Africa-Press – South-Africa. President Cyril Ramaphosa says Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has reassured the ANC that the country was not running out of money.
The president said despite the optimism, the ANC supports efforts for fiscal discipline to reign in rising debt levels and revenue shortfalls.
Ramaphosa said the ANC’s national executive committee’s (NEC) three-day meeting saw Godongwana detail how dire the country’s fiscal situation is.
He said the ANC saw the country’s financial situation as critical, and the party wants to see “fiscal discipline” but no cuts to priority areas that the party relies on to help drive its electioneering promises.
The large bulk of the country’s economic problems were due to low economic growth, he said during his closing address at the ANC national leadership meeting in Boksburg on Monday night.
Ramaphosa said despite the revenue shortfalls, Godongwana assured the ANC that the country was not running out of money.
He said:
“Our country’s fiscal pressures stem from economic challenges or slow and jobless growth. Instilling discipline as an important measure is important for us to take decisive steps for us to grow the economy. Fiscal discipline is not the same as imposing austerity measures that will undermine our development agenda,” the president said.
The National Treasury had reportedly told government departments that they would need to cut back on spending to meet efforts to stabilise debt levels.
The ANC and its alliance partners had pushed back on these reports, raising alarm about any efforts to cut back on spending on key areas, including social grants or policing.
Fears over rising austerity measures within the ANC focus mainly on the ripple effects the party could face ahead of a critical election year in 2024.
The party is already campaigning to meet some of its 2019 electioneering promises with eye-raising targets, and news of budget cuts fear jeopardising those efforts.
The ANC meeting held at the weekend discussed other pressing issues from crucial governance areas, including load shedding.
The energy crisis was the most upbeat section of the ANC’s meeting, as Ramaphosa said the party was confident that load shedding was easing.
The pressures on the country’s grid were expected to further improve by the end of the year, Ramaphosa said.
He said the country had turned the corner on the energy crisis, mainly due to improvements at Kusile.
Ramaphosa said:
The president said that the ANC also wanted to see further investment and extension in the country’s transmission through efforts of funding to ensure that renewable projects in the Northern Cape and the Western Cape were brought online.
Ramaphosa also touched on fears among his party members who believed the government was interested in privatising struggling state-owned entities.
He said the government and the ANC had no plans to privatise and saw key rail or freight services as strategic state assets.
“Some have expressed concern about under way reforms, particularly where our government-owned entities are working with the private sector at Eskom and Transnet. We have been clear that South Africa’s port, rail and electricity infrastructure are strategic national assets and will remain in public ownership.
“Private participation in specific areas in energy generation … we are mobilising investments which will contribute to our efforts to ensure a key supply of electricity. We see this as an enabling process,” Ramaphosa said.
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