Press Statement dated 23 October 2018
The Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA) has called on newly appointed Finance Minister Tito Mboweni to address the severe trust-deficit that currently exists between the Social Partners of Organized Labour; Business, the South African Revenue Services (SARS) and National Treasury following a string of unfavourable events including the recent resignation of former incumbent Nhlanhla Nene under a political storm, as a matter of priority.
Mboweni tables his maiden Medium Term Budget Policy Statement or Mini-Budget in Parliament on Wednesday in a context of low economic growth - which has been revised down to under 1% for 2018 by many key financial institutions such as the South African Reserve Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank – unfavourable sovereign credit rating, the highest unemployment rate in 14 years and a severe trust between National Treasury and key social actors.
FEDUSA also expects Mboweni to announce carefully throughout-out funding packages for State Owned Enterprises such as South African Airways, the SABC and Eskom among others, to help South Africa move decisively out of the debilitating era of never ending multi-billion Rands bailouts that are a severe drain on the fiscus and have either resulted in actual job losses or threatened thousands of workers with retrenchments and a bleak future.
In a similar vein Mboweni should also announce unequivocally that not a single cent of public servants pension will be raided to bailout ailing SOEs and that measures will also be taken to include worker directors on the Boards of all these entities and those in the private sector that hold large sums of workers’ funds to prevent undue investment decisions by institutions such as the Public Investment Corporation and private asset management companies.
Last but not least Mboweni should also announce measures to regain international investor confidence and restore South Africa’s sovereign credit rating to investment grade.
Issued by Dennis George, General Secretary, Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa)