Sequel to Long Walk to Freedom - Revision 3 - Chapter 9 Page 1

Chapter 9 The Government's Macro-economic Policy In a previous chapter, we refer to the view of Mr Meyer Khan in which he expressed his disappointment that the increase in the police budget was only 3,7% in monetary terms. There were many others, Cabinet Ministers included, who also complained about the cutting down of government expenditure. I discussed the matter with Ms Gill Marcus, Deputy Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, and she said that looking back over South Africa's development since 1994, there is no doubt that our country has achieved a number of remarkable successes. Economic policies had to address the consequences of decades of apartheid discrimination, while at the same time meet the stringent requirements of a rapidly changing world where globalisation was the dominant trend. While South Africa was emerging from its long period of isolation, it emerged into a world that itself was undergoing rapid changes. The information age and new technologies, deregulation and liberalisation have all contributed to a world we hardly recognised. The challenge for us was not just to catch up with the rest of the world, but in fact to become part of a dynamic world in which international principles and standards, codes of conduct, best practice rules, corporate governance and so on, set the parameters in which countries are judged as fit investment destinations or trading partners. 15