Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan presents the 2013 Budget Speech

27 Feb 2013

Honourable Speaker

Mister President

Mister Deputy President

Fellow Cabinet Colleagues and Deputy Ministers

Governor of the Reserve Bank

MEC’s of Finance

Fellow South Africans

Ladies and Gentlemen

Honourable Speaker

I have the honour to present the fourth budget of President Zuma’s administration.

Mr President you said in the State of the Nation address that "we should put South Africa first. All of us have a patriotic duty and responsibility to build and promote our country." You further said "The National Development Plan provides a perfect vehicle for united action precisely because it has the support of South Africans across the political and cultural spectrum. Leaders in every avenue should be ready to rise above sectional interests and with great maturity, pull together to take this country forward."

This challenge applies to all sections of our society: business, labour, public representatives, activists and citizens in every part of the country.

As we pointed out in the 2012 Budget, global economic uncertainty will remain with us for some time.

South Africa’s economic outlook is improving, but requires that we actively pursue a different trajectory if we are to address the challenges ahead.

Under your leadership Mr President, we have opened new channels of communication and built more cohesion among key stakeholders in South Africa. We have taken many steps to create the conditions for higher levels of confidence in our economy and society. Now we are ready to implement the National Development Plan.

South Africans have a rich history of acting together for a better future.

"It is this collective heritage of struggle, these common yearnings, which are our greatest strength.  At the same time the challenges facing South Africa are enormous. Only a comprehensive approach to harnessing the resources of our country can reverse the crisis created by apartheid. Only an all-round effort to harness the life experience, skills, energies and aspirations of the people can lay the basis for a new South Africa."

The schools, clinics, taps and houses we have built since then are testimony to the truth of these assertions. The freedom and democracy we cherish - and the knowledge that these are permanent, inalienable rights grounded in our basic law – are the foundation on which all South Africans can make a contribution.

The challenge for us, honourable members, is that people are asking if we can sustain our "miracle". They are asking whether we as a nation have the ability, the will and the wisdom to take another leap forward in reconstructing and developing South Africa. They are asking whether South Africans can still show the world how to overcome intractable problems that face the community of nations. In these trying times, South Africans too ask the question, "can we be a winning nation?"

Of course we can!

As Benedict Mongalo, a young man from Johannesburg, writes in his tip: "We all acknowledge that unemployment, poverty and inequality are the greatest challenge facing our country.  We will not eradicate this problem overnight. This is like manually moving a mountain and the only way to do it, is to move one rock aside and the next generation, or next government, will do the same until this mountain is moved."

Hope and confidence come from energetic involvement and a willingness to make a direct contribution to change. The imperatives of change are not just challenges to government, they confront all of society. A new framework for development is an opportunity to unite around an inclusive vision, and join hands in constructing a shared future.

The National Planning Commission has cautioned that our development objectives will take time and hard work to achieve. Measured year by year, district by district, there will be advances and there will be setbacks. But in each five-year term of government we must demonstrate, as we have since 1994, that we can meet more demanding milestones – more jobs, more enterprises, more technological innovation, better housing, progress in education and health.

Working together we all know that we can do better. All of us - citizens, taxpayers, public servants, teachers, activists, managers, workers – we all have a shared future, and we have a shared plan to make it work.

The Batswana say, "Sedikwa ke ntšwa pedi ga se thata" - working together we can do more! Let’s join forces and make South Africa work!