Play a significant role in reducing unemployment, poverty and inequality by pursuing the objectives of decent work for all through: employment creation and enterprise development, the setting of standards and the protection of rights at work, including the facilitation of equal opportunities and social dialogue, and the provision of social protection.
The Department of Labour derives its legislative mandate from the Constitution, particularly the Bill of Rights, which is given effect through a number of acts that regulate labour matters in South Africa. The most important of these are the Labour Relations Act (1995), the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (1997), the Employment Equity Act (1998), the Occupational Health and Safety Act (1993), and the Employment Services Act (2014). The mandate of the department is to regulate the labour market through policies and programmes developed in consultation with social partners. These aim to: improve economic efficiency and productivity, facilitate the creation of decent employment, promote labour standards and fundamental rights at work, provide adequate social safety nets to protect vulnerable workers, promote and enforce sound labour relations, promote equity and eliminate unfair discrimination in the workplace, eliminate inequality and discrimination in the workplace, enhance occupational health and safety awareness and compliance in the workplace, give value to social dialogue in the formulation of sound and responsive legislation and policies to attain labour market flexibility for the competitiveness of enterprises, balanced with the promotion of decent employment.
The Estimates of National Expenditure (ENE) is a book published along with the tabling of the budget for the new financial year.
A department's programmes are the activities that it spends money on during the financial year. Different programmes have different budgets, depending on their objectives and available budgets. More detail on the programmes is available in the department's Estimates of National Expenditure documents.
Selected programme
All programmes
R 0
Selected sub-programme
All sub-programmes
In addition to exploring the department budget by programmes, the budget is classified according to Economic Classification.
The Economic Classification of a department's expenditure distinguishes between various categories of current expenditure and capital expenditure. The purpose of the economic classification is to categorise transactions according to type of object or input, such as compensation of employees or capital assets.
This visualisation highlights how many categories of expenditure there are for this department at Economic Classification level 4, and which ones are the biggest. year -- 2025-26
Choose a programme
Explore how the budget is distributed across spending items.
Selected spending item
Bubble size shows relative budget value. Select a bubble for more detail.
Budget programmes will differ in composition of spending, from compensation of employees, transfers to other agencies and goods and services, depending on their objective.
Select an Economic Classification to filter the data in this chart and see how much programmes spend on that category.
Only the categories that this department spends on are shown in the filter.
Loading programme...
Economic classification
Loading classification...
The Adjusted Estimates of National Expenditure (AENE) is a book published along with the tabling of the adjusted budget.
These charts show changes to the spending plans originally published in the Estimates of National Expenditure. Details of these changes are published in the Adjusted Estimates of National Expenditure.
Special appropriations are not included in the Adjustments Appropriation. Special appropriations passed before the adjusted budget are included in the dataset.
Total adjustment to the original budget for this department.
Unforeseeable or unavoidable expenditure arising from events or circumstances that could not have been anticipated or prevented.
A Special Appropriation has been tabled. Percentage of the total Main Appropriation.
See which budget adjustment categories contributed most to the revised total.
Compare where the adjustments landed across compensation, goods and services, transfers, and capital spending.
Review how the revised budget shifts across the department's programmes.
Budgeted and actual expenditure for a department can increase or decrease from year to year. Changes in expenditure can follow shifts in departmental activities, priorities, efficiencies, and the price of goods and services over time.
The chart shows the department's latest available historical expenditure for past years, and planned expenditure for the current year and medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) years.
The phase used for each year is shown below:
Compare the adjusted appropriation to the main appropriation to see whether changes were made in the adjustments budget to the appropriations set out in the budget. The audited outcome shows what was actually spent.
Note: Direct charges against the National Revenue Fund are excluded.
Read more in the Annual Report on the department's website.
Compare the amount of budget allocated to each of this deparment’s programmes at each phase in the process leading up to the Audited Outcome
National Treasury, departments and commitees are busy with different things depending on the time of year: