The advocacy group said despite highlighting infrastructure as one of its main pillars, the policy statement offered little in terms of commitments to fixing school infrastructure backlogs
Finance minister Enoch Godongwana forecast 1.8% growth over three years, coupled with a bigger deficit, as debt service costs crowd out fiscal space
CEO Busi Mavuso said it appeared that only the national treasury understood the need to curtail government spending
“A drop in the ocean” as only 15 000 new police recruits are expected for the next three years
The treasury warns that helping the ailing power utility clear its staggering debt won’t fix all its problems
With a take-over of Eskom’s debt looming, the finance minister found no indulgence for other struggling parastatals
There were high expectations that Enoch Godongwana, the Minister of Finance, would signal in the medium term budget policy statement how government planned to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on the health system
SMEs are investing in their growth at a rate we’ve never seen before. That is resilience. It is also a sign of the pent-up growth just waiting to explode into our economy — if only the government would see it
Godongwana warns that the outer limits of the budget are non-negotiable as a debt cliff loomed
The opposition party referred to the government’s economic policy as ‘hopelessly inadequate’ and an obstacle in the path towards stable public finances
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.
The new finance minister said there would be no new bailout for Eskom or other parastatals, with the exception of Denel, which was thrown a lifeline after defaulting on debt to the tune of R2.9-billion
Enoch Godongwana’s first medium-term budget policy statement includes more funding local government, but with more terms and conditions for after service delivery failures cost the ANC dearly at the polls
The finance minister says more grants would mean the money would have to be cut elsewhere as he sticks to fiscal consolidation
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
The Democratic Alliance tabled its ‘alternative’ medium-term budget with its own projections, ahead of Finance Minister Enoch Godongwane’s maiden budget on Thursday
Business Unity South Africa is eager to talk to its social partners at Nedlac about how the spiralling public-sector wage bill can be tamed. And the organisation says these talks need to happen soon
The mid-term budget policy statement delivered by the finance minister proposes cutting all non-interest spending by R300-billion.
The finance minister has to close the jaws of the hippo and he’s likely to do this by tightening the country’s belt, again.