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Johannesbur - South Africa is fortunate that its fiscal position is strong, public debt is moderate and the foreign reserve position of the South African Reserve Bank is in good health, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan told Parliament on Friday.
Commenting on President Jacob Zuma's maiden state of the nation address, Gordhan said these were "considerable blessings", due in large measure to the foresight and wisdom of his predecessor, Trevor Manuel.
"These strengths mean that we are able to continue with the expanding infrastructure investment programme announced in recent budgets and overseen by the boards of Eskom, Transnet, the National Roads Agency and other public entities.
"And we are able to continue with the broad-based social assistance programmes that are provided for in the national budget.
"These are fiscal strengths, to which we should add the technological and financial capability of the South African business sector, and the collective vision and mobilising power of organised labour and civil society.
"To these formidable strengths, Speaker, we can surely add the great disciplines of modernising societies - hard work, a culture of savings, respect for social institutions and shared family values, nurture of the land and the natural environment - and payment of taxes when they are due," Gordhan - the former head of the country's revenue service - told Parliament.
"Our development path is about building state capacity, and about strategic alliances with partners ? with business, labour, civil society; strategic
partnerships that may be local, regional or global in their reach," he added.
"Our development path is about restoring economic growth, decent jobs and livelihoods, and about a clear understanding of the respective roles of government and the private sector that support the dynamic of an enterprise-based economy while continuing to invest in the institutions and enabling arrangements of a just and inclusive society."
In conclusion, Gordhan reaffirmed the government's commitment to "finding lasting solutions, wiping away the hunger and fear on children's faces and eliminating the hopelessness and despair of being jobless".
"That, Honourable Speaker, is our commitment to the people of South Africa," he stated.
- I-Net Bridge