Cyril Ramaphosa met Treasury to discuss budget cuts

President Cyril Ramaphosa has held a secret meeting with the Treasury at a wine farm in Stellenbosch a week after the Treasury proposed huge spending cuts.

TimesLIVE understands Ramaphosa summoned finance minister Enoch Godongwana, Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago and Treasury officials to a marathon meeting on Wednesday. The meeting ended on Thursday.

Blue light vehicles were spotted at the popular Stellenbosch wine farm.

Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya confirmed the meeting took place. He said the meeting was held to discuss the state of the economy.

The meeting comes after the Sunday Times reported that the Treasury was proposing radical measures to rein in runaway government spending, warning of “unprecedented challenges” and raising a red flag about SA’s deteriorating public finances.

The mooted steps include a freeze on advertising new appointments, a drastic reduction in spending and a call on departments to fund increases for public servants “within departmental baselines”.

The spending cuts have been widely welcomed and indicated government had “run out of money” and faced a “debt trap” as growth had stalled in the past few years.

This week state-owned logistics company Transnet posted a R5.7bn loss, while commodity prices have tumbled and will not rescue public finances as they have in previous years.

The Treasury document, which is a proposal, follows a cabinet meeting in mid-August at which ministers were warned of government's desperate financial position and dwindling tax revenue.

The government last implemented an austerity programme in 2013 as it looked to come out of a difficult economic situation in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008/9.

The proposals follow warnings from opposition parties and mainstream economists that government is living beyond its means while the economy stutters and revenue collection stalls.

On Friday Ramaphosa departed for New Delhi, India to participate in the G20 Leaders’ Summit scheduled to take place on September 9 and 10.

The presidency said the summit was a forum for international economic co-operation that plays an important role in shaping and strengthening global architecture and governance on all major international economic issues.

Leaders will deliberate on matters of trade, sustainable development, health, agriculture, energy, environment, climate change and anticorruption, among others.

TimesLIVE