/ 19 February 1999

Trevor’s A-team

Ferial Haffajee

These are some of the back-room budgeteers behind Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel’s budget this week:

l Deputy Minister of Finance Gill Marcus: plucked from her role as the chair of Parliament’s standing committee on finance to serve as Manuel’s deputy, she has worked primarily to improve revenue collection. The changes at the South African Revenue Service have netted a 9,6% hike in tax collection, making it easier for the government to grant tax relief.

l Director General Maria Ramos is the petite powerhouse behind the department. Acquiring her skill was a coup for the African National Congress. She was one of the few people at the ANC’s department of economic planning who understood the mechanisms of public finance, the banking system and the markets. Ramos is a key brain behind the medium-term expenditure framework, the new multi-year budget plan.

l Ramos’s deputy, Andre Roux, is also a valuable team member. He is a Cambridge- educated economist who previously lectured at the University of the Western Cape and then worked at the Development Bank of Southern Africa.

l Rhodes-trained economist Andrew Donaldson is the chief director of budgeting and the man who tries to keep it all on track.

l Leslie Maasdorp is Manuel’s ears and eyes in the public service: he inspects wage levels in the public service and will work at ways to reduce the public service, as Manuel promised this week.

l Richard Ketley is a former anti- conscription campaigner, a World Bank economist and a key growth, employment and redistribution strategy architect who serves as an adviser to Manuel.

l Also advising the minister is Ismail Momoniat. A long-time ANC activist, this mathematician has been put in charge of intergovernmental fiscal relations. This means he makes key decisions on how much the different levels of government will receive.