So I read all 23 pages of yesterday’s MTBPS from Mr Gordhan. You can find it here.
Here’s a summary of what happened:
- Mandela quote.
- Buzzwords about transformation and inclusiveness.
- Lists of everyone having a troubled time in South Africa at the moment.
- Pedi Proverb about lions working as a team to take down buffalos.
- First incident of phrase “It’s up to us.”
- Some forecasts that all follow the model “Where <statistic> is concerned, [this year is bad but] 2017 will be better”.
- Second incident of phrase “It’s up to us.”
- Buzzwords about transformation and inclusiveness.
- Reference to the need for South Africa to work as a team.
- Shout-out to every minister in the cabinet by name.
- Third incident of phrase “It’s up to us.”
- Amilcal Cabral quote.
- A quick history of how things improved until 2008/2009, and have since reversed.
- Announcement of extra R10 a month for social grants.
- Fourth incident of phrase “It’s up to us.”
- Martin Luther King quote.
- Buzzwords about transformation and inclusiveness.
- Pope Francis quote.
- Buzzwords about transformation and inclusiveness.
- Buzzwords about transformation and inclusiveness in the Constitution specifically.
- Fifth incident of phrase “It’s up to us.”
- Bad news about the global environment.
- Bad news about the domestic environment.
- Revision of expected GDP growth downwards.
- More shout-outs to ministers in the cabinet by name.
- Sixth incident of phrase “It’s up to us” [paraphrased]
- Sidebar mention of successful turnaround of African Bank under Financial Sector Reform.
- Adds R17 billion to the Budget in attempt at appeasing #feesmustfall
- *plans for infrastructure investment*
- *plans to address ‘misallocation of resources’ with the provincial Members of the Executive Council*
- Announcement of “Municipal Money”, a new financial transparency portal for local government.
- Corruption quotes.
- *plans to improvement procurement processes*
- Kofi Annan quote.
- Seventh incident of phrase “It’s up to us” [paraphrased]
- Assurances that ‘a number of processes’ are underway to ‘rationalise state entities’.
- Buzzwords about transformation and inclusiveness.
- Call to action.
- Amartya Sen quote.
- Eighth incident of phrase “It’s up to us”
- Shout-out to the President, the deputy President, the Cabinet, and a host of political officials.
- Oliver Tembo quote.
- Pedi Proverb about lions working as a team to take down buffalos.
- Mandela quote.
- *mic drop*
The good news: apparently, it’s all up to us.
No word yet on who “us” refers to.
As for the numbers themselves, check out Ryk van Niekerk’s “SA’s Budget as a monthly household budget“. I liked it a lot (even if I’m not always the biggest fan of the economies as households analogy).
Rolling Alpha posts about finance, economics, and sometimes stuff that is only quite loosely related. Follow me on Twitter @RollingAlpha, or like my page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rollingalpha. Or both.
