'We're on the same page': Godongwana says being part of GNU had no impact on tone of MTBPS
The 2024 medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) is the first adjustments budget to emerge from a Treasury operating under a Government of National Unity.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana (centre) and his Treasury heads during a media briefing ahead of delivery of the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement in Parliament on 30 October 2024. Picture: @GovernmentZA/X
CAPE TOWN - Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said that producing a medium-term budget under a Government of National Unity (GNU) has had no impact on the tone of the policy statement he tabled in Parliament on Wednesday.
Flanked by his two deputies, one from the Democratic Alliance (DA), the finance minister told journalists ahead of the announcement that there was consensus on the fiscal consolidation the Treasury’s being trying to achieve in recent years.
Godongwana said that the country’s debt was not as much of a problem as stagnant economic growth was.
Growth has now been revised downwards to 1.1% from the 1.3% projection made in the main budget in February.
The 2024 medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) is the first adjustments budget to emerge from a Treasury operating under a Government of National Unity.
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But despite the divergent views of the ten coalition parties, Godongwana said that this had not affected the sentiment of the policy statement he put before Parliament.
"We are generally on the same page that fiscal consolidation must take place, but we may disagree on the pace of that."
The finance minister joked that it was nice having two deputies, freeing up time for him to focus on other areas.
While Treasury rules don’t allow for him to delegate functions to them, Godongwana said he’d assigned each of them key focus areas.
"I remain working with them and coordinating the work of the Treasury and it’s working well. I think both of them can attest to that."
Just eight months after criticising Godongwana’s budget from the opposition benches, Deputy Finance Minister Ashor Sarupen said they’d now found synergy.