In the run-up to the Budget speech 2017, the phrase "radical economic transformation" has been used repeatedly by President Jacob Zuma and his allies. For critics, the phrase is cynical code for state capture, and freeing resources from being carefully guarded by National Treasury under Pravin Gordhan.
In his speech on Wednesday Gordhan, a finance minister under attack like no other, embraced the concept — in the truest sense of the phrase. Here are some of the most poignant quotes from his speech.
1. "Income growth has been uneven — the bottom 20 percent have benefited from social grants and better access to services, the top 20 percent have benefited from the rising demand for skills and pay increases. Those in the middle have been left behind."
2. "These, among other factors, are also driving a case for radical transformation of economic models, and a call for inclusive growth."
3. "This is not a transformation to be achieved through conquest, conflict or extortion, as in our past."
4. "We do not seek to reproduce the racial domination that was the hallmark of apartheid nationalism."
5. "Our transformation will be built through economic participation, partnerships and mobilisation of all our capacities."
6. "It is a transformation that must unite, not divide South Africans. This is the task entrusted to us by Oliver Tambo, Helen Joseph,Walter Sisulu and Rolihlahla Mandela."
7. "All South Africans must share in a more prosperous future."
8. "Without transformation, growth will reinforce inequality; without growth, transformation will be distorted by patronage."
9. "President Jacob Zuma articulated this intent in the State of the Nation Address, rightly emphasising the radical nature of the socioeconomic transformation we need."