Treasury's 2011 budget focuses on fulfilling government's ambition of creating a million more decent employment opportunities, growing the economy and reducing poverty at the expense of ICT.
Presenting his second national budget in Parliament this afternoon, finance minister Pravin Gordhan outlined how government's aims, presented in president Jacob Zuma's state of the nation address two weeks ago, will be achieved.
Gordhan said the budget sets out a financial framework that “recognises that building South Africa is a multi-decade project that must invigorate our capacity to grow, and must include all South Africans in that growth”.
Last year, Gordhan did not mention how government will cut the costs of telecommunications, despite this being a priority mentioned by Zuma in the 2010 state of the nation address. Zuma paid no attention to ICT this year, focusing on job creation instead, so it is no surprise that Gordhan would make this his top priority in 2011.
Treasury will allocate a total of R808 billion, which will be split between national, provincial and local government departments in the new financial year, which starts in April. This is an increase on the R743 billion that was allocated last year.
The amount to be allocated will rise to R926 billion by the end of the three-year medium-term framework period, said Gordhan. However, the bulk of the spending will go into sectors such as health, physical infrastructure, education and job creation.
Government and state-owned enterprises will spend more than R800 billion over the next three years. This will be spent mainly on new power stations, road networks, dams and water supply pipelines, rail and ports facilities, schools, hospitals and government buildings, said Gordhan.
The role ICT can play in aiding government meet its plans to grow the economy and create jobs received scant attention in his speech. The only reference to technology was an amount of R670 million, which will be spent over the next three years to upgrade IT within the safety and security cluster.
According to often-quoted World Bank figures, a 10% increase in broadband penetration equates to a 1.3% increase in economic growth. Gordhan said economic growth is expected to reach 3.4% this year, 4.1% in next year and 4.4% in 2013.
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