Pravin Gordhan is angry. And it’s difficult to know precisely what has made him most angry. Government departments that waste their allocated funds?
Government departments that don’t spend the funds they are allocated? South Africans who are determined to be pessimistic? Or international ratings agencies that insist on downgrading the country?
Yesterday it did seem that for now the ratings agencies might have the edge on all the others.
At a media conference before the medium-term budget policy speech in the National Assembly, Gordhan said: “Too many people outside this country are making judgement calls; they’re making negative pronouncements that are way out of line… way out of line…,” adding that “there is no need for this pessimism, many of us in government are optimistic… we have survived worse than this… we need to work differently… we need to work together.”
Gordhan spoke with the passion of a parent who has been thoroughly irked by a relative stranger who has just passed unpleasant judgement on the capabilities of a loved, but troubled child.
Gordhan knows he is not dealing with a flawless individual, but equally knows he is dealing with an individual that has come a long way in 20 years.
In the past two decades “we have made substantial progress in meeting basic needs, in building our economy and in constructing a non-racial democracy. Income per capita has risen by over 30 percent since 1994, employment has increased by four million, access to housing, electricity, water and sanitation has doubled, enrolment in higher education has increased by 400 000. A new and vibrant set of democratic institutions has been established”.
In the National Assembly, where the medium-term speech is always a more sombre affair than the hat-bedecked February budget speech, Gordhan was at pains to stress that, whatever was going on, there would be no increase in government largesse.
“Public expenditure will remain at the level set in the 2012 budget… let me repeat that… public expenditure will remain at the level set in the 2012 budget.”
He stressed that the government was confronting its difficulties.
“We assure our people that we will repair dysfunctional municipalities, we will try harder to connect book suppliers to schools and we will work with business and labour to create decent living conditions in mining communities. We will restore confidence in labour market institutions and act to combat violence and lawlessness.” The rolling “hhuumphs” from the opposition benches suggested some were not convinced.
Perhaps what is particularly galling for Gordhan, is that South Africa is scoring no points for the fiscal discipline that has been imposed since 1994 and sustained despite the considerable challenges.
Debt peaking at 39 percent of gross domestic product in 2015, said Gordhan, compares with debt at 90 percent of some EU countries and 200 percent in Japan.
“Ours is a sound and sustainable fiscal position,” the minister said.
Sadly, for Gordhan, to the relative strangers who rate this country and who seem to hunt in packs, this may not be enough to counter the sight of violent and uncontrollable strikes that have choked tax revenue from the mining sector.