National Budget Discussed in Address at UKZN

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Deputy-Director General of Public Finance in the National Treasury, Mr Dondo Mogajane, on Friday 4 March addressed a UKZN audience of students and staff on the decision-making processes behind the 2016 National Budget.

The discussion, facilitated by the School’s Academic Leader for Higher Degrees and Research, Dr Harold Ngalawa, aimed to give students insights into factors the Treasury takes into account when drafting the National Budget with the aim of broadening their knowledge of the county’s economy and to make a connection between theory and practice.

Under the theme: “A Resilient South Africa - Making Hard Choices in Difficult Times”, Mr Mogajane spoke on how the Budget emphasises both public and private-sector contributions to development and how over the period ahead, government would step up its partnerships with business, labour and civil society to realise the vision of the National Development Plan, and to carry out the reforms needed to transform the economy.

‘The times we live in locally and globally make it difficult to put together the Budget. We had to stabilise our public debt as it has been rising; electricity remains a constant constraint; and the rand is not doing well. The key challenge is ensuring that inclusive growth happens,’ he said.

Mr Mogajane also spoke on lower global growth prospects, weaker commodity prices, heightened financial market volatility, and concerns around the country’s low economic growth. He highlighted that the Budget prioritised Higher Education, stressing that those calling for free education should ask themselves whether this is affordable, taking into account the state of the economy.

‘When I was a student here at UKZN we used to demonstrate peacefully against the unjust system; and we never burned buildings. We need students to write proposals on how we can grow the economy because we do not know it all - we need your input and ideas,’ he said.

The presentation was followed by a question and answer session with issues and topics raised concerning SARS, the Treasury, the sugar tax, entrepreneurship for economy growth and the government continuously bailing out SAA.

Mr Mogojane responded to these questions, highlighting factors the Treasury takes into account when making financial decisions on the budget and the role that the domestic and global economic situations play in these decisions. 

Thandiwe Jumo