“Public finance is not about numbers - It is about people”

25 March 2026

The Wits School of Governance (WSG), in a landmark partnership with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and the Chartered Institute for Business Accountants (CIBA), recently hosted the National Indaba on Pro-Poor Human Rights Budgeting. 

The two-day symposium convened at the Wits School of Governance, sought to tackle one of South Africa’s most pressing challenges: ensuring that public finance serves as a direct instrument for human dignity and social justice.

Delivering the keynote address on behalf of the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs [Velenkosini Hlabisa], Dr Kevin Naidoo (CoGTA) issued a clarion call to delegates, asserting that "pro-poor budgeting is not a slogan; it is a constitutional commitment."

The address highlighted a sobering reality, while South Africa boasts a sophisticated fiscal framework, millions of citizens still live in a "poverty of opportunity," where the lack of basic services like clean water and sanitation remains a daily struggle.

The Indaba moved beyond technical accounting to explore a human-rights-based approach to the national budget. 

Naidoo begun his address with a provocation, “Are our systems of budgeting, financing, and governing truly enabling the progressive realisation of socio-economic rights, especially for the poor?” and asked delegates to consider South Africa’s national fiscal context, when pondering this question

  • Our national fiscal context 
  • The role and state of cooperative governance 
  • The relationship between human rights and budgeting 
  • Government’s priorities and the path forward 

Delegates were also alerted to key challenges: 

• Tokenism - where Governments may label budgets “pro-poor” without measurable rights outcomes.

• Data gaps – where lack of disaggregated data makes it hard to track whether marginalized groups benefit.

• Fiscal constraints – where economic downturns often lead to cuts in social spending, undermining rights.

• Implementation gap – where even progressive policies may fail without strong monitoring and enforcement.

Read the full speech