ANC dispute ‘imperils SA’

THE ANC’s internal dispute over Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s stated intent to approach international finance institutions for funding was jeopardising national efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

DA finance spokesperson Geordin Hill-Lewis said yesterday: “The government has very little money, and urgently needs as much money as is available to fund the Covid-19 relief effort, and support the economy.

“We should be getting funding wherever we can, especially at the very low interest rates global financial institutions are now offering.”

Mboweni last week suggested South Africa might approach the World Bank or the International Money Fund (IMF) for relief, as it confronts the coronavirus and fallout from losing its last investment grade credit rating.

But ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, Cosatu’s Bheki Ntshalintshali, and SACP second deputy general secretary Solly Mapaila – as the secretariat of the governing alliance – said: “The secretariat is concerned by the suggestions that South Africa should approach the IMF or World Bank for ‘assistance’.

Without naming Mboweni directly, they also appeared to suggest he had stepped out of line by speaking without consulting the alliance structures.

Hill-Lewis said stopping the government approaching the IMF would amount to putting ideological differences above the country’s needs. “The Magashule-led ANC radicals are intent on a policy direction that has collapsed the economy and left the state all but impotent to respond to this crisis.”