The government spent R7.8 billion on consultants in one year
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana revealed that the government spent R7.8 billion on consultants during the last financial year.
He shared this information in response to a Parliamentary question regarding the national and provincial departments’ use of consultants.
Godongwana was also asked what percentage of this expenditure was related to functions that could have been performed by existing public servants.
He explained that during the 2026 financial year, the government spent R7.8 billion on business and advisory services.
Provincial governments spent R4.4 billion on consultants, while the national government spent R3.5 billion.
Godongwana said that this spending was primarily concentrated in project management services, which accounted for R3.8 billion.
Research and advisory services, which accounted for R2.1 billion, made up 26.5% of the money spent on consultants.
“Business and advisory services refer to specialised consultancy services and professional skills procured to achieve a specific objective,” he said.
“These are generally on a once-off or temporary basis, and it is therefore not necessary to maintain such capacity in-house.”
“These services are provided in terms of contractual arrangements and may be remunerated on an hourly-fee basis or as a fixed fee.”
He said it includes accountants and auditors, audit committee members, board and committee members, commissions, and committees of enquiry.
They also used consultants for communication, financial management, human resources, occupational safety and health, and organisational advisory services.
Others included project management, qualification verification, quality control, research and advisory services, translations and transcripts, and valuers.
The Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal spent the most money on consultants, while the Northern Cape and Mpumalanga spent the least.
The table below shows the spending on consultants in the last financial year.
| Sphere | Expenditure |
| Provincial | R4.357 billion |
| Eastern Cape | R236 million |
| Free State | R156 million |
| Gauteng | R958 million |
| KwaZulu-Natal | R1.055 billion |
| Limpopo | R324 million |
| Mpumalanga | R74 million |
| North West | R463 million |
| Northern Cape | R36 million |
| Western Cape | R1.056 billion |
| National | R3.473 billion |
| Total | R7.830 billion |
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Here’s a novel thought: If you appoint people on the basis of competency and merit, then it is not necessary to employ “consultants”. They are capable of doing and performing, exactly what it says on the box.
But instead, we have race-based legislation that mandates the appointment of people based on criteria irrelevant to performance. This is yet another area where EE and BEE kills the economy, making South Africa uncompetitive, inefficient and uninvestable.