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These included including infrastructure, education, and healthcare.
Although Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan had not explicitly said so, the budget’s stance had rejected the path of austerity disastrously followed by many countries in Europe, the SACP said in a statement.
However, the party was concerned there was an overemphasis in Gordhan's remarks that maintaining such a stance was dependent upon achieving growth rates of 5%.
"We believe that maintaining a contra-cyclical stance is precisely the means for achieving sustained, inclusive growth."
The SACP noted the proposals on youth employment tax incentives.
"We appreciate the assurances that these will be located within the package of measures being developed in the proposed youth employment accord, and the assurances that the concerns of organised labour about displacement of existing workers will be respected."
However, the SACP believed it would be necessary for social partners to engage with the details to ensure that these assurances materialised in practice.
The SACP also welcomed the announced expenditure review to control waste and the related steps to setting up a Chief Procurement Office to eradicate corruption.
"In a similar vein we warmly welcome the move to deal decisively with large multinationals that do not pay taxes in the countries in which they operate and in which they make their money.
"Likewise, we commend the initiatives of the SA Revenue Service to closely audit companies that are beneficiaries of government tenders and contracts, to assess whether they are paying their share of tax in return," the party said.
* Visit our 2013 Budget section for full coverage of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan's National Budget speech.
