International Mother Language Day: 'Embrace your identity'
Lifestyle
Sovereign wealth fund & state bank coming, Ramaphosa reveals in Sona
President Cyril Ramaphosa said more details on these plans and steps to fix the country’s precarious public finances would be announced by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni when he delivered his Budget Speech in two weeks’ time.
CAPE TOWN - President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the government would set up a sovereign wealth fund so that the country’s people could share its wealth from natural resources.
He also said that the government was going ahead with establishing a state bank so that more South Africans could have access to financial services.
*IN FULL: President CyriL Ramaphosa's 2020 Sona
Ramaphosa said more details on these plans and steps to fix the country’s precarious public finances would be announced by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni when he delivered his Budget Speech in two weeks’ time.
Low economic growth means not enough tax revenue to cover government spending, sending debt levels soaring. Cyril Ramaphosa said that too much state spending was on consumption and interest on debt, rather than investments in infrastructure.
"We cannot continue along this path nor can we afford to stand still."
He said Mboweni would outline steps to cut government spending and make it more efficient in his Budget Speech later this month.
"We are engaged with labour and other stakeholders on measures we need to take to contain the public wage bill and reduce wastage."
Ramaphosa said that a key priority for this year was fixing commuter rail services, with R1.4 billion to be invested in both Cape Town’s Central Line and Pretoria’s Mabopane Line.
WATCH: What you need to know about President Ramaphosa's Sona 2020
Timeline
More in Politics
-
Political parties debate Winde’s Sopa
-
JUDITH FEBRUARY: We're tired of watching the parliamentary circus
-
Mantashe: Eskom being under DPE complicates its management
-
Sona debate wrap: Ramaphosa takes aim at GBV, apartheid; stays firm on Eskom
-
Mantoa Malema accepts Ramaphosa apology over abuse accusations in Parly
-
Ramaphosa: We want to see more money recovered from corruption, state capture
Comments
EWN welcomes all comments that are constructive, contribute to discussions in a meaningful manner and take stories forward.
comments powered by DisqusHowever, we will NOT condone the following:
- Racism (including offensive comments based on ethnicity and nationality)
- Sexism
- Homophobia
- Religious intolerance
- Cyber bullying
- Hate speech
- Derogatory language
- Comments inciting violence.
We ask that your comments remain relevant to the articles they appear on and do not include general banter or conversation as this dilutes the effectiveness of the comments section.
We strive to make the EWN community a safe and welcoming space for all.
EWN reserves the right to: 1) remove any comments that do not follow the above guidelines; and, 2) ban users who repeatedly infringe the rules.
Should you find any comments upsetting or offensive you can also flag them and we will assess it against our guidelines.
EWN is constantly reviewing its comments policy in order to create an environment conducive to constructive conversations.