The African National Congress(ANC)says, it will exercise fiscal discipline as it increases spending to lift millions of people out of poverty and create jobs for the roughly one-quarter of workers who are unemployed. Investors are worried that the African National Congress will tilt to the left after next year’s general elections, discarding the pro-business policies that have been credited with spurring a decade-long boom in the country.
Jacob Zuma, the frontrunner to become president in 2009, favours a greater state role in the economy, though he and other ANC leaders have repeatedly said, the party will continue with its pro-growth policies. The ANC has set out a five-year spending plan to reduce poverty and increase employment, primarily through expanding infrastructure development and extending pensions and child support grants. A plan to raise the number of families that are eligible for child support grants could add 10 billion rand to the government’s one hundred billion social welfare budget.
