JAUNDICED EYE
The African National Congress is in a state of ideological paralysis. It knows what government should do, but so far has been too timid to do it, for fear of the alliance crumbling.
But at least newly minted Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has made a promising start by articulating what the realities are, rather than just regurgitating dogma and pandering to vote-catching ploys. In last week’s mini-budget, he threw down the gauntlet on two issues.
Firstly, it is unsustainable for government to spend 80% of free revenue on public service salaries and only 20% on development. Secondly, if we want good roads, we must pay the fees that fund them.
The Congress of SA Trade Unions — the ANC’s nominal alliance partner and arguably the entity most responsible for snagging the presidency for Cyril Ramaphosa — predictably went ballistic.
On the issue of paying for services rendered, Mboweni was being “provocative”, a “bully” and had “no mandate”, Cosatu fumed. On the public wage bill, Mboweni was “blaming the workers” instead of cutting costs at the top and would “strain relations” with his “provocative” actions.