SAFARI - the Progressive Business Forum website

WOMEN IN BUSINESS SUMMITJOBS FIRST, THEN SOCIAL GRANTS:The pursuit of prosperitySocial grants are one of the main tools through which the budgetredistributes income from the rich to the poor households, includingto indigent women who need to provide for their families. However,social grant beneficiaries have reached a staggering 15,6 million,which simply is an unsustainable level of spending. The ideal thatwe should be working towards is for Government’s spending on socialservices to complement rising employment, says Nhlanhla Nene,Deputy Minister of Finance.We often make the mistakeof focusing on womenempowerment insteadof recognising the power thatwomen have, and how they use itfor the benefit of all. We cannotoveremphasise the importantcontribution that women have madeto the liberation struggle in ourcountry, and continue to do so to thisday, and for that, we salute them.When looking at important policyareas, National Treasury has receivedboth praise and criticism for itsmanagement of fiscal policy over thepast 15 years, which really is quitenatural. We undertook a successfulfiscal adjustment in the mid-1990s toavert a debt crisis by taking strongsteps to reduce government savingand broaden the tax base throughmore efficient tax collection. Strongrevenue growth allowed Governmentto consolidate debt and to provide taxrelief to households and companies.The fiscal deficit declined from almost8% of gross domestic product (GDP)in the early 1990s to a small budgetsurplus before the onset of the globalcrisis.By reducing the level of debt,we reaped the benefit of lower debtservice costs, which in turn createdspace for strong real growth in noninterestexpenditure in the 2000s. Asa result, we were able to step up therequired investment in the country’slogistics and services infrastructure,which has this year gained newmomentum in the State of the Nationaddress. Also, very importantly,Government was able to expand14 I S S U E 1