The mid-term budget speech should speak to the masses of South Africans who are not benefitting from the economy at the moment. And to be able to do this, the speech must address the long-term strategies for economic growth in the country.
This is the view of the dean of the faculty of law, commerce and management at Wits University, Professor Imraan Valodia. He was speaking to HuffPost SA ahead of the medium-term budget policy statement that Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba will be presenting to parliament on Wednesday.
"What the speech really needs to do, is provide a level of hope amongst South Africans and confidence, not only in the short term, but the long term too."
Valodia believes there has been a lot of talk about short-term issues such as expenditure and taxes, and although they are important, this will not be enough if it doesn't tie in with long-term economic plans.
Valodia acknowledges that Gigaba is "not in an easy place at the moment, and the challenges are tough", but insists that "the Minister should tackle how the economy will grow and how Treasury will address fundamental issues."
He also believes that the speech must answer the critical question of how we are going to shape our tax revenues in the long term.