WATCH: A cheeky Gigaba acknowledges Gordhan, Manuel by their ‘mpandlas’

Right at the end of his first medium term budget speech, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba addressed the country’s two former finance ministers, Pravin Gordhan and Trevor Manuel.

Gigaba reduced some of the tension that was palpable in parliament after the meeting got off to a rocky start with the EFF disrupting the meeting and staging a walk out.

He finished his speech with little incident and went on to say that what the country needed was increased reforms that would help to kickstart growth, forecast at 0.7 percent for the current financial year, and reduce government debt to give National Treasury more room to manoeuvre in the next medium-term budget period.

“Ultimately, it is not perpetual fiscal consolidation that South Africa needs, it is a new path altogether that addresses itself to increasing the pace and scale of structural reform, increasing the pace and scale of SOE reforms, reducing the government guarantee framework and reducing government debt.

Watch the video below

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