The mid-year Budget Speech last week contained an important victory for the DA. For the first time, the Minister of Finance has agreed to introduce what is called a “fiscal anchor”, which is basically a financial rule for future governments that says they cannot take South Africa further into debt, and must reduce our national debt over time. It sets rules for responsible budgeting, so debt does not swallow the money needed for schools, hospitals and safer communities. Only under exceptional circumstances, which will have to be explained to Parliament, can this be deviated from.
This is a good idea, and one the DA has been proposing since 2018. Back then our Shadow Minister of Finance, David Maynier (now Minister for the Environment in GNU), proposed a Fiscal Responsibility Bill which would have introduced just such an anchor.
At the time he, and the idea, were dismissed by the National Treasury and the then-government. At the time, our national debt was at 59% of GDP. Now it is at 78% of GDP. That 18% growth represents about a trillion Rand in extra debt that now weighs heavy on our national shoulders. Had Maynier’s proposal call been heeded then, our country would have been in a fundamentally better financial position today.
The idea was taken up by successive DA Shadow Ministers after that, and eventually also by our Deputy Minister for Finance, Ashor Sarupen, once the GNU was formed. And now it has been adopted!
This goes to show two things. First, persistence wins. Had the DA given up when this idea was first mocked and rejected, we would not have got here today. We must persist in fighting for our ideas because we know they are better for South Africa.
Second, the DA is shifting the policy debate inside the government. Each better idea may individually seem small, but little by little they displace bad ideas with better ones, change the tenor and direction of economic policy, and add up to positive change for the country.
But our ambition is not merely a state that owes less, but a country whose people earn more, own more and build lasting wealth.
That’s why the DA is advocating for far more ambitious and urgent reforms in the GNU. We will not settle for the status quo.
Treasury now expects growth of just 1.2% this year, reaching only 2% by 2029. We cannot accept that as the ceiling of our ambition.
Red tape must be cut, the economy freed from stifling over-regulation, electricity production and distribution liberalised to bring down prices, and our ports and rail opened to greater competition.
And the DA will bring the same determination to your municipality. In the towns and cities voters entrust to the DA, we will pursue sound finances, faster approvals, partnerships that unlock investment, and infrastructure that works. Rates and service charges must fund reliable services, not patronage.
On 4 November, let’s turn out in record numbers, make the DA the biggest party in every metro, and win more towns and cities. Give us the strong mandates needed to stop the chaos and start delivery.
Geordin Hill-Lewis
DA Leader
