South Africa has close to 700 medical doctors who haven’t been able to find a job in the public sector since qualifying
Graduates in the medicine, dental and rehabilitation therapy fields need to do community service to qualify but nearly 200 had not been placed by 12 December
The treasury continues to underfund health and education
Collaboration is key to ensure that budgets actually serve people
To rein in spending, the government will have to restrict recruitments and delay certain projects
The biggest highlight of the budget was the support to aid individuals and businesses to source alternative energy sources
The utility’s R400 billion debt has fed into the country’s 15-year energy crisis and low growth potential, which has been identified as a key credit weakness
The cost of living is not showing signs of moderating in the first quarter of this year and consumers need to be money savvy to stay afloat
Many learners in the Eastern Cape have not received stationery and textbooks because of budget shortfalls
Financial support for pregnant mothers can help avoid the lifelong consequences of stunting, Minister Godongwana
The government has finally started to recognise the importance of SMMEs in job creation, the business bounce-back scheme being a case in point
The finance minister’s reduction in corporate income tax and allocations to education, health, social development, justice and police have been welcomed
The last time the fuel price was not increased because of a change in either the fuel levy or the Road Accident Fund levy was in 1990
Labour group Assembly of Unemployed, supported by the South African Federation of Trade Unions, demands a basic income grant of R1 500.
A portion of the government’s revenue overrun, the result of the commodity boom, will be used to pay provincial employees
A long-term basic income relief measure will depend on spending cuts and improved revenue performance, the finance minister said in his guarded words on the subject
The finance minister says Eskom’s debt problem may require some ‘fiscal intervention’, but only if certain conditions have been met by the parastatal led by André de Ruyter
Enoch Godongwana says he is a far less panicked finance minister on signs the tide is changing for South Africa
Persistently high joblessness, the budget notes, has emerged as a key weakness in economic performance
The finance minister made a smallish exception for Denel in terms of funding but warned that the government wants to push ahead with plans to consolidate SOEs that no longer served a function
The government expects to achieve a primary surplus a year earlier than expected and the economy is expected to reach pre-pandemic levels of GDP this year
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana must lay out tangible, clear and coherent strategies to make good on the president’s State of the Nation promises
Political parties and trade unions are asking the finance minister to address the growing national debt crisis and to extend the R350 grant
Godongwana warns that the outer limits of the budget are non-negotiable as a debt cliff loomed
The Covid-19 pandemic led to an unprecedented widening of the budget deficit and a spike in debt stock but a commodity price surge gave the treasury room to breathe.
Inadequate electricity supply and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic remain a binding constraint on economic recovery in the near term, says the treasury
Subsidy cuts and rising unemployment as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic means how to finance higher education is the most significant challenge
The Independent Electoral Commission wants to prevent a repeat of the voting irregularity complaints that occurred during the last LGE
We’re all feeling the pinch, government included. But where it does spend its money is instructive
The finance minister has said it’s not an austerity project. But the numbers and economists disagree
The banking sector will be in a vulnerable position if the national treasury does not stabilise its debt
It’s taken 17 years for the former president to stand trial for allegedly taking bribes. Expect more prevarication at his 17 May court date