Nene to address State of the Nation finances

President of the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci), Vusi Khumalo, said Sacci would be seeking clarity on numerous issues including progress on funding of the various infrastructure investment programmes, and borrowing strategies to avoid crowding out of the private sector.

Nene hopes to hear the progress made on the Back to Basics programme of the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, aimed at improving efficiency and service delivery at municipal level. Feedback will be sought on the Davis Committee on Tax with specific reference to Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises, a suitable funding model for the National Health Insurance scheme, and the tangible and immediate measures to cut regulatory bottlenecks and red tape for business in order to reduce the cost of doing business in South Africa. Foreign and domestic investors will also be interested in the economic stability of the country specifically relating to concerns on nationalisation.

Khumalo said, “Sacci hopes that the budget statement will reflect a business-friendly fiscal policy that reduces the many hindrances to achieving economic growth and job creation by the private sector in South Africa.”

Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) spokesperson, Patrick Craven said the minister must at least speak to a ‘Nine-point plan’ and provide resources to adequately support their implementation.

“Our assessment of whether government interventions in the economy are radical enough to change the structure of the economy in order to address the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequalities is informed by Cosatu’s resolutions,” said Craven. “These call for decisive state intervention in strategic sectors of the economy, including through strategic nationalisation and state ownership, and a radical overhaul of our macro-economic policy to support the radical economic shift as agreed to by the alliance.”

He added that the finance minister must address the issue of nationalisation, and provide a new mandate for the South African Reserve Bank.