Banker body wants Gigaba to ‘fill the void’
WITH THE medium-term Budget statement (MTBS) on the horizon, the Banking Association South Africa (Basa) has called on Minister of Finance Malusi Gigaba to prioritise working with the private sector to address ongoing failures of governance and management issues at state-owned enterprises.
Cas Coovadia, Basa’s managing director, said in a statement released yesterday that the MTBS – due on October 25 – was yet another opportunity for the government to fill the void and acknowledge and address our crisis in leadership.
“In a climate of ongoing poor economic growth, it would be irresponsible for the government not to use the MTBS to put clear and decisive steps that encourage national and global private sector investment on the table,” he said.
“Without this, it remains all but impossible to meaningfully address fiscal constraints and the expected shortfall in tax revenues that will continue to impact service delivery and the poorest of the poor – who remain marginalised because of the consistent inability to address the crisis in which we find ourselves,” he said.
Coovadia said it was the government’s constitutional responsibility to act in the national interest, and the motives behind its failure to do so remained questionable.
He said the need for action existed at all levels of the government. “Basa calls on the president to act immediately to appoint a judicial commission of enquiry into state capture. Instead, the ongoing issues at Eskom and SAA are indicative of continuing state capture.”
The Basa managing director said of particular concern were recent allegations of attempts to capture the Public Investments Corporation (PIC), including the persistent attacks on its chief executive Daniel Matjila.
Minister Gigaba recently demanded that the PIC chief executive and the board reveal the entity’s investments and the people it had funded, in what was believed to be a bid to oust Matjila.
Coovadia said this was a serious extension of the state capture narrative and must be resisted.
“It has become urgent to address the scope and scale of state capture, the scourge of corruption and the lack of leadership action that impacts delivery.”
Private sector initiatives, particularly the CEO Initiative, were making very good progress, in trying circumstances, in areas of investment, small and medium-sized enterprises finance and youth employment.
Coovadia said the CEO Initiative also worked hard to engage rating agencies to avoid a downgrade. All these positive initiatives were halted, and trust which had been built destroyed, through the president’s actions in March.
He said it was the government’s constitutional responsibility to act in the national interest, and the motives behind its failure to do so remain questionable.
“The MTBS cannot be seen in isolation of this broader context and the Minister of Finance must, in his speech, rebuild confidence, trust, certainty and demonstrate the national interest to take the hard decisions necessary to put South Africa on to an inclusive growth path,” he said.