The People's Budget 2005/2006, which represents the views of key civil-society bodies, including the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the South African Council of Churches (SACC) and the SA NGO Coalition (Sangoco), was released yesterday.

The document claimed that sustainable development is possible only if individuals overcome the apartheid legacy by systematically directing government spending to improve the potential of poor households to earn incomes and engage with the economy, and to restructure the formal sector toward job-creating industries.

In particular, the People's Budget 2005/2006 argued that greater government spending is needed to accelerate land reform; to expand housing and infrastructure for the poor in the context of sustainable communities; and to extend social grants by introducing a Basic Income Grant.

The People's Budget Campaign has reportedly investigated ways to fund these programmes, also saying that it welcomes the relatively expansionary stance adopted by the government since 2000.

However, the group has called for more rapid increases in spending to overcome the backlogs left by apartheid, which it said can be achieved through a modest increase in taxes relative to GDP, with the burden falling primarily on the rich through both increased income tax and higher VAT on luxuries; a small increase also in government borrowing relative to the GDP, and stronger efforts to ring fence and renegotiate apartheid debt; a decision not to take up the third tranche of fighter jets in the 1999 arms procurement programme; and more efficient funding and investment of the government employees' pension fund.