Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan will release the 2016 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement on October 26. Much attention will no doubt be paid to whether government is holding the fiscal-consolidation line without hurting growth prospects – both key elements for staving off the dreaded year-end downgrade to junk. However, Gordhan will also need to provide some guidance on how government plans to pay for fresh concessions to higher-education students without disrupting flows to other pro-poor or growth-supporting programmes.