Pravin Gordhan talks 20 years of democracy at UJ
AUCKLAND PARK – Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said South Africa is in a much better place than it was 20 years ago.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said South African Government has fundamentally changed people’s lives in the past 20 years.
Speaking at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) alongside Professor Steven Friedman, Gordhan reflected on the gains, constraints and challenges faced by the country since its democratic status.
Gordhan said in 2011 access to water, sanitation and electricity increased substantially compared to the figures presented in 1996.
“There are less people in the bottom three LSM (Living Standard Measure) today than there were ten years ago,” Gordhan said.
Gordhan stated that South Africa as a nation, has come a long way in terms of the kind of friction and the problematic indicators the country had.
Even with these achievements, the minister acknowledged that there is still a lot to improve on, in the next 20 years.
“There is a lot that we can do as the state, as civil society and as the business sector to make sure that informal settlements disappear, the bucket system disappears and mud schools disappear – literally overnight – because we have the capability to actually do it.”
Friedman agreed that South Africans have a great deal to be proud of considering how relatively young our democracy is.
However, Friedman argued that the entire focus of attempts to use public money to address poverty and inequality in the world, has shifted.
Friedman’s other concern was the issue of racism that he believed should have been address 20 years ago.
Details: www.uj.ac.za
