The official opposition has advised finance minister Tito Mboweni to resist looking for "shortcuts" on Wednesday when he tables the emergency budget brought about by Covid-19.
In fact, the DA has suggested that the lockdown in its current form must be abandoned completely to reboot the economy and save livelihoods.
Shortcuts, according to the DA, such as austerity or expanding government spending, will not cut it as they are not sustainable.
The party's shadow finance minister Geordin Hill-Lewis also cautioned against toying with resorting to quantitative easing or tapping into pension funds to close the budget gaps emanating from the coronavirus lockdown.
On Monday, Hill-Lewis presented his party’s 12-page perspective on what Mboweni ought to do to bring back what they call a “resilience budget”.
End lockdown now to save the economy, DA tells Mboweni
Image: Sunday Times/Esa Alexander
The official opposition has advised finance minister Tito Mboweni to resist looking for "shortcuts" on Wednesday when he tables the emergency budget brought about by Covid-19.
In fact, the DA has suggested that the lockdown in its current form must be abandoned completely to reboot the economy and save livelihoods.
Shortcuts, according to the DA, such as austerity or expanding government spending, will not cut it as they are not sustainable.
The party's shadow finance minister Geordin Hill-Lewis also cautioned against toying with resorting to quantitative easing or tapping into pension funds to close the budget gaps emanating from the coronavirus lockdown.
On Monday, Hill-Lewis presented his party’s 12-page perspective on what Mboweni ought to do to bring back what they call a “resilience budget”.
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According to the DA, while the lockdown worsened the country’s economic growth misfortunes, the crisis was a long time coming due to the governing party’s “dangerous and unsustainable economic trajectory”.
Those whose livelihoods get destroyed by the economic impact of the lockdown must lay the blame squarely on an ANC government that has “blood on its hands”, said the DA.
“Poor economic growth and high debt have obliterated South Africa’s ability to engage in counter-cyclical measures - to save in times of plenty and to spend in a time of crisis,” reads part of the DA’s document.
“Furthermore, years of skills erosion meant that excellence and civic-minded individuals were readily replaced with incompetent and self-enriching cadres.
“South Africans did not stand a chance. The most damning indictment of this government and its predecessors is that the country entered the Covid-19 pandemic vulnerable and with no cover.
“In short, South Africa has lost resilience. Businesses are vulnerable, families are vulnerable, government is vulnerable.”
The DA said it therefore wants to see and hear the following from Mboweni’s emergency budget speech:
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