Tito Mboweni did not come up with concrete plans to lift the economy on to a higher growth path in his budget. This was a commonly held view of political party representatives approached for comment after the finance minister delivered his budget vote speech. The move to curb the salaries of executives of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) was welcomed, but several party leaders believed this did not go far enough and the same should apply to senior government officials. DA leader Mmusi Maimane declared the budget an “insanity” as it merely proposed to do more of the same in the hopes of achieving different outcomes. No economic plan had been presented to get SA out of the crisis it is in, he said. “SA is in deep trouble and we should act boldly and take decisive action. There was no plan for SOEs except rhetoric,” Maimane said. DA finance spokesman Alf Lees noted that for the first time post-1994 debt to GDP was predicted to breach the 60% level at 60.2% in 2023/2024. “This is the 10th...

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