Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs

Free State Department Budget for 2026-27

Vision

Integrated, responsive and developmental local governance.

Mission

The Department strives to strengthen inter-sectorial cooperation and support municipalities and Traditional Leaders towards effective service delivery through: • Integrated and sustainable planning and development • Partnerships • Research • Monitoring and evaluation • Accountability

Main services

  • To oversee and co-ordinate the establishment, monitoring, regulating, strengthening, supporting and capacitating of municipalities in terms of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996

  • To monitor, evaluate and provide feedback on the financial performance of District and Local Municipalities.

  • To monitor, evaluate and provide feedback to District and Local Municipalities towards compliance with key pieces of Local Government finance related legislation and regulations.

  • To mobilise resources, expertise and support programs towards enhancing the financial management and overall financial position of District and Local Municipalities.

  • To ensure public accountability and transparency on Local Government level.

  • To integrate and coordinate disaster management policy

  • To prevent and/or reduce the risk of disasters

  • To mitigate the severity of disasters

  • To ensure that emergency preparedness is rapid and to render effective response to disasters and post disaster recovery

  • To render professional advice regarding the physical and spatial elements of land development

  • To manage the process of integrated development planning by municipalities

  • To ensure safe, salubrious, economic and environmentally friendly development

  • To submit all applications for land development and land use changes to the Townships Board for consideration and in turn submit the recommendations of the Townships Board to the MEC

  • To ensure the upgrading of land tenure rights in the Free State, conduct investigations and lodge deeds of transfer in terms of the Conversion of Certain Rights into Leasehold or Ownership Act, 1988 (Act 81/1988)

  • To facilitate the opening of township registers as well as assisting municipalities and to access available state land for developmental purposes

  • To oversee and co-ordinate the establishment, monitoring, regulating, strengthening, supporting and capacitating of traditional leadership in terms of the Constitution

  • To advise Government on matters pertaining to traditional leadership

  • To investigate matters referred to the House and take remedial action

  • To promote the institution of traditional leadership

  • To build the capacity of traditional leadership

  • To monitor the performance of traditional leadership

  • To provide Secretariat support service to traditional leadership

  • To conduct anthropological research on traditional leadership and develop archives (database)

  • To support traditional leadership through mobilizing resources, expertise and development and support programmes and monitor the extent to which traditional leadership complies with legislation.

The Budget Cycle
Plan

2026-27 Budget

The Estimates of Provincial Revenue and Expenditure (EPRE) is a book published along with the tabling of the budget for the new financial year.

Spending plans by programme and sub-programme

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 Provincial Expenditure documents.

Selected programme

All programmes

R 0

Selected sub-programme

All sub-programmes

R 0

Classification of spending items

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 -- 2026-27

Choose a programme

Explore how the budget is distributed across spending items.

Selected programme

Selected spending item

Bubble size shows relative budget value. Select a bubble for more detail.

Programme spending under economic classifications

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.

Selected programme

Loading programme...

Economic classification

Loading classification...

2026-27 Adjusted Budget

The Adjusted Estimates of Provincial Revenue and Expenditure (AEPRE) is a book published along with the tabling of the adjusted budget.

Implement
Review

Planned compared to historical expenditure

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:

Budgeted and actual expenditure comparison

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.

Budgeted and actual expenditure comparison by programme

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