OP-ED | Quiet economic growth for whom?

Leading up to the medium-term budget policy statement, National Treasury’s director-general Duncan Pieterse has assured the country that Treasury is steering South Africa onto a path of “quiet but firm growth”, aimed at building credibility with investors.

As the Budget Justice Coalition, we know that the budget is not an abstract concept but a nation-building tool — one of the most powerful instruments to deliver dignity and value to the people. What’s missing from that assurance, however, is the people themselves. And worryingly this is not the first time: every day we witness the lived consequences of a fiscal philosophy that puts markets before people.

How South Africa taxes and spends is one of the most powerful tools the country has in building an economy that works for all. Yet, too often, the language from government suggests the budget is being held hostage by unemployment, poverty and inequality, rather than being used to solve them.

Speaking during a pre-budget consultation in August, finance minister Enoch Godongwana lamented that South Africa’s budget “could do more” but is frequently constrained by these crises. But this framing is incorrect: fiscal policy is not the victim of our social and economic challenges — it could and should be the instrument that helps to overcome them.

The point of budgeting is to deploy resources to expand opportunity, reduce inequality and strengthen the public institutions that make economic participation possible. When unemployment and poverty are treated as constraints rather than priorities, fiscal choices become reactive rather than transformative. Every spending ceiling, hiring freeze, underspend and act of corruption unpunished reflects a choice about whose lives are more important — and those choices shape a reality that continues to marginalise the majority.

In just five years, Treasury’s spending ceilings have eroded the real value of public investment — reducing expenditure from 31% to 28% of GDP and freezing thousands of critical posts for nurses, teachers and doctors. While we agree that good governance and accountability are essential, the brunt of Treasury’s version of fiscal discipline has too often been borne by ordinary South Africans who rely on public services. Social investment has fallen to levels of neglect in the name of responsibility. Our work shows that true fiscal credibility will only come when growth restores dignity, not just investor confidence.

National Treasury’s growth plans are not quiet, in a nation where hunger has become the most visible symptom of a failing social contract. It is jarring that in a food-secure nation — a net exporter of food — children in provinces such as the Eastern Cape and Gauteng continue to die of malnutrition. In the first six months of this year, 155 children died of malnutrition. Clearly, this is not a crisis of food supply, but of governance and redistribution — one that is both mirrored and borne by the country’s under-resourced and, at times, pillaged public health facilities.

For the 15-million South Africans living with food insecurity, the Budget Justice Coalition had hoped for a vision by Treasury that confronted this reality. One that outlined stronger consequence management for underspending on critical nutrition programmes.

In South Africa, unemployment is the biggest cause of poverty and inequality. Youth unemployment in particular is a defining crisis of our times. The 55.6% youth unemployment under the expanded definition reminds us of the structural economic crisis. This continues to exclude millions who are willing and able to work, yet remain locked out of opportunity. Public subsidies to universities have been eroding in real terms, leaving institutions with widening funding gaps.

Yet Treasury’s piece made no mention of unemployment, of how fiscal choices could help absorb the millions of young people locked out of the economy. A credible vision for “quiet growth” must begin with loud investment in people — in work, skills and opportunity.

From the beleaguered wards of Tembisa Hospital to the desperate protests at Fort Hare University, South Africans are asking the same question: How can a country with so much potential — and such an obsession with fiscal discipline — still fail to care for its people? National Treasury must rebuild trust through a budget that puts people first, restores frontline services and invests in those who hold this nation together. These are the metrics that really matter. It’s time to reclaim fiscal policy for the renewal of a South Africa for all.

Matshidiso Lencoasa is chair and Clotilde Angelucci head of communications for the Budget Justice Coalition.