The 2009 South African Budget Speech

!±8± The 2009 South African Budget Speech

Introduction

How the new 2009 budget speech will affect the end user - the end user will be affected in a big way by a lot of things, positive and negative. Like the petrol prices going up and down, the inflation rates that are lowering, the taxes that is increasing, the water and electricity is getting more expensive, the rise in fuel, alcohol and tobacco prices. All these factors influence the end user every day in their lives.

Plastic bags

The plastic shopping bags will be increased with 1 cent, making people pay more for the bags will result in the end user not buying the bags or that they will bring their own bags or that they just won't use the bags, at first the plastic bags was free then the government started pricing the bags because they thought people would not litter these bags if they started paying for it, but that did not seem to work out, there is still litter everywhere and still the government made the bags more expensive, the increase in these bags is by one cent which does not sound like a lot but take all the people in South Africa who all of them buy groceries, and one cent will make a big difference.

Fuel prices

The fuel prices increased on 1 April 2009, with 23 to 24 cents per liter, this will affect the end user in a big way because the end users must still go to work with their cars and some must take the taxi therefore the taxi drivers must increase their costs which influences the taxi's business and the taxi's clients, so the end user must cut their costs on one or more of the other factors to still be able to go to work to earn their money and to make it through the month with their current salary and the companies that has a delivery service is also influenced by the fuel prices and is forced to increase their prices which also have a influence on the end user.

Tobacco

The tobacco industries have increased the cigarette and cigars with 13%, a packet of 20 will cost you 88 cents more. This will have a big influence on the end user because there are a lot of people smoking cigarettes, cigars and pipe tobacco in South Africa, there is rich and poor people that will have to smoke less or just have to stop because they can't afford it which can be a good thing for people's health.

Alcohol

The alcohol prices have also risen, a bottle of wine have been increased with 10.5 cents and a can of beer with 7 cents, this will influence most adults in SA because of all the sporting events people would like to have a drink while watching but with the prices increasing all the time people will start buying less alcohol because it will be too expensive, it will not only affect the sporting events but also the people that would just like to have a drink at homes with family or friends.

Crime

The government is starting to improve, the government will give R5.4 billion to improve the criminal justice service, to create and improve the DNA and finger data base, to employ, train and improve the detective capacity, they will also upgrade there IT and telecommunication systems and to increase the number of police officers in South Africa.

This will influence the user because there will be more officers and better equipment to solve crimes, this will also set end user more at peace and the end user will feel saver on the streets and at their homes at day and night to do more things in different times of the day, which is a good thing for the end user and South Africa.

Water and electricity

The government has given an amount of money to better the South Africa's water condition, by improving the water cleaning systems for the land to have cleaner water to use. Water and electricity's prices keeps increasing, for instance the end user keeps paying more for the water but most of the time the water is not even clean enough to drink so the end user ends up with buying clean water in the stores, we as the end user hopes the new government keeps their promises to clean the water. The government have done major investments in generating power for South Africa, to improve and expand on creating new power generators for the present and future to keep ahead this time and not to fall behind because of all the new developments that is build for the Fifa 2009 world cup, the same goes for electricity we keep paying more, but Eskom keeps cutting certain areas power to give enough for everybody but they don't upgrade or build new power stations with the money that the end user is paying for through taxes, we as the end user hope the government fixes this problem because it can influence the end user in a bad way.

Poverty and education

To protect the poor people in South Africa the government have given R25 billion for the provinces to concentrate on the education and health of these poor people in SA, R13 billion have been given to the schools nutrition program to make schools usable to teach in, for the children to feel and be save in schools, to be able to have access to food for children at schools, neat and clean facilities for parents and children to use.

This is the best they can do at the moment despite the crisis were in it has already made a difference in the poor people's lives for them to be able to go to school and to learn, better the education of South Africa for future reference to reduce poverty and to create more job opportunities by educating the children that are not able to pay for or those who do not have schools to go through.

Public transport

The government has given an estimated amount of money R6.4 billion for public transport which is very important and it influences the end user in a big way because the roads will be repaired for better, saver transport for the public and the taxis. They will better the roads by repairing them and making them bigger not only for the public\end user but also for the 2010 FIFA World cup that is next year, the government will also improve the railway networks of our land by setting up the Goutrain which will be a big influence on the end user because there will be able to fit more people on the train to go to work which will be cheaper and a lot easier of the end user.

Housing

The government will give R 4.1 billion to the housing project to build houses for those who don't have and those who live in the squatter camps with metal houses in the rural areas, this will influence the end user allot because there are a lot of people living in these rural areas that would love to live in a brick house with all the normal facilities like a kitchen, a bathroom and bedrooms for them to use.

Conclusion

All of these factors have played a big role on the end users life's because we as the end user don't have an influence on them and we are the ones who must accept these changes because it is not likely to change and to make the best of it, even if it is not what we want and even if we don't see the changes that are promised there is still good thing that happen and thing that influence our life's positively.