Malusi Gigaba’s marathon press conference on the economy was a complete disaster

15 June 2017

The Minister of Finance, Malusi Gigaba’s, press conference on the “way forward”, following the shocking news that the economy had slipped into recession, was a complete disaster.

The fact that the press conference took place nine days after the announcement that the economy had slipped into recession, and three days after postponing a press conference to deal with the fact that the economy has slipped into recession, created the impression that the Minister would announce new measures to deal with the recession.

However, after delivering a 2698-word press statement, during a marathon two-hour press conference, all the Minister was able to announce was that President Jacob Zuma would be convening a full-day meeting in two weeks time with the “economic cluster” to deal with the recession.

The fact is that the Minister’s press conference was a complete disaster that will damage the investor confidence it was presumably designed to restore and it demonstrates there is no recession-fighting plan in place in South Africa.

Issued by David Maynier, DA Shadow Minister of Finance, 15 June 2017