Gauteng govt not giving up on ambition to establish state-owned bank & pharmaceutical company

JOHANNESBURG - In spite of financial constraints, the Gauteng government said it was not giving up on its ambition to establish a state-owned bank and pharmaceutical company.

Like all provincial governments across the country, Gauteng has faced budget cuts, specifically in the equitable share and grants it receives from National Treasury.

In a recent example of these cuts, Education MEC Matome Chiloane recently announced that it was possibly looking at cutting budgets for school learner transport and nutrition programmes to save money.

During a media briefing on Monday, Gauteng Finance MEC Lebogang Maile said that a state bank would be a net positive for the province’s economy. 

"A state bank is important. One of the problems in this country, it’s very difficult for small and medium enterprises to get loans to do their business. Finance is a big problem. You can't be a government that complains, that says finance is a problem and you don’t do anything about it. You need a bank that's going to be friendly and pro SMMEs and that's why you need a state bank and that state bank, it doesn’t mean we are going to own it 100%, It doesn’t make sense. In fact, we want to buy an existing bank because you need the systems, money, knowledge and skills because we don’t have that as a government."

Maile said that a state-owned pharmaceutical company would decrease the cost of medicine.

"One of the things we have to do which is a big cost, is a cost to medication. We need to have a pharmaceutical company that would help us ease that cost in the public health sector. We are not doing these things for their own sake, it's because we have to impact and change the lives of the people."