The Interim Budget – Doing More With Less
The newspaper billboard summed up Minister Pravin Gordhan's difficulties perfectly - 'No Money, But We'll Deliver'.
He has to do more with less and meet expanded expectations in a contracting economy. As head of the Inland Revenue Service he regularly raked in more than his target, but since the slump the IRS falls short of targets. Meanwhile a new Zuma-led administration is under leftward pressure to create jobs and spend money that Gordhan hasn't got.
On the other side, business demands the fiscal discipline of Trevor Manuel and that Gordhan control inflation and maintain South Africa as an investor-friendly destination for scarce money. His job has been described as an 'egg dance'. One cartoon portrayed him as a frantic juggler.
In the event he has held to the course plotted by Trevor Manuel, trying to keep inflation down while expanding the public works programme to create employment. Although he has allowed the deficit to increase from around 1% of gross domestic product to 7.6%, he intends to bring this under control when the economic climate improves. He has allowed business people to move much larger sums of money out of the country which should weaken the Rand and boost exports, especially of raw materials such as minerals - a smart way of pleasing both business and labour.
However he makes no bones about the fact that we are in a tough new economic era which will require new ways of thinking and acting. For those in public life and industry who have become used to the idea that the economy is a cow to be milked, his blunt message is that this must stop. When your budget is tight you ensure that what you have is neither wasted nor stolen. Gordhan seems determined to tighten up on waste and crack down on corruption. The Land Bank has been recapitalised with R1 billion and the SABC rescued with R200 million, but if Gordhan has his way this is unlikely to happen again.
If he can forge a new culture of accountability then the economic meltdown may turn out to have been a blessing in disguise for the moral tenor of the country. There are some encouraging signs, e.g. the embattled mayor of Tshwane having been forced to sack several of her team. More heads may roll in places where public money is either going to waste or going missing, and this should 'encourage the others'.
Hopefully Gordhan is part of a growing revulsion in the country and the continent against corruption, the robbing of the poor. The African Synod articulates the mood in its frank message to politicians, especially Catholic ones. The gathering said to those who have, “fallen woefully short in their performance in office”: “The synod calls on such people to repent, or quit the public arena and stop causing havoc to the people and giving the Catholic Church a bad name”! It also appeals for “saints”, men and women, “who will clean the continent of corruption and work for the good of the people”.
The economy, Mr Gordhan and the Synod are all effectively saying the same thing, and saying it to us all.
