Addressing the National Assembly on the 2007 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) on Tuesday, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said these increases are seen across all income groups.
Outlining the higher standard of living being enjoyed by more and more South Africans, the National Treasury in the MTBPS released Tuesday cited a number of positive changes that have impacted on the country's citizens over the past few years.
Economic growth, as measured by Gross Domestic Product, has increased from an average 3.3% between 1999 and 2004 to around 5% a year since then.
Employment has risen by about 2.7% a year since 2001. This is faster, says National Treasury, “than at any point in the previous two decades”.
The proportion of people living below the poverty line has fallen from 52.1% in 1999 to 43.2% in 2006.
In 2004, according to National Treasury, the unemployment rate was 28%. That same year, the “poverty headcount index” - based on a poverty line of about R3,000 per person per year in 2000 prices – was 47%.
By March this year, the estimated unemployment rate was 25.5% and the poverty headcount index was 43.2%.
This has happened in the midst of a consistent and sustained rise in spending by government, along with its management of the economy.
Public spending has risen by an average of 9.4% a year for five years, making it now twice as high as it was in 1995.
Broken down to per capita spending, on each person, this means that this spending by government has risen from R6,800 per person in 1995 to R10,560 per person, “in real 2007 prices”, said Treasury.
As a result of this higher public spending, South Africans have seen the number of police on the streets increase and the introduction of no-fee schools for the poorest 40% of learners, said Treasury.
Along with this, the social grant system has been expanded to the point where it now benefits over 12 million people, a quarter of the country's population.
Also over this period, the HIV and AIDS programmes have been scaled up to the point where they now reach hundreds of thousands of people.
In this period, more than two million homes have been built and more than three million homes have been electrified.
More than 16 million people have been provided with clean water where they never had this before.
Minister Manuel said that in 1996, more than half of South Africa's population did not have water in their homes.
“Today, over 88% of people have access to piped water,” he said.
In 1996, “only 64% of our people lived in formal houses”. “Today,” he said, “over 70% of people enjoy this right.”
Free basic municipal services are now provided to more than 70% of the population, said Treasury.
Manuel said: “In almost every area of public service delivery, from access to schooling and health care to refuse removal, from electrification to access to computers, from roads and street lights, from telecommunication services to access to public transport- we can point to steady progress in living standards.”
However, more must be done, said National Treasury in the MTBPS, as it outlined a number of areas that will receive a continued focus.
These include accelerating the pace of growth and the rate of investment in productive capacity; “decisive” interventions to accelerate job creation and investing in community services and human development.
At the same time, “a progressive social security net” must be maintained, while improving the capacity and effectiveness of the state.
This includes boosting the combating of crime and promoting a service-oriented public administration, as well as building regional and international partnerships for growth and development.
Article published courtesy of BuaNews
