Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s budget speech is expected to be punctuated by a handful of attention-catching announcements.
This comes soon after President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address which emphasised that the government budget must from now on be used to drive the radical economic transformation programme.
This year’s budget speech is expected to give details on how government will utilise to the maximum the strategic levers available to the state, including legislation, licensing, budget and procurement, to influence the behaviour of the private sector and to drive transformation.
Those of us who are sceptical about the ritual ceremonial announcements in both the president’s and Finance Minister’s speeches will listen attentively to what Gordhan will say or not say about the many more things that should happen, first to pave way for the realisation of this year’s announcements, and yet that are not all under the Treasury’s control.
As Gordhan addresses parliament, members of the National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) will be participating in marches in five provinces Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Northern Cape against the Treasury and the Department of Public Service and Administration.
They will be protesting against the “anti-worker” policies of austerity of these departments including retrenchments, outsourcing and casualization.
Whether this year’s inevitable public protests about labour disputes, free education, or lack of service delivery by government will measure up as a mere side issue in the bigger scheme of national economic recovery plans the budget speech is expected to address, or they will loom large in their contribution to another wave of policy uncertainty ahead of the ANC national policy conference in June and the elective conference in December is something the speech is expected to pronounce boldly on in a manner that allays stakeholder fears and boosts investor confidence.
These ANC conferences will deal with matters such as the economy, health, education and land reform and will influence the political environment under which Gordhan’s announcements are expected to be translated into reality.
Nkosikhulule Xhawulengweni Nyembezi is a Policy Analyst, Human Rights Activist and Board Chairperson of Election Monitoring Network
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