Opposition parties are concerned about the economy of the country after the Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana said that the country will have to survive by borrowing billions of Rands for the next five years.
Godongwana said this when he was tabling his Mid-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) yesterday at the Cape Town City Hall. IFP deputy president and finance spokesperson, Mzamo Buthelezi, said the party remains deeply concerned about the state of the nation and the continued mismanagement of the economy by the ruling African National Congress (ANC). "The IFP wishes to underline that there is nothing to celebrate in the MTBPS. The future of our beloved country is looking bleak, with an economic outlook that offers little hope. The issues of escalating debt, the ever-increasing cost to service this debt, and the alarming debt-to-GDP ratio are alarming signs of a government failing in its fiscal responsibilities," he said, adding that, "We are digging the country into a debt hole that will leave the young people of our nation with nothing when inheriting this economy."
Buthelezi also said that Godongwana failed to address one of the most pressing issues facing South Africa which is job creation. "South Africa's unemployment crisis continues to worsen and we have heard nothing concrete from the ANC-led government on how they plan to create jobs for our struggling citizens. The expansion of the Presidential Stimulus programme, in our view is not a genuine source of job opportunities but merely a political tick-box exercise. While we welcome it, we note that this is simply placing a band-aid on a larger problem," he said. EFF Chief Whip and MP Floyd Shivambu said the party rejected the MTBPS "with the contempt it deserves", slamming it as a continuation of Treasury's austerity measures to cut government spending at the expense of the poor and vulnerable. "The economy is shrinking, the revenue base is shrinking as well [and] there is no basis from which they can expend the money that is needed to respond to our challenges," he said.
DA MP and finance spokesperson Dion George said the MTBPS was further evidence that the government lacked a clear and effective plan to address the country's most pressing economic challenges. George mentioned boosting growth, ending loadshedding, stabilising debt, controlling spending, assisting vulnerable South Africans and fighting corruption. "Tepid economic growth is projected to continue with the result that revenue projections remain overstated, and the government was, therefore, forced to cut expenditure on service delivery and social spending in the absence of any bold initiatives. This means that department budgets will need to be cut further if the government wants to avoid running out of money," he said.
