Opposition parties in Parliament say the country is in deep financial trouble, with no clear way of escape.
This was the overall response to Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) presented to Parliament on Wednesday.
The country faces escalating debt, with a constrained growth outlook due to weak global economic growth and continued energy and logistic constraints.
Political parties say the situation is bleak.
Political parties such as the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) and Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) say they are very concerned about the country’s debt which is out of control.
Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) and National Freedom Party (NFP) says there is no plan to fix the glaring problems.
EFF Deputy President Floyd Shivambu says the MTBPS does not have any sensitivity to the demands of the people of South Africa.
“This is an austerity budget, it’s a reduction to the initial budget that was allocated. So, if you look into the division of revenue bill which has been introduced by the Minister of Finance, is reducing more than 6.2 billion allocation to all the provincial grants and that is the grants that were meant to deal with the healthcare infrastructure, with educational infrastructure with even the land use and agricultural support programs and grants that normally will be allocated.”
Medium-Term Budget Statement | Political parties’ reaction:
