Africa-Press – South-Africa. Responding to Godongwana’s allusions in his Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement, the ANC’s secretary-general said this was in line with the party’s 2022 elective conference resolutions.
African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said the party supports Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana’s plans to close some government departments and reconfigure the State.
Godongwana alluded to this while tabling his Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) in Parliament on Wednesday.
President Cyril Ramaphosa also hinted at plans to review and reconfigure the structure and size of the State during his State of the Nation Address (Sona) earlier in 2023.Mbalula said the reconfiguration of the State is in line with ANC resolutions taken at its elective conference in 2022.
“We are for reconfiguration and alignment of different entities, that is what is important and what he’s talking about and we are for that reconfiguration.
“If that leads to [a] reduction of ministries, that’s it. It’s not an issue for the African National Congress. That is, in fact, what we want.”
Democratic Alliance (DA) Finance spokesperson Dion George said some of the planned spending cuts are misplaced.
“We believe they’re cutting in the wrong places. Instead of giving bailouts to state-owned enterprises and cutting on the public sector wage bill, they now want to actually bail out Transnet, as well. So, we’re not quite sure what that would look like, but it might well be a debt transfer.”
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