The Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) is useful for signaling continuities and changes in government policy and spending. It also presents an opportune moment in the year to reflect on the nature of government’s strategy to assist the poor.

• Recent (2004) estimates of poverty suggest that just over half the population, or 24million, still live below the poverty line. The latest (2000) income and expenditure survey from Statistics South Africa shows that overall, 30% of female-headed households were in the poorest fifth (quintile) of households, compared to 18% of male-headed. In contrast, only 8% of female-headed households were in the wealthiest fifth, compared to 25% of male-headed.
• In March 2004, the unemployment rate for women was 32% and the male rate was 24%. (Statistics South Africa 2004)

Poverty and unemployment remain critical challenges for South Africa as we enter the second decade of our democracy. These challenges are acknowledged in the MTBPS 2004 and there is expressed commitment to address poverty and create jobs. Government has emphasised that its approach to assisting the unemployed is driven by measures to raise the potential for the unemployed to earn their own income. However, there is recognition that this approach alone will not be sufficient in solving the poverty crisis, and that there is a need to provide direct assistance to poor households.

In the overall economic outlook presented in the MTBPS 2004, government expects low interest rate conditions as well as a favourable inflation situation – within the band of the 3-6% CPIX target – to prevail over the MTEF period. This favourable outlook enables government to increase its assistance to the poor in two ways: via investing in capital/infrastructure development as well as programmes providing services and direct income support; and higher economic growth rates could make some contribution to poverty reduction via job creation in the private sector.

Thus outlined in the MTBPS 2004 is a five-pronged strategy:

1. Increasing the rate of investment – concentrating on the first economy
2. Facilitating economic growth within the second economy
3. Social services, income support and human development
4. Improving the capacity of the state, and
5. International relations for growth and development

While poverty and unemployment challenges are recognized, the extent to which gendered dimensions are considered is often questionable. Yet, as illustrated by the statistics presented above, both unemployment and poverty tend to affect women more severely than men. This submission gives consideration to these gender dimensions by focusing on some of the measures contained in pillars 1 – 4 of the strategy outlined in the MTBPS 2004.

While there is a lot of emphasis on investment, most of this focuses on economic investment rather than on investment which would promote household-based production and reproduction. There is, for example, very little mention of water schemes. Although there seems to be extra money for electrification, there is very little mention of energy. Increased allocations to municipalities should help with provision of free/cheaper water and electricity to households, which could have major impact on the lives of women. For example, women and children spend a huge amount of time collecting fuel and water if there is not easily accessible electricity and water. In not acknowledging that household investment is as important as the economic investment, the document disregards women’s contribution to the economy through (re-)production that happens in households. It can also hamper their contribution to, and benefiting from, the paid economy. For example, their efforts in the paid economy could be restricted because of the time they must devote to unpaid household work. For those who work from home, for example, doing hairdressing and child care, the lack of adequate water and electricity restricts their productivity.

Several programmes are identified in relation to this objective, of which the following will be highlighted with regard to their impact on women:

a) The Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) – The MTBPS 2004 sets out that the EPWP aims to extend job creation into a widening array of public services and infrastructure needs. South Africa has a code of good practice and ministerial determination for special public works programmes. These rules are as follows:

- 90% of temporary jobs created by the project must be given to the local community

- 60% of temporary and permanent jobs should be reserved for women;

- 20% of people employed should be youth between the ages of 18 and 25, and 2% should be disabled;

- Projects utilizing small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) must ensure that 50% of the SMMEs appointed are owned by historically disadvantaged individuals;

- At least 2% of the project budget must be allocated to training and capacity building;

- All training must be accredited so that it is useful to participants when they look for work elsewhere after the project finishes.

Even though these rules which give a gendered recognition to poverty and unemployment are in place, they are not always strictly followed. There are several concerns relating to EPWP, namely:

• EPWP jobs are low paid and require low skill levels. This translates to very little income for the household and poverty levels in the household are not really addressed. McCord (2004) also reports that most families who have members working on the currently running public works programme continue to live below the poverty line. Also as the jobs are short-term, it is for limited periods that those women and men with work will have such an income.
• The way in which the work opportunities are reported provides a distorted picture. In the MTBPS 2004, reference is made to 37 995 direct jobs being created in the three months since EPWP was launched in April 2004. The reference to the number of jobs created does not reflect the reality, as it does not reflect the duration of the job (as jobs could have lasted a few hours). It is preferable to indicate the job creation in terms of person days of work (disaggregated into male and female), as well as the number of women and men who benefit from these opportunities. Not only will this allow for international comparison with public works programmes, but it will also reflect a clearer picture of the impact of this initiative.
• Training is also a critical issue in the EPWP as it is hailed as an important component of the programme. However, the work-related training is very job specific, therefore, when exiting a job, the person only has skills specific to that job and the skills acquired are not easily transferable to another job situation. In many cases, it seems, those employed on the EPWP will not get work-related training at all. Instead the training on the EPWP will be focusing primarily on lifeskills. While these are important, they will not help with future income-earning capacity. As women are largely employed in EPWP, this means that upon exiting, it is women who will still remain unemployed.

b) National Skills Development Strategy – According to the MTPBS 2004, a progressive expansion of investment in skills is underway. The NSDS has very specific and measurable goals to be reached by 2005, namely:

- 85% of all people who benefit from the strategy must be black

- 54% must be female

• There are concerns that the impact of this approach on unemployment is often exaggerated. The statistics presented in the second report released by the Department of Labour late in 2003 indicated that the NSDS performance to date has not been up to scratch. For example:
• Only 20% of workers who have achieved level one of the National Qualifications Framework are women
• Only 41% of workers participating in structured learning programmes were women
• Only 40% of postgraduate students assisted with bursaries were women;
• Only 30% of DoL bursaries for students with disabilities were women; and
• Only 6% of new apprentices were women

MTBPS 2004 recognises that the country’s social security net is under severe strain, however there is a need for improving quality, efficiency and targeting existing services so that they reach those most in need. The approaches for doing so include:

a) Creation of a single National Social Security Agency to manage the financing and provisions of grants – Key shortcomings highlighted with the administration of grants in the current system are:

• Inefficiency, as grants are not speedily administered, and
• Lack of capacity both in terms of the number of staff and the number of skilled staff.

The national agency is being created in response to these problems. However, there are concerns that this new structure will merely inherit the existing shortcomings and not solve them. This has major implications for women, as it is predominantly women who access these grants (whether for themselves, as old age pensioners, or as the primary caregivers for children), therefore women who bear the burden of any disruptions in the administration of grants (Poggenpoel and Oliver, 2004).

b) Comprehensive response to HIV/Aids – Within the South African context, there are marked gender differences with regard to HIV infection. The South African government estimated that 2.95 million women aged between 15 and 49 were infected in 2002, as opposed to 2.3 million men of the same age group (DoH, 2002a:8). Unprotected sex is the primary means of transmission in South Africa, with mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) being the second (DoH, 2002b). An estimated 92 291 babies were infected with HIV in 2002 via MTCT (DoH, 2002b:8). Women bear the burden not only of those who are ill, but also as the main care-givers – thus caring for other family members who are ill; also where parents are ill or have died, it is usually the grandmothers who take care of the grandchildren.

• According to the MTBPS, the growth rate of the HIV and Aids conditional grant in the health sector drops markedly in the last year of the medium term cycle. As reflected in the table 1 below, between 2006/07 and 2007/08, the allocation declines in real terms (by -0.2%). This is concerning given that HIV and Aids conditional grant in the health sector is the primary funding vehicle for the ARV treatment programme, and also funds other HIV and AIDs interventions, including voluntary counseling and testing, post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for rape survivors, interventions for commercial sex workers, and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT). From 2006/07 to 2007/08, there is also a decrease of 0.2% for the community and home-based care conditional grant. This decrease does not bode well for women as it is women who mainly assume the home-based caring functions for those who are sick.

Source: National Treasury 2004b Medium Term Budget Policy Statement p 74; National Treasury 2004c. Estimates of National Expenditure, pgs. 364, 407, 519.

• There have also been rollovers of allocations for HIV and Aids. Soon after Cabinet’s adoption of the Comprehensive Plan for HIV/AIDs, the Adjusted Estimates for 2004 added R90 million to the 2004/05 Budget, specifically for ARV treatment programme. R26 million of these funds had to be rolled over. A further R6 million had to be rolled over for the procurement of medicines to support initiation of government’s Comprehensive Plan. While it is not surprising that funds were unspent given that they were allocated in November, only 4 months prior to the end of the financial year, the implications of the unspent funds are that millions of rands failed to reach women who are the ones predominantly infected by HIV and thus in need of treatment services.
• In light of the above realities, it is imperative that the response to HIV is prioritised. What is concerning is that so far in the process, only 11 200 South Africans are receiving ARVs, which is far from the initial target of 53 000 by March 2004 (which has been pushed out to March 2005). These figures refer to men and women and have unfortunately not been disaggregated.

In concentrating on improving the performance of the state over the 2005/06 MTEF, the approaches include:

With regard to the expansion of public services, the MTBPS 2004 emphasises combating crime and violence, ensuring safety on roads and security in commuter transport services, and promoting an efficient and effective justice system

Violence against women and children, even in light of debates around accurate statistics, is a concern and has become an increasing priority for government during the first decade of democracy, particularly with regard to policing services and justice. In respect of the justice system, it has long been widely acknowledged that the private maintenance system is in disarray, thus depriving children of the money that is needed for their maintenance and well-being.

• With regard to improving the efficiency of the courts, how much is allocated and for what exactly it is allocated is important. An approach previously taken to improve court efficiency was the establishment of additional courts and Saturday courts. However, this did not successfully address the fact that court officials are still overwhelmed by the increasing number of new cases. This has major cost and time implications for women and men as cases are often delayed. Magistrate’s courts are not the only courts that address women’s needs; there are also specialised courts such as family courts and sexual offence courts. Whether these courts are targeted in initiatives aimed at improving efficiency will also undoubtedly have a profound impact on women. Research reflects that these courts lack resources – to the point of not having paper - and as a result postpone matters (Parenzee et al 2001).
• Increasing the number of police personnel is also a focus in the MTBPS 2004 – provision is made for the enlistment of more than 8 000 additional personnel. It is most welcomed as research has indicated that high caseloads that police have to deal with undermine the quality of the investigation of the crime (Waterhouse and Mazwayi, 2004). However, unless allocations also include the training of new police officials, this increase in personnel may not bode well for women who seek the services of police. Research on sexual assault indicated that many survivors continue to complain about not been taken seriously by the detective, not been informed of important developments in the case such as the release of the accused on bail, postponements to the trial and the outcomes of the trial (Combrinck and Skepu, 2003).

b) Compensation of public service employees – within the MTBPS reference is made to balancing expansion of public services against the costs of equitable compensation of public service employees. Commitments are made in the MTBPS 2004 to increasing the salaries of police and educators. While these are welcomed, it is concerning that no mention was made of increases to the salaries of nurses (a profession that is female-dominated), especially in light of the extreme burdens placed on the health care system by HIV/Aids, and the real option nurses have of getting well-paid jobs outside the country.

While government recognizes that poverty and unemployment are critical challenges the MTBPS does not give adequate consideration to the gender dimensions of these problems. Moreover, the way in which the data are presented makes it difficult to distil benefits that accrue directly to women from the budget allocations. We believe that disaggregated data on women and men and on households can be put to more effective use in providing expenditure information and the targeting of services.

The concerns highlighted in this presentation relate to

• Government’s plans to facilitate economic investment and growth in the formal and informal economies, and to what extent the benefits that will flow from such expenditure will be fine-tuned to address the needs in areas where women predominate
• Plans to centralize disbursement of social security grants should not adversely affect women and others who need and depend on these grants
• Spending on HIV/Aids, which is of especial importance to women given their higher vulnerability to infection and their role as caregivers, should not be further hamstrung by administrative and spending inefficiencies

Combrinck H and Skepu Z (2003) Bail in sexual assault cases: victim’s experiences Gender Project Community Law Centre: University of the Western Cape

Manuel, T. (2004b) Speech presenting MTBPS 2004 to Parliament.

McCord, A (2004a) Public Works and the Social Protection Policy Space in South Africa. Paper prepared for Idasa Forum. 17 August 2004

McCord, A. (2004b) Public Works and the Social Protection Policy Space in South Africa. Paper prepared for Idasa Forum. 17 August.

National Treasury (2004b) Medium Term Budget Policy Statement, Pretoria: Government Printers.

Parenzee P and Smythe D (2003). Domestice Violence: The Farming Context. Institute of Criminology: University of Cape Town.

Parenzee P, Artz L and Moult K (2001) Monitoring the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act (116 of 1998) Cape Town: Institute of Criminology

Sadan M (forthcoming) A gender analysis of the working for water programme: the case study of the Tsitsikama project