Reaction to finance minister Tito Mboweni’s much-anticipated second medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) has been mixed. While drawing praise for his straight talk, the minister came under fire for the dearth of solutions in his presentation. He certainly pulled no punches in painting a decidedly gloomy fiscal picture.

It was disappointing, however, that he failed to reveal any clear action plan to address the three most crucial issues crippling our economy: fiscal slippage, state expenditure and debt stabilisation...