Tougher times ahead for country

For most South Africans, it has become a difficult time. Administered prices, such as electricity and fuel, have risen. Unemployment is unacceptably high. Poor services and corruption have hit the poor hardest.

South Africa’s growth forecast has been revised down from 1.5% to 0.7%. Growth is expected to recover gradually to over 2% in 2021.

In the mining sector, the Mining Charter has been finalised and the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Amendment Bill is to be withdrawn.

Visa requirements will be eased to boost tourism. Ten-year multiple-entry visas will be extended to several countries.

The Giyani Water Project is plagued by malfeasance.

Government is dealing decisively and urgently with the water crisis in the Vaal River system. The president and minister of defence have agreed that the military will assist with engineering and other expertise.

Female pupils in schools will have access to sanitary pads. Funds will be added to the provincial equitable share to further this objective.

Municipalities owe more than R23 billion to service providers, mainly Eskom and water service agencies. In many cases [their] financial challenges are a reflection of weaknesses in governance, or even fraud and outright corruption.

The 2018 public-service wage agreement exceeds budgeted baselines by about R30.2 billion over the medium term. We have not allocated additional money for this. National and provincial departments will be expected to absorb these costs.

Revenue collections up to the end of September 2018 have grown by 10.7% over last year. Latest estimates, however, suggest the full year tax collections will be R27.4 billion less than expected. We expect revenue shortfalls of R24.7 billion in 2019-20 and R33 billion in 2020-21, relative to the 2018 budget.

As of the April 1, 2019, government will zero-rate the following items: sanitary pads, bread flour, and cake flour. The revenue loss associated with zero-rating these items is estimated at R1.2 billion.