Mboweni rejects EFF taunt of Harvard puppet

EFF says US professors played key role in drafting economic paper

Finance minister Tito Mboweni rejected suggestions by EFF MPs in the National Assembly on Wednesday that three Harvard professors had played a dominant role in the formulation of the Treasury’s recent economic paper. Answering a question by EFF MP Floyd Shivambu, Mboweni said the contributions by the three Harvard professors were among more than 50 contributions made during three colloquiums, which included South African professors, private sector economists, SA Reserve Bank economists, farmers and other business people.

Finance minister Tito Mboweni rejected suggestions by EFF MPs in the National Assembly on Wednesday that three Harvard professors had played a dominant role in the formulation of the Treasury’s recent economic paper.

Answering a question by EFF MP Floyd Shivambu, Mboweni said the contributions by the three Harvard professors Ricardo Hausmann, Robert Lawrence and Dani Rodrik were among more than 50 contributions made during three colloquiums that included SA professors, private sector economists, Reserve Bank economists, farmers and other business people.

Shivambu argued that the Treasury’s paper on an economic strategy for SA was constructed in the interests of the capitalist establishment that controlled the Treasury as a puppet. The MP said that the paper reflected capitalist perspectives of how the economy should be restructured, including privatisation and the unbundling of Eskom.

Mboweni said it was false to say that the paper was written by the Harvard professors. He said they had contributed in the same way that other professors had done by participating in a conversation that had enriched the process.

Mboweni noted that the ideological position of the ANC differed from that of the EFF and this position was reflected in the Treasury’s economic paper.

IFP MP Elphas Buthelezi wanted to know how Mboweni was going to win support for his plan from the ANC’s alliance partners, Cosatu and the SA Communist Party.

Labour has already expressed opposition to it.

Mboweni said rallying support for the economic paper was very important and the ANC, as the head of the alliance, would do this.

“Time is of the essence,” the minister said. “We are not waiting for some future date to begin implementation.” The momentum had to be kept going.

Some elements of the paper could not wait for the conclusion of these processes and needed to be implemented immediately, such as expediting the issuing of visas to tourists and the issuing of spectrum.

“Tourism is a low-hanging fruit and therefore we should move with speed to support tourism in the job-creation endeavour,” the minister said.

Mboweni said there were more than 800 submissions made on the paper in response to the Treasury’s request for public comment.

Only those that were “internally consistent” with the paper would be incorporated into it. Some of them, he said, were very helpful.

Replying to a question from DA finance spokesperson Geordin Hill-Lewis, Mboweni said that progress was being made in preparing a bill to reduce red tape.

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE. WE ARE NOT WAITING FOR SOME FUTURE DATE TO BEGIN IMPLEMENTATION