Trade union federation Cosatu on Tuesday called for clarity on government’s commitment to increase social spending ahead of the 2009 Medium-Term Budget Speech.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan was presenting his first medium-term speech in Parliament, outlining how much money government was planning to spend, and on what, over the next three years.

Democratic Alliance member of Parliament Dion George said Gordhan had several options to fund the budget deficit and hiking taxes should not be the first choice.

"At a time like this, what you should be doing is to cut tax, but we don’t have sufficient space in our economy. So, essentially we say no to tax increases," said George.

However, Cosatu's Tony Ehrenreich took a different stance.

"There's [sic] also a number of areas in which we can raise our revenue. Amongst those are the reduced taxes of the Manuel era which the wealthy should think of giving back," said Cosatu.

Opposition parties warned that Gordhan could not afford any shifts to the left.

Eyewitness News

SA firms top world's best Three South African companies have made their way onto a list of the world's top 40 firms.

Ackerman takes a bow Pick n Pay Chairman Raymond Ackerman writes about his confidence in SA's future.

SA's top 5 fraud cases Meriza La Key counts down South Africa's biggest Ponzi schemes.