[ad_1]
By Siyabonga Mkhwanazi 
12h ago
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni is riding the storm with political parties calling on him to stand firm and cut spending in the wake of the impact caused by Covid-19.
Mboweni is due to present the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement on Wednesday and faces a difficult situation with rising unemployment and demands for government interventions.
On Saturday, the district attorney, Cope and UDM said Mboweni has very little room to maneuver on reducing the size of the cake.
They said that rising costs of debt service, unemployment, health and education are putting pressure on the treasury.
The government faces the challenge of repairing infrastructure, reducing unemployment and ailing state entities.
Cope spokesman Dennis Bloem said unemployment was a huge challenge facing the state.
“Unemployment is the second biggest enemy after Covid-19. We don’t know what they are going to do with the R350 grant after December. After January, what are they going to do,” Bloem said.
This was in reference to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement last week that they will extend the R350 grant for another three months.
Mboweni has said that this will cost another 6 billion rand and the government will have to shift priorities across departments to find the money.
The DA MP and his finance spokesman Geordin Hill-Lewis said the issue of debt stabilization was important.
Over the years the government has seen the debt rise and now it is over R3 trillion and the debt service costs are R220 billion a year.
Mboweni has said that for the country to stabilize its debt it must be 30% of GDP. South Africa’s debt exceeded 50% of GDP.
UDM leader Bantu Holomisa said it is unclear where the government will get the money from after Ramaphosa presented his economic recovery plan.
He said that before the coronavirus hit the country there were no funds in the fiscus, but it was not clear where the money will come from.
MESS
[ad_2]
