MTBPS 2024: Good Party wants Godongwana to show commitment to GNU's statement of intent
Godongwana will be delivering the first medium-term budget policy statement of this administration - and since the Government of National Unity was formed.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana. Picture: @TreasuryRSA/Twitter
CAPE TOWN - The Good Party says Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana must show his commitment to the Government of National Unity (GNU)'s statement of intent - by prioritising economic growth when he delivers the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) on Wednesday.
Godongwana will deliver the first MTBPS of this administration and since the formation of the GNU.
The Good Party is one of 10 that make up the pact.
The party’s Secretary General and Western Cape MPL Brett Herron says even though this mini-budget is not a policy-setting event, his party expects to see indications that the GNU is heading towards credible fiscal reforms outlined in the statement of intent.
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"South Africa’s current debt ratio is not excessive. If the country incurs additional debt for the right kind of spending, then it can borrow its way out of economic stagnation. If the choice is between borrowing or cutting social and infrastructure expenditure. Then we must choose borrowing."
Herron says cutting spending on critical services such as education, health and social security will perpetuate economic hardships and set the country back.
He wants provincial governments to be stopped from cutting critical posts, particularly in the education sector.
"We also call on the minister to consider an amendment to the provincial equitable share formula so that the education and health components are transferred to the provinces as conditional grants, ringfenced for the purposes the funding was intended for. "