WATCH LIVE: Godongwana presents Budget Speech

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana is delivering his Budget Speech at the City Hall in Cape Town.

The minister is expected to update the nation on the state of the economy, public finances and progress on the government’s service delivery objectives.

The Budget Speech comes the same day Stats SA announced that inflation increased in January, from 5.1% in December to 5.3%, due to increases in the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, housing and utilities, miscellaneous goods and services and transport.

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In light of this, Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Dion George highlighted the importance of raising child support grant to the poverty line.

George expects to hear about the government’s plan to end load shedding and grow the economy.

“What is our government going to do about growth? Our economy is not growing and is not generating the sustainable jobs that we need. So, what is [government] going to actually do? We know that it doesn’t care, but is it just going to do nothing?

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“What is happening with the country’s power crisis? The government has been promising for over a decade that something will happen, but our businesses can’t flourish because of this crisis.”

Build One SA (Bosa) called on Godongwana to drive efficiency in government’s spending to ensure a sustainable fiscal path for South Africa’s future prosperity.

GOOD party called on Godongwana to address the country’s poverty, unemployment crisis and a low economic growth.

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“If he fails to comprehensively address that crisis then he will doom our country to extended low economic growth and deepening poverty and unemployment,” said the party’s secretary-general Brett Herron.

“These crises are all linked to each other and the only way we release South Africans from the poverty trap is by growing our economy and creating jobs.

“We need at least 5% – 6% economic growth to create employment that will meaningfully reduce the extreme poverty that nearly 18 million South Africans are trapped in.”

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