Godongwana: You can't deal with unemployment, poverty if the economy is not growing
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has hit back at his critics for being largely silent on issues of unemployment and poverty alleviation when he delivered the MTBPS on Wednesday.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana addressed a post-budget breakfast in Cape Town on 31 October 2024. Picture: @Treasury_RSA/X
CAPE TOWN - Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has hit back at his critics for being largely silent on issues of unemployment and poverty alleviation when he delivered the medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) on Wednesday.
He said these problems could be overcome if there was more economic growth.
Addressing a post-budget breakfast in Cape Town on Thursday morning, Godongwana said this was where the focus needed to be but it could not all be left up to government.
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Treasury has revised its economic growth forecast for 2024 downwards to only 1.1%.
Godongwana said that the budget policy statement he tabled in Parliament on Wednesday was designed to make it more enticing for the private sector to invest in critical infrastructure projects.
"You can't deal with unemployment, you can't deal with poverty, you can't deal with any of those things… you can't deal with debt because the economy is not growing."
Godongwana has also defended the reforms being introduced to turn around the performance of key parastatals like Eskom and Transnet.
"No, I'm not privatising, I'm doing a simple thing - I'm introducing competition into the sector [rather] than having a monopoly in the logistics sector."
The finance minister said that South Africa's over R5 trillion debt would also be less problematic if there was more economic growth that would allow for easier repayment.