of the District Development Model.

Honourable Members,

The focus on decontaminating the criminal justice system has been highlighted in the National Intelligence Estimates and this can be read in 2021 – 2024 NIE as published in 2025. The work to decontaminate the criminal justice system of criminal elements is important to the Presidency as ultimate custodian of national security and the coordinator of the work of the National Security Council and the work of the Madlanga Commission is helping to fast-track the identification and confirmation of criminal elements within the SAPS and criminal networks that have sought to capture the criminal justice system. 

During the State Security Agency Budget vote, I indicated that SSA is making progress in implementing the SONA directive of the President to vet senior management of the SAPS including lifestyle audit. Phase 1 which entails the vetting of 32 SAPS senior management members who are Lieutenant-Generals and Major-Generals is in an advanced stage. The SSA is reviewing its Vetting Regulations to ensure full compliance to the provisions of the National Strategic Intelligence Act that directs that vetting function includes in-depth lifestyle audit and reporting of criminal activities of auditees to law enforcement.

We cannot allow the problem of illegal migration to threaten national security and social cohesion. As the President has indicated that government has been implementing measures to deal with illegal immigration in South Africa and protect the economic rights and interests of South Africans. In addition to increased workplace labour inspections, the President has mentioned, additional measures include:

1. Government in 2023, established the Border Management Authority to address the weaknesses in border management, through 
2. Department of Home Affairs has been increasing the number of deportations of undocumented foreign nationals, year-on-year since 2022 despite the capacity constraints.
3. The Cabinet approved the revised White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection in March 2026. At the relevant post-cabinet briefing, we clarified that the White paper improves the management of migrant reception arrangements.
4. The Department of Employment and Labour has finalised the National Labour Migration Policy that introduces maximum quotas for documented foreign nationals and provides for the prosecution of employers hiring undocumented foreign nationals. In addition, Cabinet has approved for submission to Parliament the Employment Services Amendment Bill which empowers the Minister of Employment and Labour to set quotas in respect of the employment of foreign nationals in any economic sector or occupational category.
5. Currently, 26 364 criminal offenders who are foreign nationals are held in Correctional Services facilities – debunking the myth that law enforcement is not able to arrest foreign nationals when they commit crimes in South Africa.
6. The Department of Small Business Development is continuing to ensure the implementation of the National Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Informal Business Licensing Framework which restricts business licensing to South Africans and individuals with valid immigration status.

Therefore, there is no need for peace-time-heroes in addressing illegal immigration problem. Law enforcement must be left to law enforcement authority, and the authorities will deal decisively with those acting against our laws and the Constitution of our Republic.

Honourable Members,

The Presidency’s role must be clearly understood.

The Presidency leads, coordinates, oversees, advises, communicates and intervenes where necessary. This enables delivery across government.

The Presidency will continue to track implementation of SoNA and MTDP commitments, assess progress across clusters, and ensure that delivery failures requiring executive intervention are escalated. 

This work is not administrative. It is political and constitutional accountability in practice.

Citizens must be able to see what government committed to, what has been done, what is delayed, and what corrective action is being taken.

Honourable Members,

The third apex priority of government is to build a capable, ethical and developmental state. The Presidency will continue to support the professionalisation of the public service, performance management reform, ethical governance and consequence management. Corruption and weak governance undermine delivery. They drain resources, damage public trust and weaken the legitimacy of the state.

The Presidency will continue to monitor and report to Parliament on the implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy, State Capture Commission response actions, and SIU reports and referral processes. Our quest is to move from a culture of delayed consequence to a culture of visible accountability.

The public must know that government takes seriously the responsibility to protect public resources and to act against wrongdoing. 

Honourable Speaker,

Delivery in the modern state requires reliable information systems.

A centre of government cannot coordinate effectively if it depends on fragmented reporting, manual processes, weak records and delayed information. The Presidency will therefore prioritise digital transformation, decision-tracking systems, information integrity, cybersecurity and modernised internal platforms. Internal modernisation is not an administrative luxury. It is a delivery requirement. When systems function, coordination improves. When reporting is accurate, escalation is credible. When records are reliable, accountability is strengthened.

Honourable Members,

South Africa’s international engagements must reinforce domestic development.

The Presidency will support the President and Deputy President in advancing South Africa’s national interests on the international stage, including through the BRICS, SADC, the African Union and other multilateral platforms.

The APP highlights the need for stronger alignment between foreign policy positioning and domestic reform objectives, including through a consolidated international relations position framework.

This means that international agreements, partnerships and engagements must be tracked for outcomes. They must support investment, trade, development, infrastructure, skills and South Africa’s strategic interests.

Our international work must not stand apart from domestic priorities. It must help advance them.

Honourable Speaker,

Public confidence depends not only on what government does, but also on how honestly and clearly government communicates.

The Presidency continues to oversee communication strategy implementation through the Government Communication and Information System and support coherent national messaging, stakeholder engagement, transparency and public access to information. Government must speak clearly to citizens. But it must also listen.

The work of communication is therefore not propaganda. It is democratic accountability.

Honourable Speaker,

2026/27 is the year of acceleration. Acceleration requires focus.

We do this in a year of profound national significance.

Our country marks 70 years since the historic 1956 Women’s March to the Union Buildings. We mark 60 years since the District Six forced removals. We mark 50 years since the 1976 youth uprisings. We also mark 30 years since the adoption of our democratic Constitution.

These milestones remind us that freedom was never achieved through symbolism alone. It was achieved through courage, organisation, sacrifice and action.

Therefore, our commemoration of these moments cannot be ceremonial only. It must be reflected in the lived experience of South Africans.

To honour the women of 1956, we must strengthen the fight against gender-based violence and femicide and advance women’s empowerment unashamedly and unrelentingly.

To honour the communities displaced through forced removals, we must improve access to services, infrastructure and local development, and land must be returned to its rightful owners.

To honour the youth of 1976, we must intensify our work on employment, skills, public employment pathways and economic opportunity.

And to honour 30 years of the Constitution, we must ensure that constitutional rights are experienced not only in law, but in daily life.

Honourable members

It is President Ramaphosa who just did not is admit to challenges in water service delivery but instituted corrective actions. He directed the reinstatement of the Drop Reports to improve accountability and transparency to deal with leaks, pollution of drinking water, and the implementation of action plans.

It is the very President Ramaphosa, who appointed the Madlanga Commission to the chagrin of the DA, which the very Madlanga Commission’s work is today assisting to bolster the fight against criminal networks including those within the criminal justice system.

Budget Vote 1 of The Presidency is presented to this Honourable House for your consideration.

Ndo livhuwa

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