This Budget is indeed a people's budget. It is a budget driven by accelerated infrastructure development. It is a budget that will create jobs and grow the economy. The industrial development strategies linked to infrastructure development will stimulate the economy and retain jobs and create jobs.
The ANC government, in partnership with the private sector, will accelerate development. Together we can do this. Together we can eradicate poverty. This path, though, requires not only that the state plays a regulatory role but also that it employs a strategic key role in the development of poor communities and sustainable service delivery.
The macroeconomic path which we heard of from our chairperson in the Finance Committee, Arthur Moloto, as charted, will harness this industrial policy and strategy. I want to underpin this - it calls for a partnership between the state and the market, but a market that behaves in an integrated manner. The current quality of service delivery can be and is weakened when market activities are fragmented rather than co-ordinated. We have heard how the state will use its power to drive development through fiscal redistribution, the utilisation of state-owned enterprises and effective regulatory measures.
This Budget reaffirms our commitment to a mixed economy with state co- operatives and other forms of social ownership and private capital that will enable our people and our country to steer our economy through the current turbulence, without straying from our vision of a national, democratic society or our objectives to create a better life for all our people.
Indeed, fiscal space, which was developed over the last 10 years, has enabled this expansionary Budget to allocate a significant R15,2 billion to the infrastructure development. But we should note that with this kind of shift, the shift we've made in this Budget - if we look at the examples internationally of the global greed that has characterised the current depressions and recessions - the same kind of greed within certain organs of our society, the economy and certain sectors there, could indeed limit the full effect of such a plan.
We have referred to Richard Young already, and I want to also address at this particular point a few other aspects of our strategy.
While the ANC government has correctly regulated the financial markets and thus been protected from the worst ravages that are seen in other countries, we cannot forget how interwoven our own economy is with the global economy. We have felt this very directly in, to some extent, what could be described as a shrinking manufacturing sector. Hence the measures that have been taken in this Budget to boost that sector yet again.
We should remember that unlike the bad examples which we have seen in North America and parts of Europe, where governments have responded and, as it turns out, unrealistically, by buying debt, we have chosen another route. The ANC government has rather - and those of us who are well-informed on our manifesto, know that we speak practically - provided and is rather developing an economic stimulus to specific vulnerable sectors.
Indeed, the ANC in this Budget 2009, through its government, a government that serves all of the people in our country, has continued its path of deepening the national democratic society. It is a revolution that will seek to build social cohesion and national identity.
We will, through the economic components of the Budget, continue restructuring the socioeconomic fabric of the state through the consolidation of public sector spending, infrastructure spending, expansion of the public sector employment and our Public Works programmes. We will also use instruments of the development finance institutions, DBSA, IDC and the Land Bank, to drive programmes.
Well, I couldn't agree more that there have been challenges at the Land Bank. However, we did not let this ride. Land and agriculture are principal priorities in an ANC-led agenda. Therefore, it is currently, as you are well aware, under the prudent custodianship of the Treasury. These strategic initiatives are the response to the global crises.
We have also heard, and will hear, more on rural development. We have certainly heard about agrarian reform and the critical role it has played, and is playing, in food security. This Budget, as I have said earlier, reaffirms our commitment to a mixed economy.
I want to highlight some of the infrastructure expenditure, which we hope and believe can generate jobs. As I have said earlier, there is a R15,2 billion infrastructure programme; R13 billion which has been allocated to the rail sector to strengthen the capacity there.
Provision is made for supplementary funding to the taxi recap and the bus subsidies. We have heard a lot about the fact that there are bus subsidies, but how effectively are these managed and distributed? Funds are allocated to ensure the training and capacity of the management.
As for Gautrain, with which we are quite familiar, may I add that we have looked beyond Gautrain and are looking towards the upgrade of 165 km of road networks. Another priority, housing, is also getting a huge injection.
My time is up, hon Deputy Speaker. I want to just sound a note of caution here. This is a people's budget. It is an expansionary budget which, I believe, will generate jobs, will grow the economy. However, I have referred to a partnership between the state and the private sector. But economic history, certainly in our own country, has shown that the mere belief that the markets will respond positively to a stimulus package in the manner that the state envisages, it is not entirely realistic.
So we need to encourage investment. We need to ensure that we consider very seriously the investment and proscribed assets by the private sector as a means to stimulate the domestic economy. Clearly, our prudent path will guide our decisions in this regard to ensure that the reliable, robust and realistic financial framework that has so far underpinned the sound financial foundation is not undermined. And as we embark on this people's budget, we should be mindful that the greatest threat to the success here lies in our hands, in our lack of commitment, not simply in this House but in South Africa generally, to support it.
The ANC supports this Budget wholeheartedly. [Applause.]