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Press statement issued by the Congress of South African Trade Unions.

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The People’s Budget

Eight months ago the People’s Budget Campaign, led by the
Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the
South African Council of Churches (SACC) and the South
African National NGO Coalition (SANGOCO) launched the
first People’s Budget document.

The People's Budget expressed a shared vision for a new,
developmental national economic strategy to break the vicious
cycle of poverty, restrictive fiscal measures, low social
investment and job losses. It called for an overhaul of
macroeconomic policy and a reprioritisation of national
spending in order to:

· Reduce unemployment by encouraging economic
growth that creates goods and services to meet local
needs, favours labour-intensive production methods,
and creates and protects quality jobs that meet
workers’ basic needs;

· Eradicate poverty by redistributing wealth and
promoting economic and social equity by race,
gender and class;

· Expand social investment through real increases in
spending on health, education, welfare, skills training,
and infrastructure;

· Care for people through the introduction of a
comprehensive social security system--including a
Basic Income Grant and national health insurance--
and the provision of more resources for the prevention
and treatment of HIV/AIDS;

· Improve the delivery capacity of the public service;

· Build a developmental state committed to serving as
an engine of economic growth.

The People’s Budget campaign therefore awaits the Minister
of Finance’s first Medium Term Budget Policy Statement
(MTBPS) since the publication of the People’s Budget
document. In particular, we hope that this year’s MTBPS will
lay the foundation for expanded public investment in human
development in the 2002/03 budget.

The MTBPS must make substantially more resources
available by permitting a modest relaxation of the tight fiscal
controls exercised over the past five years, expanding
revenue, and revising the tax structure to shift a greater
proportion of tax responsibilities onto those most able to pay.

These additional revenues must be clearly harnessed to
enhanced spending on infrastructure, welfare, health,
education and the justice system. We will be looking for the
MTBPS to provide for real annual increases in spending in
these departments of at least two percent more than the rate
of population growth. We are encouraged in this expectation
by the Minister of Finance’s statements indicating that a firm
foundation has been established for real expenditure growth
closely aligned to Government priorities. We will be
particularly eager to see signs of strong growth in the outer
year allocations for Social Development and Health to finance
the progressive introduction of a comprehensive social
security system and improved access to health care, especially
for people living with HIV/AIDS.

We will be benchmarking the MTBPS against the objectives
and programmes proposed by the People's Budget in
February. We will be releasing a response after the release of
the MTBPS on Tuesday.

All media representatives are invited to a media conference
called by the three organisations which comprise the People’s
Budget to respond to the medium term budget policy
statement to be made in Parliament by Minister Trevor
Manuel on Tuesday 30 October.

Date: Tuesday 30 October
Time: 17 00 (5 pm)
Venue: Cosatu House, 1 Leyds Street, cnr Biccard,
Braamfontein

Patrick Craven and Moloto Mothapo
Acting COSATU Spokespersons

[email protected]
082-821-7456
339-4911

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copies of our most recent press statements.

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Contact 082-821-7456 Patrick Craven or Moloto Mothapo for further comment.

Visit the COSATU web site at http://www.cosatu.org.za/press/latest.html for
copies of our most recent press statements. For the full archive go to:
http://www.cosatu.org.za/press/archive.html.

Get free e-mail for union members. Visit http://www.union.org.za and sign
up now! It's free!

COSATU takes steps to ensure that any attachments are free from viruses.
You should, however, carry out your own virus check before opening any
attachment. COSATU accepts no liability for loss or damage caused by
software viruses.

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