President Cyril Ramaphosa says Finance Minister Tito Mboweni will deliver a robust budget with lots of good news.

With the sluggish economy, high unemployment and ailing State-Owned Entities many south Africans are hoping Mboweni will offer some reprieve this week.

Ramaphosa has acknowledged that while it’s set to be a difficult balancing act, the budget will meet expectations.

Ratings agencies will certainly be keeping a close eye on this year’s budget and Ramaphosa remains hopeful that a possible downgrade could be avoided.

“We are going to be very robust. We are going to be forward-looking and what we’ ve been seeking to do is to stabilise our finances, stabilise the State and you will find a lot of good news in the budget,” said Ramaphosa who was speaking in Vryheid, KwaZulu-Natal after delivering the Raymond Mhlaba centenary lecture.

On party politics, Ramaphosa urged the ANC faithful to deal decisively with corruption or the governing party risks being relegated to the opposition back-benches.

“Corruption and the associated phenomenon of state capture are obstacles to the achievement of radical economic transformation,” Ramaphosa said.

“Comrades, those we’ve deployed to positions of power, instead of working for the interests of the people and are busy stealing the money are setting us backwards. We are saying away with corruption.”

Despite criticism and resistance from some quarters, Ramaphosa says there is no turning back regarding land.

“We are going to proceed with our programme of land reform and utilise expropriation of land without compensation but we are going to do it interms of the rule of law, interns of our Constitution,” he said.

Ramaphosa has urged ANC members to emulate the values espoused by the late struggle stalwart Raymond Mhlaba and work selflessly for the interests of the masses.

 

Article credit https://www.enca.com/business/ramaphosa-mboweni-will-deliver-robust-budget-with-good-news