SA budget targets poverty's burden

The South African government has unveiled its budget plans for the coming year, promising to spend more to help the country's poor.

It said spending on social welfare would increase and announced tax cuts for those on low or middle incomes.

The finance minister, Trevor Manuel, told parliament the extra money for the poor was a reward for recent years of economic austerity.

A BBC correspondent in Johannesburg says South Africa has a difficult task -- needing to show strong financial discipline to keep up international confidence, while also addressing the terrible poverty inherited from the apartheid years.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service