Johannesburg - There is no clear service delivery plan or pronouncement on how the country will push forward on issues of service delivery. These are the views of political parties and economists who reacted to the Budget speech yesterday.
Even though the minister touched on infrastructure development during his speech, there was no clear indication of how this would be achieved.
“Eradicating poverty, inequality and unemployment is as urgent today, if not more so, as it was at the dawn of democracy nearly 30 years ago. A growing economy is key to achieving this objective. Implementing growth-enhancing reforms is a crucial element of our growth strategy,” Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said.
However, political parties and economists are not convinced if this will be possible due to the issue of Eskom. This comes after the minister admitted that record-breaking load shedding in 2022 and this year has harmed the country’s economic outlook and affected service delivery.
Godongwana said the country’s debt was too high and Eskom would be receiving a bailout of R250 billion over the next three years, adding that the treasury was in the process of bringing debt relief even to municipalities battling to keep up with the Eskom debt.
“We are proposing a total debt relief arrangement for Eskom of R254bn.
“The bailout is almost as much as it received from state coffers since 2008. The latest series of bailouts will once again hamper efforts to reduce government debt. The national treasury said the past 15 years’ worth of bailouts amounting to R263bn were not enough to stop the collapse of Eskom’s balance sheet.”
In response to the Budget, DA spokesperson on finance Dr Dion George said there was nothing convincing in Godongwana’s speech because it failed to chart a clear path for economic growth.
“The minister of finance’s annual Budget speech is yet another missed opportunity for South Africa. While he claims that bold action is necessary, the truth is that there is nothing bold about this Budget. The minister has failed to announce any meaningful structural reforms that could drive economic growth, incentivise domestic savings, attract foreign capital and protect vulnerable South Africans,” George said.
Cosatu said the Budget speech had minimal positives and for the most part continued on the trajectory of neo-liberal policies that had failed in the past two decades to yield the desired results, particularly in the form of employment for young people.
“The Budget does not provide hope for a decisive set of bold interventions that will jolt the economy from the projected growth of 0.9% in 2023 and 1.5% in 2024. It is self-delusional to believe that the timid Budget will spur the economy to grow and slash unemployment.”
The tax lead at Allan Gray, Carla Rossouw, said the Budget was responsible enough, but added that rising costs of living continued to make it difficult for South Africans to lead quality lives.
“The high cost of living, fuelled by rising inflation, significant fuel price increases and a series of interest rate hikes (which are likely set to continue), have left most South Africans feeling defeated and overwhelmed,” Rossouw said.
EFF leader Julius Malema said his party rejected the Budget as the minister did not make it clear how he planned to solve some of the problems facing the country.
“As the EFF, we totally reject that Budget; we think that it is not aiming at resolving the challenges we are confronted with. And there is no clear strategy on how they are going to finance the electricity crisis that we are confronted with,” he said.
The Star