Gigaba faces a tough task

OPPOSITION parties have warned Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba he faces a daunting task to grow the economy after President Jacob Zuma’s Cabinet reshuffle that scared-off investors and led to a downgrade to junk status.

Gigaba was tabling National Treasury’s budget vote when he was warned he would struggle to get the economy back on track.

He said improvements have been done on savings in the fiscus.

“The Office of the Chief Procurement Officer has already achieved R7 billion in savings as a result of renegotiation of the government’s biggest contracts, renegotiating rates with airlines, hotels and car rental companies, restructuring mobile and fixed-line telecommunications and smarter use of technology,” said Gigaba.

The government was expecting to save another R15bn over the next three years through renegotiating government leases, working with the Department of Health to cut medical costs and with Basic Education to reduce cost for stationery.

He said more measures were taken to grow the economy by 1.3 percent this year and by 2.2 percent in 2019.

David Maynier of the DA said the National Treasury was under attack from those who wanted to capture it. He said if Gigaba wanted to be successful in getting the economy to work, he needed to provide policy certainty.

Floyd Shivambu of the EFF said despite Gigaba replacing Pravin Gordhan nothing has changed in terms of policy direction.

He also called for the transformation of the financial sector.