Budget Speech 2017Introduction |
2017
Budget Speech
Pravin Gordhan
Minister of Finance
22 February 2017
Honourable Speaker
Mister President
Mister Deputy President
Cabinet Colleagues and Deputy Ministers
Governor of the Reserve Bank
MECs of Finance
Fellow South Africans
Sanibonani
Molweni
Goeie middag
Thobela
I have the privilege to present our Government’s budget for the fiscal year 2017/18, and the framework for the next three years.
I am mindful, in the context of our own transformation challenges and the stresses in the global environment, of Oliver Tambo’s unwavering vision:
"We seek to create a united, democratic and non-racial society. We have a vision of South Africa in which black and white shall live and work together as equals in conditions of peace and prosperity...[We seek to] remake our part of the world into a corner of the globe of which all of humanity can be proud."
In the words of the Freedom Charter, “South Africa belongs to all who live in it.” In drafting our Constitution, this was a central foundational principle, and so the values of freedom, dignity and equality are embedded in our law and our polity.
This is also why our Constitution requires that all who live in our country should have access to housing, medical care, social security, water and education, There should be a progressive realisation of access to tertiary education and other elements in a comprehensive set of social entitlements. Wealth and economic opportunities must be equitably shared.
These commitments impose obligations on government – and have implications for the business sector and all stakeholders. We have a shared responsibility to address the social and economic challenges before us.
These South African realities are known to all of us.
| • | Income growth has been uneven - the bottom 20 per cent have benefited from social grants and better access to services, the top 20 per cent have benefited from the rising demand for skills and pay increases. Those in the middle have been left behind. |
| • | Wealth remains highly concentrated – 95 per cent of wealth is in the hands of 10 per cent of the population. |
| • | 35 per cent of the labour force are unemployed or have given up hope of finding work. |
| • | Despite our progress in education, over half of all children in Grade 5 cannot yet read adequately in any language. |
| • | More than half of all school-leavers each year enter the labour market without a senior certificate pass. 75 per cent of these will still be unemployed five years later. |
| • | Our towns and cities remain divided and poverty is concentrated in townships and rural areas. |
| • | Our growth has been too slow – just 1 per cent a year in real per capita terms over the past 25 years, well below that of countries such as Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia, India or China. |
These are our realities. They mirror the stresses of poverty and vulnerability in many developing countries, and the inequality between rich and poor throughout the world.
Even in the developed world, there are serious faultlines and uncertainty:
| • | Citizens lack of trust in elites |
| • | Growing inequality |
| • | Globalisation benefitting a few |
| • | Stagnant and falling incomes of the middle class. |
These, among other factors, are also driving a case for radical transformation of economic models, and a call for inclusive growth.
President Zuma has rightly emphasised that the requirements for transformation and change in South Africa are wide-ranging. Laws and regulations, policies and their implementation, initiatives of national, provincial and local government, our black economic empowerment charters and the engagement of business, organised labour and civil society partners are all critical levers of change. So is our budget.
This is not a transformation to be achieved through conquest, conflict or extortion, as in our past. We do not seek to reproduce the racial domination that was the hallmark of apartheid nationalism. Our transformation will be built through economic participation, partnerships and mobilisation of all our capacities. It is a transformation that must unite, not divide South Africans. This is the task entrusted to us by Oliver Tambo, Helen Josephs, Walter Sisulu and Rolihlahla Mandela.
We find ourselves at a conjuncture which requires the wisdom of our elders to help us make the right choices and keep the trust of our citizens.