Tag: government expenditure
The iceberg is in sight: are we on the right course?
The captain of Ship SA, President Cyril Ramaphosa, can surely see the iceberg that we are heading for and one can almost hear the call go out for us to 'brace for impact'. The iceberg is an economy that is in crisis – an unemployment rate of 42% (using the expanded definition), GDP growth projections down by 7.8%, tax revenue projections at R304 billion less than originally budgeted for, a budget deficit of R709 billion for 2020/21, a current debt to GPD level of 81.8% and debt service costs (interest) currently amounting to 21c in every tax Rand collected.
President Ramaphosa – Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan Address
Address by President Cyril Ramaphosa to the Joint Sitting of Parliament on South Africa's Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan.
Supplementary Budget Speech: what was not said
Sometimes the focus should not be on what was said, but rather on what was left unsaid. The Supplementary Budget tabled by Minister Tito Mboweni on 24 June 2020, centred around the potentially disastrous trajectory of South Africa’s fiscal affairs.
Zero-based and cash budgeting should both be adopted by government
Finance minister Tito Mboweni favours zero-based budgeting, an approach that would weigh each expenditure item, each departmental budget, against government goals. The Minister has said that this would entail focusing on ‘infrastructure development and other growth-enhancing measures’ and come at the expense of those programmes considered wasteful in relative terms.
Government wage bill: over bloated and underwhelming
South Africa was once speculated to have a government workforce larger than that of the United States. Think about that for a second or two. A country whose population numbers close to 57 million with more civil servants than a nation of over 300 million individuals.
