President Cyril Ramaphosa and government are taking a number of measures to deal with the fiscal crisis facing the country.
Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said it was not the first time that this has happened.
He said the government has openly discussed this in the public and National Treasury has sent communications to departments across government.
Magwenya said some of the measures was to look at opportunities to stimulate growth in the economy.
Ramaphosa will be meeting with the US Chamber of Commerce and the US-Africa Business Centre to attract investment in the country because they want to address all elements that undermine growth.
Magwenya said it was not the first time the fiscal crisis affected South Africa, but all measures were being looked into to deal with it.
“South Africa has a fiscal pressure and that fiscal pressure is not new. It’s something that has been openly communicated. It’s something government is seized with. You would have seen a letter that came out of National Treasury directed at all government departments with respect to the curtailment of costs. There is an exercise under way already, including here in the Presidency, to look at our various cost structures and how we curtail those costs back,” said Magwenya.
Ramaphosa met with senior National Treasury officials recently to look at cost-containment measures. But key to the meeting was to stimulate growth because there was low revenue collection.
“What that meeting (between Ramaphosa and National Treasury) was seized about, as we have communicated, was to look at fiscal challenges we are faced with as a country. But then to also look at measures to stimulate growth, because the fiscal challenges we are facing are partly rooted to low growth, which has resulted in low tax collections. Therefore, it’s necessary and quiet prudent for the government to then look at the curtailment of cost, but equally continue to be seized with how do we stimulate growth,” said Magwenya.
He added that there was the National Energy Crisis Committee (NECOM) that was addressing the electricity crisis. Ramaphosa has described the energy crisis as the biggest threat to the economy.
NECOM was busy resolving the energy crisis, which will lead to economic growth. Load shedding has been blamed for the poor performance of the economy.
Magwenya said that the work of stimulating economic growth extended to fighting crime and corruption.
Ramaphosa met with business recently where he formed the logistics task team that will deal with infrastructure damage and other related crimes.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Politics