Madam Speaker,

Our Constitution requires equitable division of revenue between the spheres of government and sets out criteria that govern the divisions.

Over the MTEF period ahead, after providing for debt-service costs and the contingency reserve, funds available for spending on public services grow by an average of 7.1 percent per annum, increasing to R1.3 trillion next years, and projected to rise to R1.5 trillion in 2020/21.

Over the next 3 years, 48 per cent of nationally raised funds are allocated to national government, 43 per cent to provincial government and 9 per cent to local government.

Of course, we would like to be able to allocate more to each sphere for service delivery, and a larger share to local government, but the reality is that the rising cost of servicing our national debt leaves less resources available to invest in services across all three spheres of government.