Overall
“The Minister’s underlying theme of collective responsibility including his ‘limping buffalo / lion” quotes effectively tie together that we need to stop the infighting, that moving forward is everybody’s responsibility. I think that this ‘collective responsibility’ phrase underlies the whole theme of the Budget. Minister Pravin Gordhan today addressed the issue of rebuilding trust by reinforcing the idea that we can put as many measures as we wish in place but there are many other influencers and processes that impact whether we can achieve the plans which were originally put in place.” writes Eugene du Plessis.

“To some extent the Minister has done very well considering the pressure he is under – clearly the Minister has a good support system and a great team behind him in Treasury.”

“We all know that Government debt is increasing and revenue collections are behind. Lower economic growth and the estimated R23bn in under-collections are very concerning. It clearly indicates that there will be a definite increase in taxes next year. However, we are not sure how the Minister plans to collect R28bn mentioned today. There will probably be an estimated 1% increase in personal taxes again in February 2017. I suppose to some extent, the Special Voluntary Disclosure Programme could also help here. There will be added income from the SVDP to assist. It seems that an increase in VAT will be more probable.”

“The numbers that the Minister gave indicating that growth is lower than predicted was to be expected. This does reinforce the need to have a collective approach to stimulating the economy and to take the nation forward. Even then, the projections are still very low and probably not enough to really change the landscape. It’s still worrying that projections of growth are moderate and below the international average. While we’re not going backwards, which the Minister noted, there still doesn’t seem to be a master plan to deliver the real growth and job creation that we need. It remains an area of concern.”

“While the Medium Term Budget Speech doesn’t normally include any big announcements, today’s speech was more of a strategy outline, rather than the provision of any concrete plans. We didn’t really see any tangible, real measures in terms of specific things which could catapult the economy forward.”

On Fees and Education issues
“The fact that Treasury has announced additional funding is a good sign that there are measures being put in place to address South Africa’s education concerns. At least making more funds available is a step in the right direction – it’s encouraging to see something being done, that the problem is being acknowledged. But much more needs to be done to address this issue.”

The new Fiscal Risk Statement:
“A lot of these items in the statement are not new – but the fact that they are articulated and visible, will definitely help Government to focus on their risk efforts. In my mind this statement makes us all aware as to what some of the key risks are that need to be taken into account.”

On the Nuclear Power Initiative:
“The Minister’s statements today about Eskom taking the lead in the nuclear power initiative seem to indicate that this initiative could be further along than the feasibility assessment which has been mentioned previously.”