Dear Minister Mboweni,
I trust you are safe, healthy and in good spirit.
We all put our hope on you and the National Treasury on the presentation of the supplementary budget tomorrow. In the history of the democracy of South Africa, this budget will stand out as the genuine Rubicon.
We put our faith in you to provide the right leadership that we by now came to be used to.
Minister Mboweni please do not give further financial bailouts to the state-owned entities (SOEs) in this budget. The matter of keeping them sustained can be addressed in the Medium-term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) later in the year.
We need all the money now to address the immediate looming catastrophe of poverty and hunger. The extra R10 billion that SAA needs for its rescue plan cannot be financed by your Department.
That money must rather be made available to extend the R350 grant for another six months for the thousands that are in dire straits when it comes to putting food on the table.
Also please use these funds to make sure that the schools and the hospitals have the necessary equipment and support for the rest of the book year.
You and your colleague, Minister Pravin Gordhan, must rather implement the new transmission plan for Eskom much earlier to avoid further load shedding and to make it profitable again.
Minister, you must give immediate effect to the R160 million salary savings plan that you have introduced in the main budget in February. Please provide us with the detail and the time frame of the proposed savings.
Although it may not be possible to bring the government’s debt to GDP to less than 80 percent, please assure the country that the increase in the debt is not only due to expected deep recessionary growth rate of around -7 percent this year but also that the spending is geared to prevent small businesses from closing their doors forever.
Make sure that they survive!
Minister, to assist the financing of the large debt to GDP please be careful of taking loans from the international bodies. It calls for drastic measures at this time when the Covid-19 is about to reach its highest point of infections and deaths.
There is no time to debate the ideology around loans from these institutions.
Lastly Minister, please give us some clear plans how you are going to stabilise the debt to GDP ratio going forward or at least give us an indication that the treasury will address this issue in the main budget next year.