Another budget and another bad-news story from the former finance minister, known more for his sartorial elegance than for his understanding of matters financial. It was best illustrated by Malusi Gigaba’s comments post budget that "the private sector has to share in the risks, the debt burden and the responsibility to capitalise state-owned enterprises [SOEs] and that a massive restructuring is required which will bring the private sector on board". Evidently Gigaba was not alert to the fact that the private sector and the individual taxpayer, via taxes and the negative effects of ratings downgrades — largely due to SOE mismanagement — have in effect shouldered all the risk and debt burden of SOEs, while the indigent continue to suffer hardship due to reduced social budgets. Large restructuring is indeed required to correct the governance and executive management failures, as well as the endemic operational inefficiencies and disproportionately high salary and wage bills relative t...
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