GSB co-host budget breakfast

Talking tax: From right to left, Guy Lundy, CEO of Accelerate; Le Roux Roelofse, tax director at Deloitte; Frank Horwitz of the GSB; Martin Grote of National Treasury; and Professor Brian Kantor of Investec

The 2008 budget was the topic under the spotlight at a lively breakfast discussion co-hosted by UCT's Graduate School of Business (GSB) and Deloitte at the Arabella Sheraton Hotel on 22 February.

Reception of finance minister Trevor Manuel's budget speech, which was delivered on 20 February, was generally favourable, with one panelist describing it as "extremely well crafted" - despite the fact that the Rand weakened significantly during and after the speech.

The panel included Le Roux Roelofse, tax director at Deloitte; Guy Lundy, CEO of Accelerate; Martin Grote of National Treasury; and Professor Brian Kantor of Investec.

Rolofse described the budget as "simple and positive", but noted that there was an "immigration culture" in white-owned business. Kantor disagreed with the distinction and echoed Manuel's repeated phrase, "we're all in it together".

In addressing the electricity problem, Kantor controversially claimed we should be burning more coal, and that the link between global warming and carbon emissions was "a spurious correlation".