The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

The Young Communist League of South Africa (uFasimba) notes the Budget Speech presented by Finance Minister Pravin Gordan. We are excited that the Budget gives more details on the State of the Nation Address (SONA) made by President Jacob Zuma last Thursday. The Budget is the beginning of a process within which Ministers in the Zuma administration will give detail and effect on "What is to be done?" We will watch all the budget votes with keen interest as they detail how they will implement the ANC led Alliance Election's Manifesto.
In our view, the budget has both positive and negative elements, some of which will remain within our midst as we engage in "changing the economic growth path" and the current "accumulation path" as the basis of the class-inequalities in our society. We will deal with both the exciting and negative aspects of the budget.
We are excited that both the Budget Speech and SONA have prioritised youth unemployment and skills development, and regard these as urgent matters. We welcome the target of integrating 500 000 school leavers into the world of work by 2013. We will look into the Discussion Document on Youth Employment Subsidy, and hope that it will not be a new form of a "flexible labour market" that was rejected by the ANC 52nd National Conference. We call on the private sector to play a pivotal role in ensuring that they empower youth with work skills; the "Jobs for Youth Summit" of the YCL will also discuss the recommendations emanating from the Document. We believe that the only way to properly celebrate Nelson Mandela's legacy, his and other political prisoners release and the unbanning of political parties will be through creating jobs for the youth.


We welcome the announcement of R13.5bn into Further Education and Training, and the centralisation of this into the national department on Higher Education. We hope that these resources will go into producing the more than 100 000 young artisans needed in our economy. We further welcome the total R160bn dedicated to Education. We expect that a larger chunk of these resources will go into school and university infrastructure, promotion of access to education, skills development and the improvement of quality learning and teaching.


We note and welcome the affirmation that the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) is an independent institution, and that it should "do its work without favour and prejudice" with "consistency and transparency"; however, we maintain our call for the nationalisation of the SARB. We believe that this will never compromise the values that the Minister has mentioned we further reiterate that in case the shareholders do not agree with this call, regulated expropriation should apply. We further believe that there should be public engagement in terms of the set inflation targets, and how these will consequently lead to job creation, financial stability and contribute towards development. We cannot leave the decisions on millions of South Africans to the whims of private, unelected shareholders who may not be sharing the goals of the government of the day. The democratisation of the SARB is inevitable in the interest of the general public, and not a small clique of shareholders.


It is very hypocritical for the shareholders and their political and economic mouthpieces to frown at calls for nationalisation, and simultaneously suggest that this act will not yield any different results. If they do not stand to lose from the nationalisation of the SARB, then why are they so opposed to the call? The idea that the Finance Minister has closed the discussion on the nationalisation of the SARB as suggested by COPE is disingenuous and frivolous. Similarly, the ANC led Alliance will continue to look into the Monetary Policy of our country, with specific focus on inflation targeting.


We welcome the increase to R78bn for Local Government, and believe that this will go a long way in addressing service delivery issues, capacity at local government, and address the ever-growing service delivery protests. We also welcome the extension of child-support grant to the age of 18; we hope that this will also be extended to school feeding schemes for high-school learners.


The budget remains an important fiscal instrument for redistribution of resources, job creation and the improvement of the quality of life of our people. We are worried that there was no increase in tax for high-income earners and corporate tax. Some of the basic increases such as petrol and diesel could have, in our view, been subverted through the raising of taxes for corporate and high income earners. This would have also gone a long way in dealing with the widening class inequalities and deepening poverty. It could have raised the much needed income into the government fiscus; we see this as yet another bail-out for the capitalist class.


We recognise the fact that the fight in this regard, remains harder and longer and that at a policy level, our Alliance structures would have to look at the notion of a progressive tax system to finance social expenditure.
Finally, we welcome the new zeal and energy to deal with corruption. We agree with the Minister that this is a cancer we have to deal with. We welcome the investigation of more than 1200 public officials, and the announcement of lifestyle investigations of individuals. This is in line with our call for exposing the connection between political leaders, public officials and business and how corrupt sometimes this triad is. The "zooming in" on tender and tax corruption is mostly welcome. We hope that the Inter-Ministerial Committee headed by Minister Collins Chabane will lead the Anti-Corruption war without fear and favour, and should seek to expose and set an example by dealing with the most senior of public officials or politicians if they are found to be corrupt. We have to restore the dignity of public service within the population, and ensure that much needed resources for development are not squandered into the private purses of tender-committees and tenderpreneurs.