Some aspects of this system were inherited from the pre-democratic era, however, the post-Apartheid state has been very active in reforming and adding to this system. There has been a rapid expansion in spending on social assistance over the last between 2000/01 and 2006/07. While spending on most budget items (e.g. education and health) have remained fairly constant in real terms, consolidated expenditure on welfare and social assistance has increased from R30.1 billion (3.2 per cent of GDP) in 2000/01 to R101.4 billion (4.4 per cent of GDP) in 2008/09 (National Treasury, 1998 and 2009).14 This is show'n in Figure 3.3 below'.