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The government is with great difficulty going to reach the target of 5 million job opportunities if the growth rate for next year does not dramatically increases. In order for 5 million job opportunities to be created, South Africa will have to maintain a growth rate of 6% to 7% for the next ten years. The current growth rate is 2,8% and the Minister of Finance is projecting that it could grow to 4% in future. This is not enough.

The budget also did not contain any imaginative incentivising measures which would lead to employers creating large number of new jobs. The tax relief for small enterprises is welcomed but without for example imaginative slacking of dampening labour legislation for these businesses it will not really lead to the creation on a large scale of new job opportunities.

As a result of the recession the government last year collected R70 billion less than what was expected. The tax income this year largely recovered without it having been necessary to announce drastic tax measures, as was the case in many other countries. For this and the way in which the Minister of Finance had gotten South Africa through the recession in 5 quarters, the Minister of Finance can be thanked.

The FF Plus regrets that no specific measures were announced to protect senior citizens against the current low interest rates while inflation over the same period had increased with 12%. The investigation into bank fees is however welcomed by the FF Plus and this may assist senior citizens.

The Minister of Finance avoided issues which are difficult to implement, such as the National Pension scheme and the health insurance scheme by every time announcing that consultations will still be taking place about it. A couple of million taxpayers in South Africa are at present carrying 50
million people living in South Africa. The FF Plus believes that until the South African tax basis is bigger, these schemes will remain unaffordable luxuries for the country.

The increase of the police force from 190 000 to 202 000 is welcomed. It will however not resolve the crime problem in the country. What South Africa needs is better trained police members, specialist units, better forensic services and detective services. Larger number of police members alone will not be the answer.