Finance Minister, Tito Mboweni during his Medium-Term Budget Speech in parliament in Cape Town on October 28 2020. Picture: SUNDAY TIMES/ESA ALEXANDERTwenty-six years ago, President Nelson Mandela stood at this very spot to weave the tapestry of our newly democratic country.Meet despair with hope and death with a reaffirmation of the beauty of life.
We are fiscally at a moment not unlike that in 1994. We must rebuild our economy, rehabilitate our public finances and recover from the devastation wrought upon us by Covid-19.Two weeks ago, President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa laid out the government’s consensus-driven and action-oriented Economic Reconstruction and Recovery plan. This particular plan is urgent and all of us should do everything in our power to implement it.
Our revised fiscal framework puts us on a course to stabilise the ratio of debt- to-GDP at around 95% within the next five years. The stock of gross debt will rise from roughly R4-trillion this year to R5.5-trillion in 2023/2024. Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to rebound to growth of 3.1% in 2021. As always, Africa has been at the forefront of innovative solutions to the crisis, including delivering social assistance using digital technology.
The ongoing implementation of the Eskom Roadmap and unbundling continues. Divisional MDs and boards of directors have been appointed.Mr President, our government, under your wise leadership, has championed the Infrastructure Fund to implementation. And we are starting to see results! Finally, we will review our existing public finance regulatory framework to unblock infrastructure investment by the broader government.
Operation Vulindlela is a critical co-ordination tool to unlock and fast track implementation of the structural economic reform agenda. Deputy minister David Masondo is leading this initiative, and a technical team, headed by Dr Sean Phillips, will draw on expertise and capacity from the public and private sectors. This will ensure that implementation is well co-ordinated, sequenced and timeous.
The Nedlac constituencies also agree to accelerate the introduction of auto-enrolment for all employed workers, and the establishment of a fund to cater for workers currently excluded from pension coverage, as an urgent intervention towards a comprehensive social security system. Government will present legislation next year to allow for limited pre-retirement withdrawals under certain circumstances linked to mandatory preservation requirements.
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