Budget to put Mboweni to ultimate test

FINANCE Minister Tito Mboweni will have to display all his juggling skills this week when he presents the Budget.

It is expected to deal with the growing state wage bill, state-owned enterprises that are demanding cash rescues and will aim to appease domestic and international investors.

Perhaps Mboweni’s greatest challenge will be in his attempts to reconfigure state-owned entities.

This was a priority when he delivered his medium-term budget policy statement shortly after taking office but there have been dramatic developments in the past few months.

Cosatu has viewed the unbundling of Eskom as a threat to workers and has warned that attempts to privatise the crisis-ridden power utility will be met by intense resistance because such a move could lead to retrenchments.

If Eskom is giving Mboweni a headache, the crisis at SA Airways will prove crucial to how his Budget is judged.

Years of mismanagement at the national carrier has seen it lurch into a deep financial crisis and it is a burden on the fiscus.

Mboweni will have to convince South Africans, who tightened their belts when VAT was increased, that the government is exhausting all measures to trim government expenditure, improve efficiency and to improve economic growth.