Government has made a three-year allocation of R19.8-billion to support industrial business incentives, 48% of which goes to manufacturing development, the National Treasury announced on Wednesday.

The medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) allocation includes a reprioritised amount of R600-million for the Clothing and Textile Competitiveness Programme, which aims to reposition South Africa to compete against other low-cost producing countries.

Industrial business incentives, along with access to loans for small business intermediaries, accelerated land reform and developing infrastructure, are key components of government’s economic development programme.

In the MTEF period, which includes 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22, spending on economic development would increase by 7%, Treasury stated.

Government would provide more support to small businesses and announced the launch of a Small Business and Innovation Fund in 2019/20. This fund would receive R3.2-billion over the MTEF to support small business intermediaries, such as fund managers and incubators.

This would support 35 500 existing jobs and create about 25 000 new jobs over the next three years.

In terms of land reform, R18.4-billion has been allocated to accelerate the programme over the MTEF. This, National Treasury explained, would help finalise more than 1 700 restitution claims and acquire more than 325 000 ha of land for landless South Africans.

In addition, government has allocated R138-million to help resettled farmers to purchase equipment and develop farms over the medium term.

As part of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s economic stimulus and recovery plan, government and organisations representing farmers of different commodities will implement 262 priority land-reform projects at a cost of R1.8-billion.

A blended-finance model, which aims to support emerging black farmers under the Black Producer Commercialisation Programme, will receive a further R887-million over the medium term to help them to access finance.

Government has further allocated R400-million to the Agricultural Research Council over the MTEF to finalise the establishment of a foot-and-mouth vaccine facility at Onderstepoort, in Gauteng, which will help to minimise repeat outbreaks of the disease.

Keeping in mind that the Jobs Fund is a vital complement to private sector job creation, National Treasury’s allocation to this fund would rise over the next three years to about R1.1-billion. The fund has disbursed R4.6-billion in grant funding, and created over 200 000 jobs since its inception.

Additionally, over the three-year spending period, R61.4-billion is allocated to public employment programmes, including the Expanded Public Works Programme. Between April 2009 and March 2018, this programme created over four-million jobs of varying duration, and aims to create another two-million jobs by the end of 2020/21. 

An additional R165-million is allocated to the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission over the three-year spending period to improve capacity for preparing projects.